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Developer Gets Permission to Raze Richmond's Oldest House
From Preservation Online, the online magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
www.preservationonline.org
Story by Margaret Foster / Aug. 8, 2005
Last month, the city of Richmond, Va., issued a demolition permit for what could be its oldest house, a frame structure built in the mid-1700s.
Developer John Nolde, who bought the Patteson-Schutte house and its five-acre property last year, plans to build 44 houses on the site, but the existence of a cemetery on the land may force him to change his plans.
Descendants of the Pattesons and Schuttes want to preserve the cemetery, which an 1862 deed says belongs to them.
"What we're looking at right now is the possibility of legal action on part of the descendants to determine where exactly the bodies are and what the extent of the cemetery is," says Jennie Dotts, executive director of Richmond-based Alliance to Preserve Old Neighborhoods (ACORN), which formed in 1997.
In May, a neighbor reported the house's impending demolition to the alliance. "In no time, we found out that the house is possibly the oldest standing house in Richmond," Dotts says.
The alliance offered to buy the one-and-a-half story frame house and some of its land, signing a confidentiality agreement with Nolde. "We signed the confidentiality agreement and then basically stopped hearing from them," Dotts says.
In the meantime, one of the Pattesons found the 1862 deed, which states that the families' descendants would retain one acre for a cemetery, which today measures about 100 feet by 100 feet and is surrounded by a granite wall.
"There are people, most likely slaves, buried outside that wall," Dotts says.
In a letter to Nolde last month, the group reminded the company that it is a state felony to knowingly disturb a burial site. (Nolde, citing confidentiality agreements, preferred not to comment for this article.)
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