Historic Structures Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Local Programs Receive Federal Preservation Funds

The National Park Service (NPS) announced last week nearly $10 million in Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grants to 13 programs in 12 states.

These grants mark the fifth year of funding for the program honoring the late Paul Bruhn, who served as executive director of the Preservation Trust of Vermont for nearly 40 years.

West Virginia was the only state to receive two grants totaling $1.5 million.

The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, Inc. will receive $750,000 for its Fund for Historic Schools, and the Wheeling National Heritage Corporation will receive $750,000 for its Wheeling Revitalization Subgrant Program.

The grants are intended to support economic development through the preservation of historic buildings in rural communities across the country.

Grants awarded in this round will allow organizations to develop programs and select individual projects in their communities for preservation projects.

Can Rehabilitating Historic Buildings Help W.Va.'s Economy?

West Virginia’s historic rehabilitation tax credit was put in place to encourage developers and property owners to take some of the state’s crumbling, historic structures and get them back into working order. The credit is also supposed to encourage the creation of local jobs while repurposing the underutilized buildings.

But the state’s tax credit is 10 percent, and a coalition of architects, economic developers, and others say that’s not enough to encourage the community development they’d like to see. That same group is now traveling the state looking for support as they prepare to ask state lawmakers to increase the tax credit.

Here at the old Shenandoah Hotel, which first opened in downtown Martinsburg in 1926, a group of community members – interested residents, city and county officials, and some state lawmakers from the area have gathered to hear about the potential benefits of increasing West Virginia’s historic rehabilitation tax credit.

The credit provides a 10 percent dollar-for-dollar reduction in income tax liability for renovation projects on buildings registered with the National Register of Historic Places. The owner is then responsible for the rest of the project costs.

That’s Lisa Dall’Olio. She’s an architect with Grove & Dall’Olio Architects based out of Gerrardstown in Berkeley County and she spoke at the Abandoned Properties Coalition sponsored forum.

Dall’Olio says an increase to the credit could mean an increase in the number of tourists who visit the state, looking for charm inherent in old buildings. But it could also mean an increase in state and local tax revenues.

“This is a perfect example of how tax credits, an increased tax credits could make somebody jump and do this project,” she said.

Dall’Olio and the Abandoned Properties Coalition would like to see state lawmakers bump the credit from 10 to 25 percent during the upcoming session to match neighboring states.

Nicole Marrocco is the Abandoned Properties Coalition coordinator for the West Virginia Community Development Hub.

“We’re in the Eastern Panhandle; we’re wedged between Maryland and Virginia, which are two states that have a higher tax credit, so we have the 20 percent tax credit in Maryland, the 25 percent tax credit in Virginia, and both states are seeing more development than we are here in the Eastern Panhandle,” Marrocco explained.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation tracked state tax dollars brought in by a similar federal tax credit between 2002 and 2015. Tax revenues in Virginia, where the state tax credit is 25 percent, were significantly higher during that time than in West Virginia—some $103 million compared to West Virginia’s $5 million. While those numbers are based on the study of a federal credit’s impact, Marrocco believes the state tax credit played a part in those revenues too. And West Virginia could see more money flowing into its coffers if lawmakers increased the rate.

Berkeley County Delegate Saira Blair attended the forum and says she sees it’s potential.

“It’s gonna be something that’s put on the table, I can guarantee that,” Blair said, “I don’t know if it’ll go through this year, because we’re looking at thousands of other things; our Finance committee is gonna be swamped, but one more thing to put out there is great for our state.”

Newly elected Senator Patricia Rucker, a Republican from Jefferson County, says she’s excited about the prospect of what increasing the historic tax credit could do for the state.

“We have historic areas all over the state, and actually, there are parts of our state which are so beautiful, people don’t even know,” she noted, “It’d be wonderful to increase our tourism dollars by letting this revitalization help all the areas of the state.”

Rucker says she would back legislation increasing the tax credit if it came before the legislature.

