Sept. 2, 1999 - By MARK STAROSIELEC, Daily Times Staff writer WHITEHAVEN - Teachers students and parents associated with Wicomico County's Thinking and Doing program met Wednesday morning to celebrate the close of their involvement with the Whitehaven Hotel restoration project. A total of 280 students from grades three through six in 12 county schools have been working on a number of aspects of...
August 29, 1999 - By DICK MOORE Whitehaven is a riverfront village in Wicomico County, one of the earliest- settled places in this county going back to Colonial times. For a time, it looked like the town would be a major settlement until Salisbury, more conveniently located at the center of the Delmarva Peninsula, overtook it. Whitehaven languished. Time seemed to be passing it by. A daily ferry...
August 25, 1999 - By MARK STAROSIELEC, Daily Times Staff writer WHITEHAVEN - Restoration of the Whitehaven Hotel is a little behind schedule, but is on budget and should be complete sometime in early 2000, officials said Tuesday. "The exterior renovation will be completed this fall," said Pat Russell, a Whitehaven resident and vice president of Wicomico County Historical Properties Inc. since...
As the Whitehaven Hotel is renovated, Ed Otter hunts for clues to its history July 27, 1997 - By BRICE STUMP, Daily Times Staff writer Archaeologist Ed Otter is a modern-day Sherlock Holmes as he picks into the earth around and under the old Whitehaven Hotel in search of clues to its past. He has uncovered bits of glassware, bone, metal and pottery. Nothing is made of silver or gold, but to Otter...
October 10, 1996 - By TRACY SAHLER, Daily Times Staff writer WHITEHAVEN - The dream of restoring a more than 100-year-old hotel here became a reality Wednesday. The Maryland Board of Public Works approved a plan for spending $200,000 in state and private funds on the project clearing the way for work to begin on the Whitehaven Hotel as soon as the end of November. Making the old hotel usable as a...
October 10, 1996 – By TRACY SAHLER, Daily Times Staff writer
WHITEHAVEN – The dream of restoring a more than 100-year-old hotel here became a reality Wednesday.
The Maryland Board of Public Works approved a plan for spending $200,000 in state and private funds on the project clearing the way for work to begin on the Whitehaven Hotel as soon as the end of November. Making the old hotel usable as a modern bed-and-breakfast — with its rural location, history and riverfront setting as attractions — while maintaining its historic character will take around $500,000 and at least a couple of years.
“We are just really elated that we’re finally going to move into fixing this building up,” said K. King Burnett, president of Wicomico County Historical Properties, which owns the hotel and will shepherd it through much of its restoration.
Restoration of the hotel will ill be a public-private venture, with state funds covering $140,000 of the work and private funds being used for the rest. Once all the state funds have been spent, Wicomico Historical Properties will turn the property over to Heron Properties, which is providing the private funds.
It is unusual for the state to allow the transfer of property within 15 years of the use of a restoration grant, and its agreement to the transfer shows its confidence in the plan for the hotel’s rehabilitation and the people who drafted it, said Michael Day, chief of the Office of Preservation Services of the Maryland Historical Trust. Wednesday’s decision by the Board of Public Works came after four years of preparation.
“There’s no question now something is going to happen, Day said. “We know that it’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen quickly.”
The Board of Public Works said $100,000 in private matching funds must be spent before the state’s $100,000 restoration grant could be used. The same restriction applies to a $40,000 grant from the Maryland Historical Trust. That grant has not yet been matched.
The hotel’s foundation will be worked on first, Burnett said. It must be replaced and the building must be raised slightly to be out of the flood plain. Work will then be done on the roof, and after that on the building itself.
Reprinted with permission of The Daily Times (Salisbury, MD)