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In February, the Park Service plan prompted the state Senate and House of Delegates to pass resolutions affirming their support for retaining “West Virginia’s historic buildings, coal camp buildings and coal heritage sites in Thurmond, West Virginia and across the state.�

“Some of the comments are based on the notion that we plan to tear down everything in Thurmond,� said Charles Sellars, the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve’s superintendent. “That’s not the case.�

While current plans call for the removal of 12 structures within the National Register of Historic Places’ Thurmond Historic District, “we also are planning to save 19 other buildings there,� Sellars said. “We plan to spend a lot of money on some of those buildings to get them stabilized, allowing us to continue being able to tell the town’s story.�

What will be preserved and what will be upgraded?

Among buildings in the Thurmond Historic District the Park Service plans to preserve and stabilize is the former Fatty Lipscomb House, perhaps best known for its role as the boarding house and focal point of dialog in the 1987 John Sayles film “Matewan.�

Other structures in the historic district planned for preservation and upgrades include the two-story, gable-roofed Billy McGuffin House and the nearby Philip McClung House, both of which will be used to accommodate housing for seasonal and transient Park Service employees.

The National Bank of Thurmond Building, the Goodman-Kincaid Building and the Makin-Cox Building — the three adjoining three-story brick and stone buildings that make up the town’s iconic Commercial Row — will remain intact and undergo major roof, foundation and stone masonry repairs.

In recent years, the two-story, 136.5-foot-long Thurmond Station building, built in 1904 to replace a similar structure lost to fire, has had its slate roof replaced and its windows, wooden siding and doors repaired. The historic rail depot remains an active Amtrak station and serves as one of the park’s visitor centers.

The question might be: ‘Should you save it?’

Since the New River Gorge was designated a national river and a unit of the National Park Service in 1978 and began acquiring the 72,808 acres it now manages, an eclectic accumulation of structures in varying states of repair came into its possession.

Many of the buildings had little historic value to begin with and were already in an advanced state of disrepair. Fourteen such structures — ranging from farmstead outhouses to partially collapsed garages — are planned for demolition under the Park Service plan.

But other buildings were unique or historically significant, and have received stabilization work — metal roofs, drains, foundation work, structural bracing and the like — over the years to keep them intact, in the event a funding source emerges to pay for long-term repairs.

“But you can’t keep propping up some of these structures forever,� said Michael Hartsog, the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve’s maintenance chief. “After a point, the question moves from ‘Can you save it?’ to ‘Should you save it?’ Most of the buildings probably could be saved if you threw enough money at them, but is that the best use of resources?�

Prince Brothers Store: ‘It’s not sustainable’

A case in point is the Prince Brothers General Store, which opened in 1872 and operated until the 1980s, when it was bought by the Park Service.

The store was a rarity in the New River Gorge coalfield, since it was not affiliated with a coal company and provided a wider variety of goods, at lower prices, than were generally available in the area. It still stands, fronting W.Va. 41 and the CSX mainline at Prince, in Fayette County.

After acquiring the store, the Park Service installed an emergency roof to reduce leaks, stripped off water-damaged siding from the back of the store several times and built a foundation footer to replace the randomly placed rocks that had served that had kept the store above ground.

“The load of the frame wasn’t being carried evenly, bowing 11 inches at the center and listing left to right and 6 inches front to back,� Hartsog said. “We’ve put in a lot of bracing in the past five years and chased rot beyond what we can keep up with.�

Without the stabilization work already done at the Prince Brothers Store, “it would have imploded by now,� Hartsog said. “I love this old building. It’s a shame it’s not sustainable.�

In coming weeks, park planners will consider alternatives to the demolition plan and prepare an environmental assessment for the project. That assessment is expected to be released for public comment sometime this spring, followed in the summer by a decision on how the plan will be implemented.