Post by bernard on Dec 10, 2008 3:45:28 GMT -5
www.winchesterstar.com/showarticle_new.php?sID=6&foldername=20081210&file=Patsys%20house%20_article.html
Winchester — Patsy Cline fans may soon have the opportunity to visit the home where the legendary singer lived with her family from 1948 to 1953.
The owner of the house, Celebrating Patsy Cline Inc., asked the Winchester Planning Commission Tuesday to initiate a change to the city’s Zoning Ordinance that would allow museums in the HR-1 District, where the house is located.
The district is the only residential area in the city that doesn’t allow museums by-right or with a conditional-use permit. The latter allows a property to be used in a manner not allowed by-right in a particular zoning district.
“We have always had plans to open her house at 608 S. Kent St.,” said Judy Sue Huyett-Kempf of Berryville, president of CPC. “Now that it is vacant [the home had been rented], we feel it is the time to begin the process of getting the house open.”
A museum couldn’t be considered at Cline’s former house without the amendment, city planners said.
Generally, a private entity will sponsor an ordinance change in order to accommodate a certain project. However, the Planning Commission agreed to publicly sponsor this legislation.
If the amendment is adopted, the Cline organization would still have to apply to the city government for a conditional-use permit before opening the museum.
Part of the vision of the organization, which also plans a museum on the Loudoun Street Mall, is to honor the locally born singer who died in a 1963 plane crash in Tennessee.
Accompanying Huyett-Kempf to Tuesday’s commission meeting was CPC board member Scott Andres of Clarke County.
“The timing is right,” Andres said. “We have a lot issues to deal with, including accessibility. We want to make the house as accessible to as many people as possible.”
The two-story structure contains about 1,700 square feet of space, with three bedrooms, Huyett-Kempf said.
“We are just starting the process,” she said. “It will take months to open the house to the public, and we have many steps to complete.”
Patsy moved to the home in 1948 with her mother, sister, and brother, Huyett-Kempf said. “She lived there off and on until 1957, when she married Charlie Dick.”
The house was the starting point of her stardom, a vital step in how her career was formed, Huyett-Kempf said. “It was from this house that her career blossomed with many performances as a teenager, singing in Winchester and surrounding areas, the Arthur Godfrey show, going to Nashville, and many other events and places.”
Cline’s former husband remembers it well.
“I first met her when she lived there,” Charlie Dick said during a phone interview Tuesday from Tennessee. “I spent half my time over there when we were dating.”
He recalls how Patsy’s mother Hilda Hensley did a lot of work to the interior of the house, moving walls and painting.
“Hilda would tackle anything,” Dick said, “and Patsy would go along — she’d get in the middle of it.”
Dick said he is very supportive of opening the house to the public. Living in Nashville, he realizes how much fans want to see celebrities’ homes. Some still ride by the Tennessee house where Dick lived with Patsy.
“I know people want to see it,” he said. “I’d like for Winchester to have something for people to see when they visit.”
The Cline house is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.
Celebrating Patsy Cline wants to use the structure to help tell the singer’s story, Huyett-Kempf said.
“From this house, fans can follow the path left by this famous icon in country music.”
...www.celebratingpatsycline.org
Winchester — Patsy Cline fans may soon have the opportunity to visit the home where the legendary singer lived with her family from 1948 to 1953.
The owner of the house, Celebrating Patsy Cline Inc., asked the Winchester Planning Commission Tuesday to initiate a change to the city’s Zoning Ordinance that would allow museums in the HR-1 District, where the house is located.
The district is the only residential area in the city that doesn’t allow museums by-right or with a conditional-use permit. The latter allows a property to be used in a manner not allowed by-right in a particular zoning district.
“We have always had plans to open her house at 608 S. Kent St.,” said Judy Sue Huyett-Kempf of Berryville, president of CPC. “Now that it is vacant [the home had been rented], we feel it is the time to begin the process of getting the house open.”
A museum couldn’t be considered at Cline’s former house without the amendment, city planners said.
Generally, a private entity will sponsor an ordinance change in order to accommodate a certain project. However, the Planning Commission agreed to publicly sponsor this legislation.
If the amendment is adopted, the Cline organization would still have to apply to the city government for a conditional-use permit before opening the museum.
Part of the vision of the organization, which also plans a museum on the Loudoun Street Mall, is to honor the locally born singer who died in a 1963 plane crash in Tennessee.
Accompanying Huyett-Kempf to Tuesday’s commission meeting was CPC board member Scott Andres of Clarke County.
“The timing is right,” Andres said. “We have a lot issues to deal with, including accessibility. We want to make the house as accessible to as many people as possible.”
The two-story structure contains about 1,700 square feet of space, with three bedrooms, Huyett-Kempf said.
“We are just starting the process,” she said. “It will take months to open the house to the public, and we have many steps to complete.”
Patsy moved to the home in 1948 with her mother, sister, and brother, Huyett-Kempf said. “She lived there off and on until 1957, when she married Charlie Dick.”
The house was the starting point of her stardom, a vital step in how her career was formed, Huyett-Kempf said. “It was from this house that her career blossomed with many performances as a teenager, singing in Winchester and surrounding areas, the Arthur Godfrey show, going to Nashville, and many other events and places.”
Cline’s former husband remembers it well.
“I first met her when she lived there,” Charlie Dick said during a phone interview Tuesday from Tennessee. “I spent half my time over there when we were dating.”
He recalls how Patsy’s mother Hilda Hensley did a lot of work to the interior of the house, moving walls and painting.
“Hilda would tackle anything,” Dick said, “and Patsy would go along — she’d get in the middle of it.”
Dick said he is very supportive of opening the house to the public. Living in Nashville, he realizes how much fans want to see celebrities’ homes. Some still ride by the Tennessee house where Dick lived with Patsy.
“I know people want to see it,” he said. “I’d like for Winchester to have something for people to see when they visit.”
The Cline house is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.
Celebrating Patsy Cline wants to use the structure to help tell the singer’s story, Huyett-Kempf said.
“From this house, fans can follow the path left by this famous icon in country music.”
...www.celebratingpatsycline.org