Sincere thanks to Robert McSwain for the following Rural Nelson minutes. 
 His donation of time and energy allowed us to also report on the Board 
of Supervisors' meeting held on the same night.  Thanks Robert! 

Rural Nelson Meeting Minutes 
Wednesday, February 4, 2004 

Welcome and General Introductions:  Conny Roussos opened the meeting and 
everyone present introduced themselves.  Conny noted that the meeting 
had some competition that evening from a rescheduled Board of 
Supervisors meeting.  The BOS meeting was being held to take a vote on 
applications for special use permits by the Orion Sporting Center (see 
separate email for highlights of that meeting).  He added that the Orion 
applications, as well as the Montvue/Findlay Mountain case, highlight 
the need for a new zoning ordinance based on the County's Comprehensive 
Plan. 

Introduction of Guest Speaker:  Conny introduced Dr. Woody Greenberg, 
Dean of Communication and Arts at Lynchburg College.  Conny listed a 
number of Dr. Greenberg's contributions to Nelson County, including 
involvement in the Blue Ridge Medical Center, the Walton's Museum, the 
Nelson Center, Nelson County Jaycees, and a four-year term as a County 
Supervisor.  His latest effort, as president of the Board of Directors, 
is a new organization for the establishment of the Nelson County Museum 
of Rural History.  Michael Lachance, the vice president of the Board of 
Directors, also attended the meeting. 

Dr. Greenberg said that he is a member of Rural Nelson, and that he is 
very familiar with the issues of land use and zoning as a result of his 
four year stint as a County Supervisor.  His experience as a supervisor 
illustrated to him that the ordinances in effect were too vague and 
often did not provide adequate guidelines for making rational land-use 
decisions.  He found that the self-interested point of view of 
individual supervisors often prevailed in cases where the ordinances 
were not clear, resulting in inconsistent application of the regulations. 

Background:  Dr. Greenberg moved to the County in 1972, and he became 
interested in Nelson County history as a reporter and editor of the 
Nelson County Times.  He was intrigued by the stories told by 
"old-timers" like Otie Carter, Capt. Billy Massie, Ralph Turpin, Sr., 
and Richard Moon.  Even in the 1970s, members of the Chamber of Commerce 
wanted to make the County attractive to tourism by promoting its 
history.  As editor of the Nelson County Times, Dr. Greenberg ran many 
stories about historical buildings and properties, authored by Lee and 
Mary Dietrich. 

His own knowledge of County history was expanded when he did his PhD 
thesis on the history of the Nelson County School system.  He discovered 
that, in 1900, there were 110 schools in the County (all within walking 
distance for the students) which had been consolidated into 7 or 8 
schools by the time he did his dissertation.  Today, there are only 4 
public schools in the County - two elementary schools, and a single 
campus for the middle and high schools.  Most of the consolidation of 
the school system was overseen by the Superintendent of Schools, William 
Kidd, who began the process in the 1920s. 

In his research, Dr. Greenberg discovered that school desegregation in 
the County had proceeded with more cooperation than in other parts of 
Virginia.  Despite some heel dragging, there were no closures of County 
schools, as happened, for example, in Prince Edward's County.  School 
consolidation and desegregation were not the only controversial issues 
affecting the school system -- in the 1970s and 1980s, there were 
disputes over whether it was appropriate to include kindergarten and 
vocational programs in the system. 

Nelson County Museum of Rural History:  Dr. Greenberg explained the 
thinking that has gone into establishing the museum, including a 
strategic planning exercise done at a series of workshops to consider 
all aspects of what is required to establish a new museum.  Topics 
covered were the historical concept to be presented, collections 
policies, exhibit design, marketing, and funding.  Partly based on those 
workshops, it was determined that the museum will focus on how the 
people of the County faced up to various challenges -- and overcame them 
-- during the period of the 1920s through the 1950s. 

