NETWORK 98, Vol. 13, No. 1, March 1998

Community Design Team Visit to Weston, West Virginia, November 6-8, 1997

Introduction

When Scott Loveridge invited Daryl Heasley and me to participate in a Community Design Team (CDT) visit we thought "sure." Then we asked each other, "What's the Community Design Team?"

  The CDT, a West Virginia University extension program, helps communities address local development issues. A multi-disciplinary group of professionals volunteer their time for Design Team visits. Each team may include architects, landscape architects, historians, sociologists, engineers, economists, and other design or development experts who examine the community holistically, and parallel the many elements that create a community.

   A CDT visit lasts for an intense three days. Thursday evening, the team arrives and is welcomed with a reception. Friday morning, the team listens to a variety of community members talk about the history, attractions, economic climate, and personality of the community. The team examines the physical and environmental characteristics of the area on Friday afternoon, and then gathers the communities' thoughts at an input meeting. Saturday, the Design Team develops a plan and presents it to the community.

   After learning more about what a CDT visit entailed, Daryl Heasley and I were very excited to be members of the Weston, West Virginia, Community Design Team visit.

Driving into downtown Weston, West Virginia, on a drizzling Thursday evening in early November, I felt a cold loneliness to the streets. I avoided deep puddles and shrank from the breeze that carried a hint of winter. The streets were empty. Most of the shops along the short, storefront section of town were vacant. It seemed as if the only lights on the downtown block came from the front of our van.

   Weston used to be home to many glass and energy industry workers. It also was the location of the West Virginia State Hospital for the Insane. Downtown was the center of activity, but since the late nineteen-eighties, the economy in Weston has been in decline. The downtown is deteriorating, and many of the

Home of Andy and Mary Sleigh. The oldest house in Weston, West Virginia.

young people have given up and moved away after finishing school. Weston brought in the Community Design Team with the hope of revitalizing the downtown and the economy, and stimulating community involvement.

   We parked on the street and found our way to The Bookish Bean, a coffee shop on Main Avenue. As we stepped through the door, the gray streets gave way to color. The shop was full of townspeople. Energy. Old dresses and hats lined the walls, hinting at the shops former life as a clothing store. The smell of fresh coffee, laughter. Paintings by local artist Ann Linger optimistically depicted what Weston's historical building might look like in a fantasy story. Vigorous handshakes warmed our hands. Dennis Fitzpatrick of the Lewis County Chamber of Commerce introduced community leaders, and Scott Loveridge, head of the CDT, then had us introduce ourselves. Afterward, we mingled and found out whom our host family would be. Michael Workman (history professor, West Virginia University), Daryl Heasley (director and leadership specialist) and myself (writer/designer, Northeast Center) were fortunate enough to be housed with Andy and Mary Sleigh, owners of the oldest (1839) house in Weston and wonderful hosts!

Sketch of proposed facade renovation to original architecture.

The Sleigh's walked with us to the middle school. Though it was not raining yet, the sky was completely cloudy. I thought, "Any town would look neglected in this weather." We were greeted by the entire school pouring out for a fire-drill, then cautiously stepped into the school amidst the throngs of kids returning to their classrooms. We were directed upstairs past rows of lockers, and followed several signs into the library.

   Our first task was to learn about the history, attractions, economic and business climate, concerns, and personality of the community. The community presenters were told to inform us, not to describe what they think should be done. We heard about the demographics of Weston from Allison Hanham, a geographer from West Virginia University. Similar to other small towns in West Virginia, Weston is predominantly white; less than ten percent of the population have completed college; and a large percentage of the younger population moves away after high school.

   Historically, Weston is a very interesting story. Local historian Bill Adler described how the state mental hospital came to be located in Weston in 1858. Jonathan M. Bennett was representing Weston as an auditor in Virginia. He wired the town after hearing that a committee was touring prospective locations for the hospital. Weston cleaned up its streets and painted its buildings. After finding Weston to be an incredibly well kept area, the committee chose it as the location for the hospital. This lead to the development of railroads, energy companies and glass factories in Weston. Adler, who worked in cable television development, joked, "We need dynamic leadership, people who will go to committee meetings at night instead of watching television; well, I guess I have to blame myself for that a little bit." Adler's telling of Weston's history, however, may prove to be foreshadowing for Weston's revitalization.

