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Westower Property Merits Preservation
Letters to the Editor
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Recently my husband and I (we are native Richmonders) went to see the Patteson-Schutte House on Westower Drive in South Richmond ["An 18th-Century Treasure or an Expendable Old House?"]. I was stunned; the house is a Colonial treasure. The original brickwork on the basement and lower parts of the chimneys are Flemish Bond, there are original hand-made iron strap hinges on the side doors, and in the yard stand the huge stone fireplace and chimney of what must have been the kitchen building, with an iron bar still across the fireplace interior, where pots would have been hung.
There are huge old trees and boxwoods on the property, as well as small outbuildings; it looks nearly untouched from its original development more than 200 years ago. The property needs an archaeological survey, and it needs to be preserved at all costs. If it were on Church Hill it would be considered a gem and no one would be allowed to touch it except to restore it authentically. What sense does it make to bulldoze a genuine Colonial property to erect a few faux colonials as replacements? It would be an incalculable tragedy to destroy this house and this property. Nancy Harding. unionville.
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