Animal house

MUSCLE SHOALS - The building has a thick coat of rotting bark on its cement floor and insulation is falling from the ceiling, but there are some who believe it can be salvaged and placed on a national historical register.

The Insectory - called "Animal House" - is a modest red brick building on the Tennessee Valley Authority Reservation in Muscle Shoals that originally housed World War II-era labs to research the local scourge of malaria.

One black and white photo of the interior, circa June 1942, which shows a worker with his arm stuck in a mesh-walled box, is titled, "Feeding mosquitoes used for experiments in malaria control."

Now, the same room, like the rest of the neglected building, is surrounded by the smell of manure.

On a recent tour of the building, Charles Rose, a local environmentalist concerned about the building's fate, said, "In the grand scheme of things, it would not be a big deal to fix this up."

The building, like many historic structures on the reservation, is part of TVA's birthplace. It's historic enough to be recommended for the National Register of Historic Places, but not valuable enough for TVA to spend funds for its restoration.

The issue may become more relevant as TVA moves forward to privatize the southern section of the reservation. Most of the historic district remains on the northern section, including some of the buildings originally meant to produce nitrate for World War I, but eventually produced chemicals for fertilizers.

Several buildings throughout the reservation remain in use: the greenhouse, the rotunda, the power shop and the power house, for example; but the unused buildings remain in question.

TVA spokesman Jim Allen said the agency had no plans to pursue putting any buildings on the historic register nor were there any restoration plans.

TVA is financially stressed - the $1 billion cleanup of the coal ash pond at Kingston and the $1 billion payment to the retirement system are among other bills to be paid.

A complete assessment of the reservation buildings was developed in 2002 - when the Retirement Systems of Alabama was pursuing reservation land for a potential golf course. The resultant Robert Trent Jones Golf Course landed a few miles eastward, but the study, completed by consultants TRC Garrow Associates Inc., of Atlanta, gives a nearly 600-page account of historic resources on the reservation.

"TRC recommends that a large portion of the Muscle Shoals TVA Reservation be designated as a historic district," the document states. More than 100 potential sites were listed, from rifle pits used during the Civil War to the Wilson Dam.

"We have not formally consulted with the Alabama Historical Commission on the eligibility or disposition of the Animal House," Allen said via e-mail.

In a letter dated Oct. 30, 2007, the state historical commission concurred with the TRC study's conclusion to form a Muscle Shoals Historic District. "The Animal House, while referenced specifically in the information provided to the AHC, was not specifically mentioned in their letter of concurrence," Allen wrote.

Many reservation buildings are industrial, another challenge for restoration, said Stan Tomblin, of SKT Architects in Florence.

"Most of us don't think of industrial projects as being significant," Tomblin said. The combination of historical period and architecture plus the overall story the building tells are important in judging its value, he said.

Though most buildings aren't "outstanding things that most of us say, 'That's a great pice of architecture,' "

Tomblin said that some structures have significance and ought to be considered for restoration.

Though the local architectural community hasn't taken on the TVA Reservation as a preservation cause, Tomblin said, "We probably should - this is part of our heritage; we need to look at it and see what we can do."

The distinction needs to be made between historical and architectural relevance of a building, said Jim Frierson, president of the Tennessee Architecture Foundation, an organization that promotes architectural education.

Many buildings in the TVA Reservation were built during war times; from the phosphate factory circa World War I to the Animal House circa World War II. During war time, buildings got thrown up in a hurry, and "from a purely arch standpoint, there aren't a lot of crown jewels out there" from the era, Frierson said.

The balance rests between telling the reservation's history through its artifacts and stories and the more expensive option of reworking buildings into museums.

"We asked them seven years ago if (TVA) could fix up the place, and they said they didn't have enough money in the budget," Rose said.

On a recent Saturday, members of the Shoals Environmental Alliance cleared out a privet that blocked the building that sits just a few yards from the popular nature walking trails on the reservation.

Reminders of its scientific past remain in the building: empty amber bottles labeled "acetone" litter the floor near a cage used to trap animals, part of a green sign that reads "Natural Resource Ops" and a freezer chest with bubbled rust on the outside and inside.

"I want someone at TVA to explain to me why they can't afford to repair it," Rose said.

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@TimesDaily.com.