   "I cried when we first drove into Weston," said Pat Mienhart about moving to Weston. She moved there in 1990, years after Weston's heyday. The lawns were unkempt. The buildings disheveled. The downtown absent of trees. Everything screamed that her family was making a mistake by leaving beautiful Ithaca, New York. Mienhart moved to Weston to start a foundry business with her husband. As a small business owner, she described the business climate around Weston. She felt that Weston's business problems could partially be blamed on the town's appearance. Mienhart praised every other business trait of Weston: the availability of transportation, the dependable and trainable workers, and the location. Even with all of its great business attributes, plus a beautiful little valley and interesting old buildings, Weston is struggling to attract businesses.

Some Design Team recommendations. Other ideas are included on graphics throughout this article.

   The old buildings even had a spokesperson, Ann Linger. She painted the "story book theme" of Weston. Linger was particularly enchanted with the old architecture of the area, and stressed that these historical buildings need to be saved. She described how each building depicted part of the Weston story. The old hospital haunted. The library a gingerbread house. The downtown a 'real' Disney World. She surprised everyone with her wonderful imagination and animation. Her deep eyes flashed with a hint of mystery. Linger was obviously passionate about restoring the genuine character of the town and asked the team not to, "give us any gas lamps that were never here or design fake store front facades."

   Larry Bennett, part-owner of a family home and auto supply business, discussed other downtown concerns. Bennett worried about the availability of parking for customers and the number of vacant stores. He emphasized the service and friendliness of Weston's downtown. Suzie Fredricks, who works for the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), highlighted the areas attractions and events. The CVB is located in a one-room school house built in 1821. Over twenty-five thousand people have stepped through its door in the last two years. Coming from all fifty states and nine countries, these visitors should serve as a strong base for tourism economy in Weston. The team could see that Weston possessed a number of strengths to build upon. Weston simply needed to entice visitors into the downtown district.

   Lunchtime. We walked into the cafeteria full of hundreds of middle school kids. They were all staring. Then cheering, clapping. How embarrassing. . . hadn't we left this behind many years ago? I was extra careful to not dump my tray. I thought that if we could just harness all of this enthusiasm, Weston would certainly have no problem turning its economy around.

Most of the Weston Design Team toured the community on Friday afternoon to examine the physical and environmental characteristics of the area. Several members of the group visited with Weston youth in the Middle School and Lewis County High School. To get another perspective on the community, the youth were asked to take pictures of aspects of the community that they liked and disliked.

   I was afraid that getting the middle school children to talk was going to be difficult. . . I had nothing to be afraid of. Once they got going, a field of little hands went up all across the gymnasium bleachers, our meeting area. The youth displayed several posters featuring photographs of what they saw as the negatives and positives of their community. They had a number of gripes about Weston. A lack of activities. A school in need of renovation. A town that needed to be made safer for kids (stoplights, crosswalks, etc.). These fifth through eight graders still had a lot of hope for the area. Though just about all of the thirty youth expected to go to college, at least half of them expected to return to Weston.

Alison Hanham receives a poster from a Weston Middle School youth.

  The outlook was a lot more bleak in the High School. Only several of about fifty youth thought they would return, according to Daryl Heasley. These students compiled an impressive photo album of community attributes that they wanted to preserve or change. Again, most of the comments centered around a serious lack of youth activities or places to hang out. For the high school students, however, these issues are much more serious. With no where to socialize, these older students can get into more trouble. Some of the high school students are active in seeking alternatives. One group even had drawn up plans for the building of a skateboard park.

   The touring members of the CDT were busy examining potential areas for parking, river front restoration, and other projects. Weston has a great opportunity in river front development along the West Fork of the Monongahela (now dammed upstream of Weston to form the Stone Wall Jackson Lake). The community also has an incredible structure just across the river in the old Weston State Hospital, the largest cut-stone building in the country. (The complex is currently for sale, and a Tennessee based development group may turn it into an 88 million dollar resort.) The Design Team returned to the school with a much better picture of the geography of both the town and the surrounding areas. The focus of the Design Team's effort was the downtown area. However, insight provided by examining the town's entryway image and the proximity of county attractions was invaluable. Community leaders Dave Lester, Pat Reckart and Bill Adler helped by acting as guides and answering questions.

