A line of early-1900s Jamestown Road houses owned by the College of William and Mary and slated for demolition under its master plan has been listed in Preservation Virginia’s 2015 roll of the state’s “Most Endangered Historic Places.“
Originally numbering 12 in all, two of the wood-frame houses were demolished before the College adopted the plan in February, the preservation group said Monday.
Nine of the remaining structures have been marked for future removal to make room for “Jamestown Place,” a proposed redevelopment that includes a large mixed-use structure for dining services and administration offices, a new access road to a planned parking garage and a series of new houses designed for use by the faculty or staff.
“What they’re proposing would dramatically change this transitional area between the historic college campus and the historic residential neighborhoods off Jamestown Road,” said Susan L. Buck, a resident of the Pollard Park Historic District, who is part of a neighborhood group that nominated the properties for the endangered list.
“They claim that these houses are inappropriate as offices. But we strongly feel that a good preservation architect could work out a plan to make them very functional as offices or residences.”
Varying in size and stature, the traditional structures range from single-story bungalows to two-story American Four-Square dwellings.
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Together they make up one of the few surviving remnants of what the town looked like before both the expansion of the college on the north side of Jamestown Road and the restoration of the Historic Area got underway in the mid-1920s.
“This is Williamsburg as a small town — a very intimate and approachable kind of neighborhood,” Buck explained. “And it still makes a very appealing main entry corridor into town.”
Also opposed to the demolition plans is Chandler Court resident John Alewynse, who lived in one of the houses for many years while teaching at WM.
He thinks the dwellings have a historical character and value that can’t be replaced by new structures — and that it’s in the city’s and WM’s interest to see such properties preserved and reused.
“This is not a white elephant that we’re asking the college to shoulder,” he said.
“I lived in one of those houses. It survived my two children. It survived my 125-pound German shepherd. And I don’t see why a house like that couldn’t be adapted for some other use.”
Previously updated in 2003, WM’s new master plan is intended to be a long-term road map establishing the school’s space and facility needs for the coming 20 years.
But “nothing is set in stone,” WM spokesman Brian Whitson said.
“We appreciate and understand the concern about the future of the houses on Jamestown Road,” he added Monday, noting the school’s long record of preserving its historic Colonial and Colonial Revival structures.
“There is no immediate plan to demolish them.”
Still, among the issues raised by Preservation Virginia on Monday is a growing pattern of threats to historic properties posed by state-owned colleges and universities, which have been cited on its endangered list numerous times during recent years.
“As a state-owned property, the college is not legally obligated to follow any of the city’s zoning and architectural review guidelines,” Director of Preservation Initiatives Justin Sarafin said.
“But we’re recommending that it consider them — and that it utilize these structures in any number of ways, including maintaining them as offices or residences — rather than removing them and changing the intimate, residential character of these historic neighborhoods and a main entrance corridor to the city.”
Erickson can be reached by phone at 757-247-4783.
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