November 2002


Dear Friends,

A gracious THANK YOU to all who responded to our November 2001 “SOS” for money to complete the exterior of St. Frances. Only through your donations were we able to put Bruce Lassiter back on the project. He laboriously scraped the petrified old paint and masterfully painted the exterior. In October, we were able to put on a much-needed new roof. And, we had just enough money to complete both sets of steps. The exterior is now completed and adds so much to Lewiston-Woodville’s beautiful National Registered rural historic district.

The completed structural and exterior work has met 95% of our restoration goals for St. Frances. We now need to address the interior problems, mostly cosmetic - plastering, refinishing the hardwood floors, recarpeting, painting, heat/air-conditioning, and removing the tiled ceiling. Please consider helping us this year. We are so close to completion, but have no funds to go forward. We are more than ready to open this Bertie County landmark to the public, but desperately need your help. It is unlikely that we (or any nonprofit) will receive State Cultural Resources grants anytime soon, so we must rely on you to buoy our spirits and put Bruce back to work in the final phase of St. Frances’ restoration.

We remind you that your donations are tax deductible, that we are a IRS approved nonprofit organization, allowing you a 2002 tax exemption. Preferring that your gifts go 100% to Historic Woodville’s preservation projects, we do not pay ourselves.

We still pursue our goal to create a history center to preserve Lewiston-Woodville’s rich records and artifacts. We welcome any contributions to our already sizeable collection of letters, photographs, books, furniture, etc. that can be a part of this future center. Securing a location - either the old Woodville Supply or Grace Episcopal parish house - will be our next project after St. Frances’ completion. Elizabeth Payne, now living in Asheville, recently donated Woodville’s old post office boxes to us with names still on the boxes! Dale Vaughan gave us the old Woodville depot post office - we await the resources (any volunteers?) to move it from private property to the side of the old Woodville Supply Company - about 50 yards. And we still have dreams of restoring the important coastal cottage-style Bazemore house (Thompsons,Pughs, Martins, and Bazemores have occupied that house since the early 1800s)

Please visit St. Frances and Grace Episcopal cemeteries. All the Pugh/Clark/Smallwood graves that we moved from Indian Woods to these cemeteries in 1998 have a more professional look. Tommy and Margaret Griffin and ‘Book’ Urquhart hired a Wilson company to place thick concrete slabs under the broken stones and to clean them all. Their generosity has made a remarkable difference in the gravestones/gravesites.

The Reese family - Tom (San Diego), Ramoth (Spruce Pine, NC) and their sister Ruby Tayloe (Norfolk) , who all grew up in Lewiston, returned in October for a fine homecoming visit and reunion with Monk Harrington and Lib Widmer. We delighted in showing off their restored childhood church, St. Frances.

With sincere gratitude to all who help us preserve our past,

Vicki Paton and Molly Urquhart Historic Woodville, Inc.

Please send us your comments and questions.

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