   Typically, late Friday afternoon is left open for the CDT to discuss their impressions from the day. The Design Team also plans a Friday evening town meeting. In Weston, this meeting was held early because of a high school football game at the usual town meeting time, 7:00 pm. After we gathered part of the Design Team that had taken a coffee break downtown, we assembled and prepared for the meeting.

"To get things started, I want you all to draw a map of your community -- including major landmarks that you consider to lie within your community," said William Paul. Everyone groaned a little before working diligently on their maps. Paul, a doctoral student at Virginia Tech University began the community input meeting. Though a downpour was muddying the football field across the street, thoughts inside were clear, as the community shared its concerns for a brighter future.

   After collecting the maps, Paul continued to the main project for the evening. "What do you want to keep in your community?" Paul asked the audience. Everyone thought for a moment before turning to jot down some answers. Three questions were asked, and each person answered them on note cards. The note cards from each table were then collected and distributed to a different table. The answers were read and tabulated on large sheets of paper for community members to review, and for later use by the Design Team.

   The three questions Paul asked the audience were: 1.) What do you want to keep in your community?, 2.) What are the downtown issues in your community, and 3.) Floating over Weston in a hot air balloon in [the year] 2010 what do you see? Several main themes emerged. The community obviously felt very strongly about the historical buildings and architecture in the downtown, and also about the "home-town feel" and friendly people in the area. The issues and visions for the town revolved around a revitalization of downtown, ample parking and activities for youth.

   After the community members departed either for home or for the rain-soaked football game, we met to organize a plan of attack for Saturday. We looked at the maps drawn at the beginning of the meeting. The map exercise not only helped to break the ice for the meeting, but also showed us the perceived geographic area of the Weston community. Very few of the maps included Jackson's Mill State 4-H Conference Center and Stonewall Jackson State Park, both of which are predicted to play very important roles in Weston's future.

Saturday morning was dreary and drizzly again. Many of the Design Team members were pretty groggy as we gathered back in the library. The weariness quickly faded as we discussed our plans for the day. Many of the landscape architects hit the streets to re-examine possible areas for parking, green space additions and walkway renovation. Other CDT members went back out into the community throughout the day to investigate questions that arose during the planning effort. By the afternoon, we were busy creating drawings and other visual aids to be used during the evening meeting.

  The day passed rather quickly with everyone busy on a particular part of the planning. It was amazing how each part of the project was important to the general plan. Without the wide variety of experts, developing a comprehensive set of recommendations would have been impossible. Scott Loveridge did an outstanding job of coordinating the team and making sure that each member understood how their piece of the project would be integrated into the community plan.

The community plan was presented to approximately one hundred (of the just under five thousand) Weston residents on Saturday evening. With Weston's newly adopted slogan, "Weston: The Heart of West Virginia," arises the need to link the heart to the rest of West Virginia. Therefore, the theme of the presentation was "Making the Links."

  Team members each presented their portion of the plans. Though too numerous to list here, the CDT members did a fine job of presenting recommendations for regional linkages, town marketing via brochures and the World Wide Web, historic preservation and tours, facade renovations, traffic and parking concerns,

Top: Proposed sign for uniform entryway image. Bottom: Overall sketch of downtown enhancements including pedestrian walkways, plaza or skatepark, and more greenspace.

streetscape enhancements, and leadership development. (Many of these ideas are listed in graphics throughout this article to give you an idea about the types of ideas generated during a CDT visit.)

  Scott Loveridge made it clear to the community that "It's up to you." The Design Team is meant to create ideas. It only recommends potential projects and improvements. It is then up to the community to decide which recommendations to implement. The Design Team is a great stimulus, but implementation requires a solid base of concerned and active citizens.

  Fortunately, The Weston Organization For Community Development has since proposed some plans to the Weston City Council. Their first proposal seeks to convert Bank Alley, which connects Main Avenue (the primary street in town) to Water Street (the river front road), into a pedestrian walkway that links parking areas to the business district. It's exciting to see that the Community Design Team's visit to Weston may already result in some local plans. If the town can once again clean up its image, who knows what the future can hold for Weston.

Sketch of proposed alley conversion to pedestrian walkway.

Scott Loveridge, Associate Professor and Director
Division of Community and Economic Development
404 Knapp Hall
P.O. Box 6031
Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6031
Phone: (304) 293-8734
FAX: (304) 293-8747
E-Mail: sloverid@wvu.edu

Visit the West Virginia University Extension Service's Division of Community and Economic Development

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