Scotland Neck, NC, Dec. 3--The old country church had been turned into a storage shed, then given over to snakes, spiders and pigeon waste, according to the NewsObserver.com.
But when Walton Burgwyn looks at the pictures he took of the church's rafters and walls, he about jumps out of his chair. The wood is 150-year-old heart pine, tight-grained and cut into solid two-by-fours and two-by-eights.
"I mean, look at the size of it. It's beautiful," said Burgwyn, general manager of Scotland Neck Heart Pine, a family business in Halifax County that turns ancient timbers from barns, textile mills and farmhouses into flooring, molding and furniture for the well-to-do.
Rising demand for Carolina heart pine and other recycled wood is feeding the hopes of economic boosters who see an opportunity to nurture businesses and create jobs in Eastern North Carolina. To encourage the market, the Foundation of Renewal for Eastern North Carolina, a private economic development group based in Greenville, plans to become a broker of old buildings made from the massive pines and hardwoods that once covered the state.
People who donate buildings to the foundation will be able to deduct their value on income tax returns. The foundation will arrange for someone to dismantle the buildings, then turn the wood over to processors such as Scotland Neck Heart Pine.
The foundation has the pieces of one tobacco barn in a warehouse and commitments for a dozen more, said its president, Phillip Horne. After it signs deals with sawmills to process the wood, the foundation hopes to dismantle two structures a week starting next spring.
By one estimate, Horne said, more than 1,000 tobacco barns and as many as 40,000 farm buildings of all types remain in Eastern North Carolina, though he is not sure how many would be good candidates for recycling.
The scheme worries those who think that mining wood from old buildings will encourage people to demolish Eastern North Carolina's architectural heritage. Barbara Wishy, director of the endangered properties program at Preservation North Carolina in Raleigh, said even the once-ubiquitous tobacco barns are threatened.
"They're becoming a rare species," Wishy said. "And the North Carolina landscape, which was characterized by farms dotted with these buildings -- that is disappearing."
Horne agrees that recycling the region's agrarian relics is "bittersweet." But he said many abandoned barns and houses have become liabilities for their owners, who may think they have no choice but to burn them or haul them to a dump.
"A lot of them have already fallen to such degree that it's better to create a job or product from these materials than to have them continue to deteriorate to a point of no return," he said.
The history of the wood gives it cachet. People who buy a desk or crown molding made by Scotland Neck Heart Pine get a brief biography of the wood that might include pictures of the building it came from.
"It adds a story. It adds value to the wood," said Burgwyn, 33. "You're selling them history."
Connecting with the region's agricultural past is one reason Lynn Johnson wants to build a farmers market outside Murfreesboro using reclaimed wood from tobacco barns. Several farmers have pledged their barns to the project, said Johnson, president of the nonprofit Roanoke-Chowan Farm and Garden Market.
Scotland Neck Heart Pine plans to hire 10 new workers over the next year so it can sell Carolina heart pine as far away as Great Britain.
The company processes wood at Gallberry, the Kitchin family farm just west of town (Burgwyn's mother is a Kitchin). The white, three-story house was built in 1885 and was home to three congressmen, according to the state historic marker out front.
