[Source: Tim Ellis, Arizona Daily Star] -- Despite a setback last week, Chauncey and Patty Kelley say they don't intend to give up on their dream of restoring the historic adobe building next to the Vail Feed Store. But the siblings said they'd like help in their effort to restore Vail's oldest building and preserve the place that once served as the heart and soul of the community. Since it was built — sometime in the late 1890s, the Kelleys reckon — the now-crumbling structure has served as the community's railroad freight station, post office and general store and, for a while after their dad bought it in 1975, a feed store.The building has sat unused since Art Kelley built a new feed store in 1994 next door, at 11366 S. Old Vail Road. All the while, the old building was more than a place of business: "It was the center of Old Vail," Chauncey Kelley said. That's what makes the building historic, said Roger Anyon, a cultural resources program manager with the Pima County Cultural Resources and Historic Preservation Office. "This building is well worth saving and restoring because it is the focal point of Old Vail, and because it's so close to the Shrine of Santa Rita," Anyon said, referring to the Catholic church across the road.
Kelley said that's why he and his sister want to convert the building into a place that celebrates the area's history, like a visitor center. "A place where people could stop and find out about the town or Colossal Cave or other attractions," he said. And they wouldn't mind some feedback, and some help, to make that happen. "We'd like people to look at it as a 'we' kind of thing, rather than something (that) 'they' are doing," Kelley said. He and Patty have been making steady progress in their four-year effort to restore the building. After reviewing documents that support the building's history, the county Cultural Resources and Historic Preservation Office staff will forward them to the State Historic Preservation Office. "The building and the Shrine of Santa Rita church both have been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places," Anyon said.
The state office will review the documents to determine whether to recommend listing the buildings on the National Register of Historic Places to the National Park Service, An-yon said. The county office helped the Kelleys get a $2,000 grant from the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission to help stabilize the building while those deliberations are under way, he said. [Note: To read the full article, click here. If you are interested in assisting in the preservation of this building, call 520-762-5301. Photo source: Tucson Citizen.]
