Historic Preservation Month

About Isabel

My name is Isabel Thornton and I’m a Roanoke native now working in historic preservation through the nonprofit Restoration Housing. I created this nonprofit to address the many older, historic homes that I saw in and around Roanoke that were falling down and needed reinvestment.

I actually don’t live in an older home (!) as I live on my husband’s family farm in Botetourt. I love living on a farm but I likewise love working in a city and studying our city’s history/thinking of ways to improve upon its history in the work that Restoration Housing does. I have four small children and I created this career largely as a way to build inherent flexibility into my work so that I could also raise a family.

Her Work in Historic Preservation

To date, Restoration Housing has completed seven historic rehabs throughout Roanoke’s older neighborhoods (Old Southwest, Mountain View, Northwest, and Southeast) with two more in the pipeline. With each project, we’re taking a formerly vacant structure that is usually in a severe state of disrepair and we’re investing large sums of money (usually through grants, donations, and historic tax credits) to bring them back to life and make them practical and viable spaces again. The other key piece to our mission is that we own and operate each property thereafter in perpetuity to ensure that they are safe, affordable, and well-maintained. It is so important not only that historic buildings receive this kind of reinvestment but also that there is a stewardship plan in place that will ensure that they’re well-maintained and won’t fall back into disrepair a few years down the line.

Involvement in Historic Preservation

I studied Architectural History as an undergrad in college at UVa but my real entrance into Historic Preservation began in graduate school at the University of Southern California where I received a Masters in Historic Preservation. While there, I worked for a subcontractor specializing in the preservation of historic stones and brick. That was my first official experience working on the technical side of preservation. I realized there that the technical work of salvaging a terracotta parapet wall was not my dream job (though interesting nonetheless) and I subsequently went to work with an affordable housing developer specializing in projects that used historic tax credits. I realized there that I was most interested in building development and, specifically, using historic tax credits as a tool for subsidizing construction costs and keeping rents affordable.

What Historic Preservation Means to Her

Historic Preservation has long been a movement that connotes activism but is has historically been a more large-scale public facing form of activism like saving Penn Station. I’m interested in how historic preservation can be a tool for social change on a more local level- reinvesting in underserved neighborhoods that have long lacked public and private investment. And likewise as a tool for honoring histories that don’t always make the history books like a small vernacular house in Southeast Roanoke that has a unique story to tell, generations of families who have lived there and loved the community there and worked for the nearby railroad, but that don’t always get as much attention because they’re not connected to a famous person or a famous architect. There are so many houses worthy of historic preservation not because of their illustrious lineage but because they are meaningful to our city’s history and they still have a practical purpose to serve once they’ve been restored.

The Importance of Historic Preservation

I have always valued history but it’s so much more than that for me. It’s the integrity of materials of older buildings and how much more well-made they were back before World War II. It’s also the negative environmental impact I see from so much development outward (sprawling) on greenland (or undeveloped land). I much prefer to see development done on existing buildings, using existing infrastructure, or on vacant lots so that we are not building outward in a thoughtless and often cheap and aesthetically displeasing way.

Favorite Parts of Roanoke History

I love so much of Roanoke’s history from its rail town origins to its unique Appalachian heritage that sets us apart from Richmond and the rest of the state. Perhaps most of all, I think the history of Gainsboro is the most fascinating part of our story. Learning about the prominent African American political and social figures who grew up and worked in Gainsboro continues to amaze me. It’s a fascinating neighborhood.

Encouraging Historic Preservation

A lot of homeowners and landlords might want to preserve their buildings that have historic siding, windows, and rooves but struggle with the costs to do so. I think a great encouragement would be some sort of grant funding or endowment fund that could help homeowners and landlords with these expenses. Historic Preservation is expensive and it’s important to make it attainable to all incomes.

Spelling Success in Historic Preservation

I think more Historic District designations would be a wonderful way to encourage more preservation throughout Roanoke and to see more success stories. We already have so many great examples here from our downtown redevelopment to our small villages like Wasena and Grandin. It would be great to see more expansions of these developments in the Melrose/Orange area (like with a historic district along Lafayette Boulevard or an expansion of the existing district of Melrose Rugby) or in the Loudon neighborhood.