THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 26, 1994 TAG: 9411260092
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
State museum officials got the downtown property they wanted for a 55,000-square-foot Museum of the Albemarle.
College of the Albemarle got about $75,000 for scholarships and the promise of more through a sizable trust fund.
And Jewel and Lee Davenport, who donated their Ehringhaus Street property to the COA Foundation for sale to the state, got a guaranteed lifelong income from the fund and the chance to contribute generously to the community.
As COA President Larry Donnithorne said, ``The whole thing got put together very nicely. . . . It was really a win-win-win.''
The $785,000 transaction this week means the two-acre property, home of the Davenport Motors building across from Waterfront Park, will eventually hold a new, improved Museum of the Albemarle.
The deal made everyone happy.
``Certainly we're delighted that it has occurred,'' said museum Director Charlene Akers. ``It has been a long time in coming.''
Sharing Akers' delight was a vast array of state and local officials, including N.C. Senate leader Marc Basnight, who pushed through a $1 million appropriation last year to buy the property.
But Basnight and others said it's too early to say when construction funding will be approved. He and local Representative-elect W.C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr. said it may be tough to bend a new GOP House majority toward local projects.
That's OK, said Wesley S. Creel, assistant administrator for branch museums in the state Division of Archives and History. Museum officials don't expect to seek a construction go-ahead until later, he said..
``We will not be doing it for this session,'' Creel said. ``It would be more prudent to complete the architectural studies for this particular plot of land.''
Museum officials negotiated for the Davenport property for months, but also had been holding on to a city lot just a block north off Water Street. City officials deeded the land to North Carolina for the museum nearly four years ago and renewed the deed this winter.
Most officials agreed that the city site, built on a former creek and prone to flooding, was not ideal. A museum there would have been constructed on pilings at a cost similar to buying new land.
Now that the new property is secured, Creel said, a Norfolk architectural firm will begin work on plans. Once cost estimates are available, officials will be ready to go to legislators with a budget request, Creel said.
What happens after that remains to be seen.
``There's too many unknowns to address it at that stage,'' Basnight said Friday. ``We will succeed, I'm certain of that, at some point in time. We'll take the steps as they come available to us.''
In the meantime, Creel said, his division is seeking grant money to help study how to use the new building ``to explore the kinds of interpretive topics and themes that would best articulate the social, economic and political history of the Albemarle region, and the culture of its people.''
Only about a third of the museum's space will be used for exhibits, so ``it becomes a prioritization effort,'' Creel said.
Whatever the use, it will be a boon to Museum of the Albemarle administrators, who say they are simply out of room in their 12,000-square-foot facility.
``We need storage space for collections; that is a very great need here,'' Akers said. ``There are a lot of items out there that need a home.''
Akers said officials were making plans to move a sign, advertising the new museum, from in front of the city property to the museum's new location.
The city lot is currently used for parking. Mayor H. Rick Gardner said this week he thought the property should be spruced up but maintained as a parking lot.
``This is a tremendous opportunity. This is wonderful. This sets the stage,'' Creel said. ``We know where our new home will be, and we're very happy about it.'' by CNB