The DuPre House

By Charles Sowell  

MARCH 3, 2011 2:43 p.m. (0)

Spartanburg city officials are negotiating with the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) to restore the DuPre House for use by the school’s new campus, possibly as a conference center, Mayor Junie White said last week.

A spokesman for the college would not comment on talks with the city about DuPre.

The home is located on Howard Street and abuts the construction site for the VCOM campus.

The home was built in 1885 by Bishop William Wallace Duncan and became known as the DuPre House after the bishop’s daughter married Warren DuPre.

It was moved to Howard Street from North Church Street in 1997 to make room for the Marriott at Renaissance Park and has since languished for want of funds to restore the building.

Officials with the Spartanburg County Historical Association said they are aware of the city negotiations with VCOM and would be happy to offer technical assistance in restoring the massive Victorian home.

White said the home is owned by the City of Spartanburg Development Corporation (CSDC) a subsidiary organization of the city charged with promoting economic development.

White is president of the CSDC board and Councilwoman Linda Dougan also sits on the panel.

“The city bought the house for $169,000 several years ago,” White said. “The bank was going to foreclose and the city put the money up to pay off the mortgage.”

Originally plans to renovate the home were being handled by the now defunct Spartanburg Preservation Trust.

Kristi Webb, former executive director of preservation trust, is also a member of the SCDC board.

Those plans didn’t work out, said Chris Story, Spartanburg assistant city manager.

The demise of the trust played no role in the delay on restoring DuPre, Story and White said.

“Those plans fell apart long before the preservation trust went under,” Story said.

Original funding estimates for that work were in the $1 million range and most of the money raised or promised for the work was contingent on developing a viable plan for the structure’s future use, Story said.

He estimated that renovation costs for the building could run from about $800,000 to more than $1 million depending on the plans for the home’s future use.

“We hope the talks work out between the city and VCOM,” said Becky Slayton, executive director of the association. “We’d like the DuPre included as part of a Victorian Park that would include the restored railroad station and the Magnolia Street Cemetery.”

DuPre House is visible from the renovated railroad station, a seemingly squat collection of turrets and gabled rooflines juxtaposed with the functional concrete and steel frame of the main VCOM building rising above the trees and across the tracks.

Seen from the Howard Street, DuPre is a foreboding structure with cracked and broken windows punctuated by peeling paint and old shingles.

It sits atop new foundations and is structurally stable, Story said.

Slayton said plans for the Victorian Park could move ahead without inclusion of DuPre once funding becomes available.

The park would accent the city’s plans for making downtown a destination for visitors hinging around the Marriott and the freshly renovated Main Street area.

The VCOM campus will cost an estimated $15 million and has a 65,000 square-foot main building. It is scheduled for completion in August and will begin its first classes this fall.

It is located on the site of the old Spartan Mills. The smokestack from the mill is being preserved by VCOM in a nod to the area’s rich textile history.

Story said the city hopes to have an announcement on DuPre House soon.

He would not comment on potential purchasers or partners in the renovation effort.

White said the city has tried to find partners to renovate DuPre and had an agreement with the historical association at one point.

“That just didn’t work out,” he said. “Fund raising being what it is they could simply not come up with the money.”

The historical association had an agreement with preservation trust to loan some period Victorian era furniture for DuPre to furnish the home, Slayton said.

They’d be happy to do the same for VCOM should they decide to join the city in renovating the structure, she said.