THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 16, 1996 TAG: 9608160540
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 89 lines
On Sunday mornings in the Kempsville section of Princess Anne County, Buster Cornick, the big, tall caretaker of Union Baptist Church, would ring the church's great cast-steel bell. For more than 100 years, parishioners from miles away heard the call and began the long walk on dusty rural roads.
``We would hear that bell on Sunday morning as loud as it could be,'' said Jeanette Smith, one of several church members who gathered beside the historic building this week. ``We all knew it was time to get going. We walked to church in rain, sleet and snow.''
Wednesday at noon, Bubba Johnston of J & J Clearing and Grading Inc. flicked a switch on his John Deere excavator tractor and tore into the side of the building. Within minutes, the 1894 structure, one of the oldest black churches still standing in Virginia Beach, was reduced to rubble.
``Praise God, we got it down,'' Loretta Anderson said, hugging Regina Taylor as the two watched the last of the structure come down.
``It's a joyful and sad occasion,'' said Taylor, a church trustee who spearheaded the drive to remove the historic but unrestorable building and put a new one in its place.
Thursday morning, all that remained was the back half of the building, which will be preserved. The bell, muffled by the boards it rested on, sat beside a trailer containing the church's pews, pulpit and other relics.
Union Baptist, which traces its beginnings to former slaves gathering in homes in 1862 and proudly recalls housing one of the only black schools in the county, is rebuilding at its present location on South Boulevard near the Mount Trashmore YMCA.
The road once was known as Old Divinity Drive. Where traffic now hums by on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, there was nothing but woods and open land.
After Sunday school, children played hide-and-seek under the white frame building that once - before it was bricked over - stood on stilts.
Members of the congregation stopped by Wednesday and Thursday to watch the demolition and retrieve pieces of the old building as souvenirs.
Some barely held back tears.
Elijah Williams, 70, recalled, ``When we were boys and they were holding a revival meeting, we went in the back and pulled the plug on the generator and turned out the lights.''
He walked five miles each way to school in the old church, then to the plain brick annex next door.
``We'd walk to school and the bus with white kids passed us by,'' he said. ``We were walking and they were riding.''
Before the blue enamel baptismal pool was installed inside the church, congregants did their baptizing in a creek four or five miles down the road, as the choir sang ``Take me to the water . . .''
``We had a public address system that was so powerful you could hear the minister preaching and the choir singing miles away,'' Jeanette Smith said. ``You could hear the service on your front porch.''
For the past 73 years, Union Baptist has been under the leadership of a father and son, the Revs. Spencer F. Scott and Spencer F. Scott Jr.
``It was good teaching and good preaching,'' Taylor said.
The first church building, known then as the Smith Corner Baptist Church, dates to the Civil War and was built of twigs and rush. Other buildings were constructed from pine logs and rough plank. The latest, of wood clapboard, was whitewashed every year until it was bricked over in 1973.
Holding one of the long, still-white boards, the Rev. Linwood Daughtry paused Wednesday. Daughtry, who grew up in the church and became minister of First Trinity Church of Chesapeake, said he felt mixed emotions. ``All my young life was here,'' he said. ``All my mother knew was this building.
``This church really molded my life and gave me a set of values that are still with me. I am who I am because of the early teachers that were here.''
Taylor said most of the church's 350 active members trace their families back to its founders.
Walking to the church graveyard across the street, she pointed to the headstones of Cora W. Foreman, Betty F. Williams and Rosalyn F. Freeman, all of whom grew up in the church and became teachers. Williams Elementary School on Newtown Road was named for the longtime teacher and principal.
The church was known for its outreach, said Taylor, the church trustee. ``We fed the hungry and clothed the naked. We reached out to the people. The NAACP met here from the time it was organized until last April when we closed the building.
``It was a place where we felt proud of ourselves. Even though we weren't treated equally in the community, in this place we felt the sky was the limit.'' ILLUSTRATION: UNION BAPTIST CHURCH IS RAZED
[Color Photo]
MORT FRYMAN
The Virginian-Pilot
This 1894 structure is gone, but a new Union Baptist Church will be
built in its place on South Boulevard in Virginia Beach.
Regina Taylor, Church Trustee by CNB