MARION, Va. – At least three different ideas are being proposed for renovation of an historic schoolhouse said Marion Downtown Executive Director Ken Heath.
A Wednesday public information meeting was the first about the building that served as Smyth County’s first high school, which the county board of supervisors voted in November to preserve.
Heath said first an engineering study will be done to determine whether the building can be saved and what the approximate cost would be. Then, the structural and money information will be made available for people to use in formal proposals in the fall.
A management team will choose from the proposals to decide who will be given the building next year.
So far, three ideas have been publicly discussed.
Joe Ellis, an entrepreneur who renovated the Lincoln Theatre and the General Francis Marion Hotel in downtown Marion, wants to turn the schoolhouse into an Appalachian School of Music and Art.
He said in an earlier interview that he wants the school to teach traditional music, music marketing skills and clogging, as well as traditional arts like quilting and apple butter making. He believes with his business plan, the school can make money.
Brenda Gwyn, acting director of the Smyth County Historical and Museum Society, said she wants the schoolhouse to be used for an expanded museum and multipurpose building.
"I would like to see the ability to go up one staircase and around and come back down the other with exhibits along the way," Gwyn said. "What I’m talking about is more visionary at this point, as opposed to when we get down to the bricks and mortar and the architectural survey and all that."
Sarah Fields and Keith Hurley want to turn the building into an arts center, with space for artist studios, galleries with work for sale and multimedia workshops, as well as performing arts space.
"My personal vision for Marion is making it more art-centered, kind of like Asheville [N.C.]," Fields said.
Hurley said Southwest Virginia is brimming with culture – and he would want to model the arts center after The Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Va.
Heath said the town is waiting on a $250,000 state grant to buy the building from Smyth County, the current owner.
"Every day that it sits there is one day closer to it falling in on itself, and my frustration is we’re a year from getting the money to do anything to it, so realistically you’re looking at a year and a half to two years to get that building done," Heath said.
"There’s going to be another year’s worth of damage to that building, best case scenario. I just hope we’re not too late."
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
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