The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - Edward Hopper could have painted it.

The little Victorian on Preston Avenue, most re- cently owned by the late gar- lic grower Travis Weedman, sits back from the highway shaded by evergreens. Its porch and porch roof are sagging.

But its structure, dating back to 1895 and placed on a new foundation after the 1996 flood, is good, ac- cording to its new owners. Those kinds of "bones" make it a good candidate for restoration, and that's how it became the first project of Touchet Valley Restorations LLC. The company was started last month by Rich- ard Hinds, his partner Julie Tayloe and her mother Julia Thompson.

"Our goal is to rescue old homes," said Hinds. The three partners' com- pany hopes to restore one higher-end home and several smaller cottages each year.

The creation of the new Waitsburg company, the only one of its kind with that specific goal, drew an immediate welcome from the Waitsburg Historical Society.

"All power to them," said Jeff Broom, the society's chair and longtime historic preservation advocate. "It might encourage more people to go the historic route."

Waitsburg, whose city code requires owners of downtown commercial buildings to run facade changes by the Historic Preservation Committee, has no such requirement for residential properties, in deference to home owners' in- dividual rights, Broom said.

So it's up to their tastes and preferences how much of the past survives in the town's streetscape. Though Waitsburg is endowed with dozens of older homes, only four are on the historical register: the Bruce Man- sion, Preston Hall (middle school), the former Lybecker house on Fourth and the Mary Hubbard house down the same street, he said.

Some home owners are "just oblivious" to the no- tion that "there's a quality of life to living in an older home," Broom said. But in recent years, newcomers compelled by Waitsburg's brownstone charm, have re- vived interest in preserving the community's rich archi- tectural past, he said.

Hinds and Tayloe, who are close friends of Waits- burg entrepreneurs Paul Gregutt and Karen Stanton Gregutt, moved to town from Houston last June. In September, the couple bought former Times pub- lisher Loyal Baker's 1935 house on Orchard, began to remodel it and moved in this spring.

"We got bit by the bug of wanting to do more," Hinds said.

But the Baker home's restoration isn't the couple's first brush with historical preservation. Hinds, who covered the professional waterfront from oil well roustabout and wine steward to software programmer and systems analyst, owned a 1911 Queen Anne in Hous- ton Heights that was on the National Historical Register.

As a real estate broker, Hinds often worked with the City of Houston and the Houston Heights Associa- tion in attempting to reach a balance between modern life and "living it in an older home," he said.

Hinds, 64, who was data warehouse manager for the University of Houston before he retired. Tayloe, a registered nurse, was a nurs- ing specialist at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston before the couple moved to Waitsburg.

Tayloe and Hinds said they will use local con- tractors and artisans where possible to restore the prop- erties, and lend a home improvement hand themselves, something that should come naturally to Hinds who has long restored antiques.

Within Touchet Valley Restorations, Hinds is president, Tayloe secretary trea- surer, and Thompson, who retired as a bookkeeper, is vice president. They all see Waitsburg's gentrification potential.

Its proximity to Walla Walla wine country and its own historic charm make Waitsburg an attractive des- tination for retiring baby boomers, Hinds said. Yet its small size will also limit the number of marketable overhauls and the new ven- ture will want to pace itself, Tayloe said.

"We want to start slow and not get bogged down with too many properties at once," she said.

The couple expects the Preston Avenue project to take four to six months to complete, refinishing its fir floors and ridding the walls of "outdated and misguided improvements." It still has its porcelain door knobs and a vintage chandelier, Hinds said.

Broom said the establishment of Touchet Valley Res- torations may encourage the city's Historic Preservation Committee to fulfill one its missions - the creation of resources, such as Walla Walla- area contractors lists and historical research materials, for building owners interested in pursuing restoration projects.

In Walla Walla County, owners of historic homes can get tax breaks on the increase of assessed valuation follow- ing restoration.

Hinds said he would wel- come historical resources and the input from Waits- burgers about the town's architectural history.

"I'm not here to impose my vision of what things are supposed to look like, rather to restore them to their for- mer personality," he said.