THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606280205
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 09 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 53 lines
The Life-Saving Museum of Virginia, an Oceanfront landmark for more than 90 years, will undergo its third name change in 15 years Monday.
It will then become known as the Old Coast Guard Station, an identity attached to it almost from the time it was built in 1903, only a few yards from its present oceanfront location at 24th Street.
The building began its existence as the Life Saving station, and was manned by a hardy band of local watermen who helped save crews and passengers of ships that foundered off the coast of Virginia shortly after the turn of the century.
Later, the Life Saving Service was incorporated into the U.S. Coast Guard, and the two-story frame building on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront became known as the Coast Guard Station. The Coast Guard later left and when the museum opened in 1981, it was dubbed the Virginia Beach Maritime Historical Museum. That was changed in 1988 to the Life-Saving Museum.
And so, in ceremonies that begin at 1 p.m. Monday on the site, the building - which faces the Boardwalk and abuts the 24th Street Park - officially reverts to one of its earlier and more familiar identities.
Former Congressman G. William Whitehurst will be on hand to mark the occasion with a talk. So will Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf and retired Rear Adm. William J. Ecker, former commander of the Coast Guard 5th District. Also on hand will be the 1790 Color Guard from the Coast Guard Reserve Training Center in Yorktown.
The name change is a marketing ploy by administrators of the facility, which has been operated as a museum and gift shop since 1981, said museum spokesperson Ann Dearman.
``It's always been called the `old Coast Guard Museum,' anyway,'' she said. ``We do want to get a lot more people to come in here.''
In 1969 the Coast Guard decommissioned the building as an official Oceanfront station, and it fell into disrepair and was used off and on as a refuge for sea gulls and as a summer dormitory for young men and women who worked at neighboring hotels, said Dearman.
Shortly before it was opened as a museum it was moved from its original 24th Street property to its present site.
Recently it has undergone some landscaping and exterior improvements to make it more inviting to the public, said Dearman. The improvements include a resodded front lawn, a new fence, plantings of rose bushes and a new sign that says, ``Old Coast Guard Station (and museum).'' ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
The soon to be renamed Life-Saving Museum of Virginia faces the
Boardwalk and abuts the 24th Street Park on Atlantic Avenue. by CNB