THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9412020594
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
Kim Williams and Lisa Tucker discovered Norfolk's architectural heritage in some of the oddest places.
An automobile showroom, an ice cream drive-in, a boarded-up house.
Williams got spooked in a dark attic. Tucker set off a burglar alarm.
But because of their efforts, Norfolk is a bit closer to adding seven neighborhoods and 13 properties to its inventory of historically and architecturally significant locations.
Three city neighborhoods and 25 properties are already on the national and state historic registries.
``Norfolk has a lot of great resources. That really surprised us,'' said Elizabeth H. Lipford, survey program coordinator for Virginia's Department of Historic Resources. The state agency hired Traceries, the consulting company for which Williams and Tucker work.
Lipford and the consultants announced the potential historic designations Thursday at City Hall. It's now up to Norfolk and its neighborhoods to follow up.
The researchers recommended historic status for all or parts of seven neighborhoods: Berkley, Ballentine Place, Colonial Place, Lafayette, North Ghent, Riverview and Winona.
Getting listed on the National Register of Historic Places mostly will mean added honor to the neighborhoods and properties, said Mary Miller, a senior city planner.
However, the status could mean renovation tax credits for certain commercial properties.
Also, the city could use the research material to increase its own list of historic districts, thereby setting more restrictive standards for zoning and altering the properties, Miller said.
The designations cannot be made without the agreement of a majority of property owners in a neighborhood or the permission of the owners of the proposed individual properties.
Several neighborhood leaders who attended the meeting were pleased with the possibility of getting historic designations.
Steve Smith, president of the Ghent Neighborhood League, said the local historic district status could help preserve the architectural integrity of his community.
Carl Meredith, president of the Lafayette-Winona Civic League, said historic designation could be used to protect his neighborhood from unwanted development.
Meredith said he was happy that the researchers looked citywide at Norfolk's historical and architectural resources, rather than confining the study to the downtown area.
It took about a year to complete the study. Its $40,000 cost was split by the city and the state.
The researchers looked at 500 properties among the city's 61,000 buildings. They also read histories of Norfolk and perused old photographs, maps and newspapers.
They traced the former routes of Norfolk's old trolley lines to study the city's development patterns. They contemplated gravestones and mausoleums.
At the old Hodges home, a dark, boarded-up house in Campostella, Williams was tricked by her local escort into believing there was a dead body in the attic.
The man shone a flashlight across the attic and exclaimed, ``What's that body!'' Williams recalled.
``I said, `Oh, my God!' He was being really serious. I was so totally terrified. I walked in slowly and then he starts laughing.''
The consultants returned several times to Doumar's Cones and Barbecue, an ice cream and sandwich drive-in on Monticello Avenue.
``It's socially and historically important as one of the last drive-ins of this type in the country,'' Tucker said. She and Williams also were impressed with the Doumar family's historic claim to inventing the ice-cream cone.
The research, of course, included ``stuffing our faces with Doumar's ice cream,'' Tucker said.
Doumar's was one of 25 individual properties given an intensive look. However, it did not make the final 13 that the state would be willing to recommend for national historic status.
Some of the 13 are:
Talbot Hall, built in 1800 as a Federal-period plantation house. Local legend is that Union soldiers decided not to destroy the home after noticing a bas-relief of the seal of the United States among the interior decorations.
Poplar Hall, 1760. It is one of the few Colonial-era buildings in Norfolk to survive the Revolution.
Sycamore View, also known as the Cohoon House, the city's oldest, 1730. It is believed to have belonged to James Ivey, one of Norfolk's eight original aldermen.
The Skipjack Norfolk, 1900, a commercial fishing boat, one of the few surviving vessels left from the heydey of oyster dredging.
Birtcherd's Dairy building, 1936, ``an excellent example of the Art Deco style.'' It is now vacant.
Epworth United Methodist Church, 1893-96, built in the Romanesque Revival style, noted for its arched windows and doorways.
Charlie Falk's Auto, 1920-22, built in the Classical Revival style. ``An excellent example of the now-defunct, urban automobile showroom.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphics
Photos
The skipjack Norfolk
Church of the Sacred Heart
523 Princess Anne Road
Birtcherd's Dairy
Monticello Ave.
Talbot Hall, 600 Talbot Hall Road
Poplar Hall, Poplar Hall Drive
Sycamore View (Cohoon House), 7411 Cohoon Drive
Cedar Grove Cemetery, Princess Anne Road
Elmwood Cemetery, Princess Anne Road
Epworth United Methodist Church, 124 W. Freemason St.
Charlie Falk's Auto, 636 21st St.
Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, 828 E. Brambleton Ave.
Colonna's Shipyard, 400 Indian River Road
RECOMMENDED AS HISTORIC DISTRICTS
North Ghent
Colonial Place
Riverview
Winona
Lafayette
Ballentine Place
Berkley
Map
KELCEY NEWMAN/Staff
by CNB