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Panel weighs plight of museum
It's studying cost, feasibility of moving Confederate site
BY JANET CAGGIANO
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Saturday, July 23, 2005
The first time William R. Janis visited the Museum and White House of the Confederacy in downtown Richmond, finding the front entrance was easy.
"It didn't look anything like it does today," he said. "Now, you get turned around and disoriented."
Janis saw the White House for the first time in 1982 when he was a cadet at Virginia Military Institute. Now a Republican delegate from Henrico and a member of the Virginia House of Delegate's subcommittee to study the cost and feasibility of relocating the historic structure, Janis was back yesterday with other committee members for a closer look.
It marked the first meeting for the subcommittee. The 11 members, who elected Del. R. Lee Ware Jr., R-Powhatan, as chairman, must submit their recommendations by Jan. 11.
"Moving the White House might be an option," said Sen. Charles R. Hawkins, R-Pittsylvania. "It grieves me because of the historical footprint."
The building has stood at the corner of 12th and East Clay streets since 1818. It served as the Executive Mansion of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865 and was the official residence of President Jefferson Davis and his family.
But the site looks nothing like it did then. The continued growth of Virginia Commonwealth University has nearly swallowed the White House, a National Historic Landmark, and the 108-year-old museum.
"The fact is, the integrity of this historic neighborhood is only a memory today," Waite Rawls, the museum's executive director, told subcommittee members yesterday. "When visitors come to us, they experience a medical site, not a Civil War site."
About 100 people attended the meeting, but no time was set aside for public comment. A handful walked about five blocks to tour the White House afterward.
Rawls presented a 30-minute slide show detailing the history of the museum and the White House. Frame after frame was devoted to VCU's development, from the Main Hospital in 1982 to the current project - a 16-story, critical-care bed tower.
Options, Rawls continued, are few: Do nothing and "gut it out," move the museum but keep the White House where it is; or move both the White House and the museum.
Should the White House move, it would lose its designation as a National Historic Landmark.
"The White House should not be moved," said Christine Jacques Gergely, who traveled from Newport News with her husband, Jack, for yesterday's meeting.
"It would lessen the importance of it. So much history is tied to that site," she said in an interview.
Instead of moving the White House, she suggested starting a shuttle bus service to the site to ease parking problems.
But that may not be enough. Museum and White House visitation has dropped steadily, from a high of 92,000 in 1991 to fewer than 54,000 last year. The museum is running a deficit of about $400,000.
"My heart tells me we have to do everything we possibly can to leave the White House where it is," Janis said. "It is sacred ground. My head tells me, though, that the patient is ill."
The subcommittee must complete its meetings, no more than four in all, by Nov. 30. Additional meetings have not yet been scheduled.
Contact Janet Caggiano at (804) 649-6157 or jcaggiano@timesdispatch.com