Several existing museums have been suggested as examples to be followed, 
such as the museum in Knoxville which highlights the culture of the 
Appalachians.  Another attractive model is the Frontier Museum at 
Staunton, which is a walk-thru museum with outlying buildings. 
(However, the traffic on I-81 detracts from the quality of the 
experience for visitors to that museum.)  The Nelson museum will require 
enough land to demonstrate our rural history for each of the target 
decades -- from pre-electrification to post-electrification -- with a 
major emphasis on the Depression era.  The museum will cover topics of 
earlier periods, but the decision to emphasize the 1920s thru the 1950s 
was made because no other U.S. museum specifically addresses that 
period.  This is a time period for which many resources are available in 
Nelson, and the electrification process can be well documented with 
promised support from CVEC. 

Dr. Greenberg is doing an African American oral history project for 
Nelson County.  He believes that the history of this population segment 
has been largely overlooked, and the experiences of African Americans in 
the County should also be represented in the museum.  For example, 
during the period of the museum's focus, there were no jobs for African 
Americans except for share-cropping.  In order to find work, many of 
these residents had to leave the County to work in places like 
Washington, D.C. 

Dr. Greenberg noted that there are two approaches promoted by supporters 
of a museum.  One is a museum that celebrates (and memorializes) history 
in exhibits, as has been done in the Fluvanna and Amherst museums.  The 
second approach is to use local history as a microcosm to explain a 
historical period with universal appeal to a general audience, not just 
to residents of the County.  The second concept is closer to the 
approach taken at Williamsburg, which is tied to a particular place, but 
serves as an illustration of colonial life in general.  The plan is to 
create a new museum which incorporates aspects of both approaches. 

The museum will incorporate living history exhibits to get school kids 
more interested in history by having them interact with the exhibits. 
Various types of outlying buildings could represent different rural 
industries, and a one-room schoolhouse would be very desirable.  It was 
noted that it may be cheaper to build new buildings to historical 
standards than to move existing structures.  For example, in order to 
preserve the existing structure of the old school building, a larger 
budget was required for the Nelson Center than for a new building of 
similar size and design. 

In order to support adequate paid staff, the museum needs to be based on 
a model like Williamsburg, which generates significant income, rather 
than the Fluvanna museum which gets most of its money from county 
government.  A broad appeal and changing exhibits should attract return 
visitors and create stable revenue flows.  One of the conclusions from 
the workshop series is that this will be a complicated and expensive 
enterprise.  It will be very important to hire a top-notch manager for 
the museum to ensure success, and to avoid difficulties which have 
plagued other museums. 

Dr. Greenberg said that a lot of fund raising and grant writing will be 
required to get the museum up and running.  The museum could be started 
with one million dollars, but he expects the project to cost 2 to 3 
million dollars to completion.  He hopes that something can be operating 
by 2007, because that is the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, and the 
200th anniversary of the establishment of Nelson County. 

No site has been found for the museum yet, but the board of directors is 
looking at a couple of locations near U.S. 29.  The museum needs a site 
of at least 20 acres, which is easily accessible to tourists.  Michael 
Lachance added that he would like to see lodging associated with the 
museum, which could help promote all of Nelson as a tourist destination. 
 He also said that he favors the old Colleen area as the site for the 
museum because it is also the location of the original County seat when 
Nelson was part of Amherst County. 

In response to a question from the audience, Dr. Greenberg acknowledged 
that selecting a site on U.S. 29 will have to take into account the 
access points planned by VDOT's greenway plan.  He also stated that the 
exhibits will be very diverse and might be difficult to present at a 
single site, so multiple sites might be used.  A "hub-and-spoke" set-up 
could bring the museum to other areas of the County. 

It was suggested from the audience that exhibits could be event-driven 
as well as location-specific (i.e., living history exhibits on a 
specific date, like the old Nelson County Day.)  On-going living history 
exhibits would require too many personnel to be sustained on a 
year-round basis.  Dr. Greenberg explained that the original Nelson 
County Day was started by a woman in Shipman to raise money for 
eyeglasses for children.  The event was successful as long as popular 
personalities like stars from the Walton's TV series appeared.  The new 
museum might also try to have events tied to famous Nelson residents 
such as Earl Hamner.