Abandoned Properties Coalition Meetings:

Wheeling
Wednesday, January 25, 8:30 – 10:30 a.m.
The Stone Center
REGISTER

Fairmont
Thursday, January 26, 1 – 3 p.m.
The Gatherings
REGISTER

Huntington
Wednesday, February 1, 4 – 6 p.m.
The Keith-Albee Theatre
REGISTER

Charleston
Thursday, February 2, 5 – 7 p.m.
The Art Store
REGISTER

Researchers Uncovering W.Va.'s Human and Environmental History

A team of researchers at West Virginia University is creating a unique portrait of the Mountain State. The Historic Timbers Project is unveiling West Virginia’s human and environmental history one dusty old barn at a time.

On a cold November day, Kristen de Graauw and Shawn Cockrell are climbing around an old barn near Hillsboro in Pocahontas County. Kristen is a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at WVU and the project manager for the Historic Timbers Project. Shawn is the lab manager for the Montane Forest Dynamics Laboratory at WVU and the lead technician for the project.

The project has two, interrelated goals: to figure out what the pre-settlement forests of West Virginia were like and to date historic structures.

Since there aren’t many old trees left, the only way to figure out what the forests of West Virginia used to be like is to take core samples from old logs that settlers used to build barns, cabins, and houses.

Today, Kristen and Shawn are exploring a barn owned by the McNeel Family to determine if it’s a candidate for tree-ring dating. The barn is the size of a large two-story house and made of big faded brown logs.

They are searching the structure for tree bark so they can determine if there are enough logs to take samples from to accurately date the structure. A log is a good candidate sampling if it still has bark on it because that means they know the outermost layer of the log is intact.

Which is important because they use dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, to determine the age of the structures. Kristen explains how it they use tree rings to date structures.

“If we having a living tree that’s a really old, maybe it’s a three hundred years old tree, but it’s living,” she said. “If we take a sample out of that, we know that the outer date on our sample is the year that we’re currently in. Then we are able to count back through time and figure out what the inner most date is on that tree is. We can then compare our log structure data we have with those tree rings and find the overlap between that living tree and that log structure were the patterns lock in.”

Kristen and Shawn speak with Bill McNeel from the Pocahontas County Historical Society outside of a barn build by his ancestors.

Shawn adds that the process is exciting for the researchers and the building owners.

“We meet people just as enthusiastic as we are, but coming from a different angle,” he said. “We’re enthusiastic because we’re gaining access to this great storage of ecological data and the people who own these structures get us to come in and take the sample and tell them an inferred construction date. Everyone is just as excited as the next person.”

After their initial survey, the researchers will return in the summer and use drills to take core samples from the logs. From these samples, they can gather not only an inferred building date of the structure, but also a lot of data about the environment that the tree grew it.

Kristen says she can determine a lot from looking at tree rings.

“I can look at a tree ring and see the growing season and dormant season of that tree. So it’s not just annual data that we’re look at. We’re looking at seasonal differences,” she said.

Which is really important because there aren’t many other ways to gather this kind of data in West Virginia due to heavy logging during the turn of the 20^th century.

Kristen is working on this project as part of her dissertation. However, she didn’t start with the idea of working with historic structures in West Virginia. Her initial research sent her to Mongolia to investigate ancient forests, but that wasn’t for her.

“It was great but my heart wasn’t in it,” she said. “But what I do know is that I like West Virginia. I like historic structures and I like the idea of knowing what our forests used to look like.”

And she couldn’t be happier with her decision to work in West Virginia.

“It was kind of amazing. Now I’m doing what I want to do. I’m enjoying it. I’m motivated. I’m excited.”

Shawn and Kristen walk around the Kee Cabin on the grounds of the Pocahontas County Historical Society Museum in Marlinton later that afternoon as they work to determine if the property can be tree-ring dated.

They have already worked on dating five structures in Greenbrier, Pendleton, Pocahontas and Preston counties with more buildings set to be dated this summer. The inferred building data of the structure is then used by individuals and groups working to list the structures on the National Register of Historic Places or apply for grants to aid in preservation.

Kristen says this provides researchers with often-overlooked environmental data held in the logs.

“The people who go in and date historic structures, I don’t think that they’re even thinking about it. Not only can we date this barn, but this whole barn was a forest and it’s just sitting there. It’s archeology now.”

Historic Timbers Project will continue its work this summer with support of the West Virginia Humanities Council and the Montane Forest Dynamic Lab at WVU.