Reporter – Leigh Hester – The Henderson City Council unanimously voted August 8 to accept ownership of the home of Bennett Perry to be used as a museum commemorating the history of Henderson and of Vance County.
The house, which was left to the city in Mr. Perry’s will, states that the house must be maintained as a museum once accepted by the city. No endowments were left in the will to help make some of the necessary – and extensive – refurbishments to the structure that will be required to make it a serviceable museum.
According to estimates by Council Member Michael Inscoe, immediate repairs to the structure which will need to be taken care of immediately total around $37,000, but the total cost to renovate the building is expected to be around $108,000 before the structure could begin to house a museum.
“This house is one of the few homes still existing in Henderson representative of our past,” Inscoe said. “I think we should try to save it.”
Although the City accepted financial responsibility for the home, several members of the Council voiced hope that private donations could be found to defray some of the costs of the renovation. A Citizen Committee will be created in an effort to begin looking for ways to raise funds for the project.
Not to speak bad of Mr Perry who spent his life trying to help his fellow citizens of Vance cofunty and the City of Henderson. The problem is that at this time we should not be spending City Funds on things we do not have to spend City Funds on. Certainly Mr Perry would have allowed The
City sufficent time in order that they could aford to pay for the neaded repairs. They will probably try to make it a Joint Venture .
No way should the City take this on. As for joint ventures ventures??? Aren’t we still waiting for the money from Embassy Project. This is just not accepable.
Mr. Perry should have left funds for refurbishing–since he did not, how can we rid ourselves of this new mess. Did he have an alternative disposition of his property in the will?
Another win-lose situation. Perry got rid of a white elephant; Henderson got a new money-pit!
OH MY GOD! I can NOT believe Henderson is WASTING more of our tax dollars!!! Is it going to be a museum to showcase our Section 8??????
This is really an outrage! SELL the place!!!!!! There is NO MONEY For this. Typical political SPEND SPEND SPEND
What was the City Council thinking? Haven’t they noticed how many times Oxford Rd. and other locations have been dug up due to sewer and water problems? In their “wisdom” they vote to have a museum we cannot afford- It will sitin view while the infrastructure is crumbling beneath us. Go figure.
It is also curious that they didn’t form a committee to decide on THIS expenditure.
Not sure why this would need to happen right now. The City does not have much money so why is it logical to spend money on a project we do not need? Of course it would be nice to honor both the our town and one of it’s finest son’s but really…..is this the moment we want to make that decision? I hope that private donations can cover the cost of this project.
I would hope enough private monies can be found for this project.
The animal shelter needs more private help now than the house, in my opinion. Bless Mr. Perry but the house gift is more of a burden to the city than a gift. If he had left it all repaired and ready to be a museum with a foundation to preserve it in place, it might have been a real gift.
Although the museum would be a nice addition to our city, leaving our ‘historic’ downtown to crumble into dust, empty and neglected, means a big chunk of our heritage is being treated like so much garbage. Our beautiful library, unfortunately, is surrounded by ghosts of the past. If we can’t fund our infrastructure, what good is a museum? It seems like Henderson is becoming a museum of lost dreams.
kind of like the whole country.
Copper Rain is right on. Why can’t the city council take notice of how many streets have been torn up to fix water and sewer lines?
The Council needs to say “no” to the Perry homestead. With all due respect, he should have kept the property up–.