|
Joshua Doby: Documenting Montague
Story and Photo by Joshua Doby
An all-stone building on the upper Quad goes unnoticed for the most part. Those who do notice it often wonder what it is for.
Built in 1919, the Estella Nissen Montague building has gone unused for the last several years. For a while, what was to become of the building was up for debate.
Montague’s original use was as a fireproof library for Mars Hill College. According to historical accounts, the book collection quickly outgrew the building. To cope with the problem, a mezzanine was added for more floor space; but that did not suffice, and in 1933, an addition was built.
C. Gilbert Humphries, an architect from Winston-Salem, drew up both the original plans and the plans for the addition.
Mars Hill trustee Alfred Sprinkle donated the stone. The stone was acquired from California Creek, not far from campus. By 1955, the Memorial Library was opened, and Montague was turned into offices.
Richard Dillingham, the college historian, saw great potential for the building, and in 1979, he turned Montague into the Rural Life Museum.
The museum was used to give a nostalgic and reminiscent view of life in the Southern Appalachians from the last few centuries.
In the main room remains a replica of a one-room cabin, in which Dillingham cooked food for visitors in the fireplace -- the same way it was done over a century ago.
Dillingham only had a budget of $2,000, so he built the replicated cabin out of scraps from an old tobacco barn and an old cow barn.
Montague remained the Rural Life Museum until it fell into disrepair just a few years ago. After the museum closed, it was unclear what it was to become of it, according to observers on campus. There was talk of making it a new Mars Hill welcome center, but that plan fell through.
Students even got involved earlier this year. While renovations were being done on Moore Auditorium, a group of art student wrote up a proposal for turning Montague into an art building with a common room and individual studios.
Those plan were never seriously considered because work had already begun on the renovations on Montague to return it to its use as the Rural Life Museum.
Work that still needs to be done is: addition of a heating and cooling (HVAC) system, repair of plaster walls and windows, mitigation of drainage issues, and bringing the mezzanine up to code.
Officials hope to open the Rural Life Museum by Homecoming 2009.
Information for this article was collected from Our State Magazine, September 2003; National Register of Historic Places; and Karen Paar of the Ramsey Center and Peggy Harmon of Renfro Library.
Give us your feedback. We value your opinion.
| HOME | ARCHIVE | OPINIONS | EMAIL US |
| 
