Not all of us want a new historic district

This is in reference to your article regarding the expansion of the Sperryville Historic District dated Dec. 22, 2022.

Since you quoted me in a statement I made at the short notice meeting that was held on Dec. 13, 2022, I felt compelled to clarify what I said since it was taken out of context in the paper. The point I was making is that those of us who are Rappahannock pioneer family descendants do not believe in expecting handouts for personal WANTS. Therefore, if you can't afford it, leave it alone. Too bad the staff of the Rappahannock News does not yet understand our nature. To expect others to pay for what one wants is socialism!

There are several errors in your article regarding the expansion of the Sperryville district which I would like to point out. First the Hopewell Church was built in 1969. The representatives from the government agency stated that buildings need to be at least fifty (50) years old. 1969 does not meet that criteria. This information was researched by Eugene Scheel who is an authority on Piedmont Virginia history. Google that name.

Also we are not located in the Shenandoah Valley and our architecture is very different than theirs.

As far as I know there was no mill at the location of the apple packing complex. Perhaps what they are seeing in the middle between the packing house and the cold storage plant are the remnants of Smoots Tannery which was in that location. Just as the office building for the tannery is located on a nearby private property.

I studied the 1982 application for historic district where I saw several errors that should be corrected and updated. The majority of the buildings have been severely altered so are they still historic? Also previously we often moved buildings around by rolling them on logs which was easy to do since the foundations were rocks. For example the Corner Store, only the center building was built on site. The buildings on both sides were moved and placed there late as needed. The one on the left was used as the post office after the Sarah Brown building was relocated.

When the 1982 historic district designation was first granted the basis was the fact that the buildings were built close to the narrow roads indicating it was a horse and wagon village. The roads have been widened with yellow lines, so a major original reason for the designation has been removed.

I would like to point out that any street sign in Rappahannock that is marked a lane is simply a private shared driveway. There is no State maintenance, no liability insurance. Therefore, unless one is authorized to be there they could be trespassing.

I would also like to be clear that I do not want my property to be in the historic district because my house is only five years old and built of Hardy and Azak materials. So certainly not historic. I do not want any government to have their claws in me any deeper than they are.

Believe it or not, native Sperryvillians really don’t want any more government officials snooping around here in our community. They have taken enough from us, nearly one-third of our County doing the most harm to Sperryvlle and completely destroying Atkinstown.

The expansion proposal would only benefit one or two people because it would enable them to use a tax credit for their refurbishing of dilapidated buildings that would be demolished. The usual pattern here is someone will come in with big ideas of how they can change things, make a little money then move on leaving a mess. We have seen that time and time again. A perfect example is the O’Bannon House.

We were quite satisfied before we had strangers wandering all over the place looking for something — We don’t know what!