THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410060197
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 154 lines
ABOUT 35 YEARS AGO, Midtown was The Place.
The owners of Rodman's barbecue developed a $1 million center in the 3100 block of High Street. It housed a 17,000-square-foot Colonial Store called a ``mammoth'' grocery store in newspaper articles of the time. Today's supermarket chains consider the space too small.
In 1959, MidCity, Portsmouth's first full-fledged shopping center, opened with 36 stores, including Smith & Welton department store and a Giant super market. A $3 million investment, it was developed by George T. McLean.
Before the year was over, Robbie's, a venerable hardware store in business Downtown since 1910, opened a branch at the present location of the headquarters store on High at Cumberland Street.
``It was the place to be,'' Robbie's owner Saunders Early Jr. said. ``It was where the growth was. It was the hub for the area.''
Churchland at that time had few retail stores, so everybody who lived west of the midtown development came there to shop.
``It was like suburbia up here then,'' said Early, a former member of the City Council.
Over the years, the stores changed, but the area continued with some vitality even into the 1980s.
However, a slow metamorphosis that eventually left Portsmouth bereft of retail shopping was occurring.
``One by one, businesses closed over the years,'' Early said. ``The opening of Chesapeake Square just about finished us.''
Now the city tax base is suffering because of this migration of stores that left Portsmouth for new shopping centers outside the city limits.
``In the last few years, Portsmouth has lost its retail base,'' Early said. ``One by one, they left.''
But still there are hundreds of small businesses and professional people doing business in the midtown area who want to fight further deterioration in the city's center.
Early is one of some 50 business and professional people in the area who have banded together to form the Midtown Portsmouth Association.
At the same time, the city has hired consultants to design a plan for revitalization that will reach from the Downtown waterfront to Midtown.
Last week, members of the association met with consultant Ray Gindroz.
``I'm really excited,'' the association's acting president, Mary Curran, said Tuesday. Curran, manager of Central Fidelity's MidCity office on Frederick Boulevard, lives in nearby Waterview.
``I've been here 12 years and, in that time, this has become a totally different area,'' she said. ``I used to shop at MidCity and enjoyed the small-town atmosphere.''
Initially, the Gindroz group proposed razing part of the commercial area, including MidCity shopping center, to build new neighborhoods.
But after meeting with the people who work or live in the middle of the city, the consultants probably will reconsider and retain more commercial space.
However, the consultants probably will stick with the notions of returning part of the area to residential use and of returning the streets to square blocks designed to bring back the atmosphere that Curran remembers.
Leo Schocklin, an insurance agent in the Midtown area for 40 years, said he believes the plan is ``the right direction for the city.''
``I think we must anchor each section and blend them together,'' Schocklin said. ``The city is facing the right direction. We now must have a plan and work that plan.''
Schocklin, who served as chairman of the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority in the late 1960s and early '70s, said he believes retail merchants will return to the Midtown area because of the high traffic count and the central location.
``Midtown is the hub of the city,'' he said. ``An amazing number of vehicles pass through it, and a lot of younger people are moving in this section of town.''
Curran said the Midtown Association started because many people who work in the area know the potential is there.
``The group started with people sitting around having breakfast at The Circle,'' Curran said.
``We have about 50 people involved so far,'' Curran said. ``We're growing by leaps.''
The association basically encompasses the businesses in the 23707 ZIP Code, stretching from the Mount Herman business area that includes The Circle and Cherry Carpet to Maryview Medical Center, and from the city fire station on Airline Boulevard on the south to Hartford Street on the north.
``Some people met two or three years ago, but it fell apart,'' Early said. ``I think it's going this time.''
``Crime is the thing that really got us started,'' said Peggy Thomas of Commerce Bank. ``Everybody has been concerned about that, and we felt we needed to organize to get more police assistance with crime prevention activities.''
But, as the organization has grown, members have targeted four areas for committees.
In addition to a crime prevention committee, the association will have a business development and public relations committee, a beautification committee and a membership committee.
``I think we have enough people interested to make us effective,'' Curran said. ``And we want to expand to include even more people.''
The organization plans to work with property owners, such as the out-of-town group that owns MidCity shopping center, to try and design new uses to attract new tenants.
``Decline is a common problem for all the people in the area,'' Early said. ``There are so few attractions to get people to stop. We're running uphill all the time.''
Some 17,000 to 20,000 motor vehicles pass Early's store on High Street every day.
``But it's like a race track these days,'' he said. ``Few of them stop.''
Time was, he said, when the clerks in his store knew what time it was by the ``surge of business when the Navy yard let out.''
Not only does the area have the daily traffic of workers going to and from work. It also has thousands of residents who live closer to Midtown and Downtown than they do to any other shopping areas, but they drive miles - and often out of the city - to spend their money.
Early and others involved in the association not only want to attract more businesses. They also was to make people more aware of all the businesses still in the area.
``We need to get rid of the false perception that this is a high crime area,'' Early said. ``We need to perk up the area and make it attractive.''
The city government, he said, has been ``responsive'' to the new association.
In fact, deterioration of the tax base in Midtown prompted city officials to order the study that includes Midtown.
``Portsmouth has a lot of problems getting its act together,'' Early said. ``Sometimes it's like a dog chasing its tail.''
But he believes the new association will help the city begin to recycle the center of town.
``It's not going to happen overnight, but we have to begin.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
CAN MIDTOWN BE SAVED?
Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
MidCity shopping center, a $3 million investment in 1959, has lost
most of its stores, many opting for Chesapeake Square Mall.
Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
A lone shopper walks along the boarded-up businesses at MidCity
Shopping Center, which was the city's first, full-fledged shopping
center. It opened in 1959 with 36 stores, including a Smith & Welton
department store and a Giant super market. A $3 million investment,
it was developed by George T. McLean.
The Portsmouth Bowl used to be a modern bowling center in the
midtown area. It is now closed.
Some businesses remain in the MidCity shopping center, but not many.
Most moved out, many to the Chesapeake Square Mall.
A call to arms
The Midtown Portsmouth Association will meet at 8 a.m. Oct. 12 at
Central Fidelity's meeting room at 900 Frederick Blvd. A permanent
slate of officers will be elected.
by CNB