Group wants to survey Pittsylvania County's old tobacco barns

The field representative for Preservation Virginia and the National Trust for Historic Preservation aims to undertake a survey of old tobacco barns in Pittsylvania County.

The organization will hold the first of several meetings late next month to gather volunteers to conduct a full, countywide count of the historic structures, said Sonja Ingram.

“We do hope to get a good grasp of how many barns we do have and what is the general condition of the barns,” said Ingram, field representative for Preservation Virginia/the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Volunteers will find out who owns each building, how it was constructed, its estimated age and what it’s made of, Ingram said. It will be the first such project in the state and will take at least a year to complete, Ingram said.

“We hope the program can be a model for other counties in the state,” she said.

The purpose of the program is to raise awareness of the importance of rural historic resources including tobacco barns, Ingram said. Virginia’s economy is based on agriculture — the state’s largest industry generating $55 billion a year for the commonwealth’s economy.

The tobacco barns are part of what makes Virginia and the Dan River Region unique, Ingram said.

“Those barns are so symbolic of our agricultural heritage,” Ingram said. “Losing that would be like losing part of our identity.”

Glenn Giles, a member of the Pittsylvania Historical Society’s board of directors, called the program “an excellent idea.”

“The big catch is getting volunteers and getting people pro-active enough to do something about it (preserving the barns),” Giles said.

Pittsylvania County, established in 1767, is approaching its 250th anniversary and there should be a series of projects aimed at the county’s heritage, Giles said. Tobacco barns are probably the “most prominent symbol” of the process of growing, curing and harvesting tobacco, he said.

Information on the barns will be compiled and used to eventually seek their inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register, Ingram said.