(Cover Photo Credit: Bill Garrett)

Dan Pezzoni says he always looks in the closets of the houses he visits – but it’s not because he’s nosey. He’s looking for clues that may help him better understand the history of the structure and shed some light about the people who once lived there.

Pezzoni writes about historical architecture and is currently working on a book about Franklin County architecture. He spoke with Bill Harris and Mark Pace Thursday on Town Talk about projects he’s worked on and how his love for historic architecture has grown over the years.

He said he’s written or edited a dozen or so books about a particular county or region’s historic architecture.

He admits that his alma mater, Virginia Tech, had a modernist focus in its school of architecture, but as a new graduate he learned that every state has a program to record historic architecture. He has worked extensively in North Carolina and Virginia, but has also spent time in Nevada for work. There are some “really cool” ghost towns and silver mines in Nevada that date back to the 1860’s, he said. “If you look really closely, they’re really well constructed buildings,” Pezzoni added.

Ghost towns and silver mines aside, Pezzoni said his work is as much about the stories of the people associated with the building as the building itself.

His work in Franklin County began in late 2019 and early 2020, following completion of an architectural survey. Although a book doesn’t always follow completion of a survey, folks in Franklin County decided to have one published.

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The homes are part of the “heritage of the people who lived in Franklin County going back 200-plus years,” he said. The connection between the people who loved the home then and those who love and care for the home now provide a powerful connection to ensure the home will continue to be cherished.

Pezzoni said he finds that owners of old homes want to have that special connection – “they get excited about the history of their house, their farm,” he said.

Although editing can sound kind of dry or technical, Pezzoni said he wants to pull together information from multiple architectural surveys – from the 1970’s to as recent as 3 or 4 years ago – into one cohesive compilation, writing in the most engaging way possible.

Sometimes the surveys uncover previously unnoticed structures, he said, or the surveyors may have been influenced by local guides who were interested in a particular style or area. Plus, the maps that were used years ago were aerial maps, so “if you have an abandoned house in a pine forest, it’s not going to show up” on a map.

That’s why he always looks in closets – there may be a scrap of fabric, or a name of a child who dared carve or write his name and a date in a spot where Mama or Daddy would never see.

That’s the kind of information that Pezzoni can use to more precisely re-create the home’s history.