THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608140076
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: OBSCURE TOUR
LOCAL LANDMARKS THE TOUR BOOKS NEVER MENTION
SOURCE: BY WENDY GROSSMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 60 lines
BACK IN 1848 when other folks were rushing out to California to dig for gold, Lt. Andrew Weir was in Mississippi digging up a passel of magnolia seedlings.
Weir lined the curey lane to his Norfolk home with the delicate blossoms for his new bride, Mary Allen.
Their farmhouse is gone. But about 25 of the original trees still stand on Magnolia Avenue. Their branches arch over the street, dropping a blanket of shade.
``When you drive down it looks like a tunnel,'' says Loretta Grant, who was born on the street and still lives there. ``It's a refreshing, cool place to be in the summer.''
The trees are huge. The gnarled branches just keep growing.
``When I moved here 35 years ago the magnolia across the street was my height,'' says Richard Tuttle. ``It's gone from six feet to 40-some.''
At the base of the tree in front of Tuttle's house a plaque relates the tale of Lt. Weir and his magnolias.
The magnolias have just stopped blooming and are now dropping cones and leaves.
Tuttle thinks the trees are beautiful. The leaves are always green - never brown, he says. But they're always falling.
``It's a constant battle trying to keep them off the grass,'' Tuttle says. ``They won't mulch - so you have to pick 'em up.''
Everyone who lives on the street has the same struggle. Their yards fill up with leaves. They rake them up, and the next day the yard is covered again.
``When you live on Magnolia Avenue it's a love/hate relationship,'' says Charles Grant. ``They drop something 365 days a year. If it's not leaves, it's cones. If it's not cones, it's petals.''
But he loves them, too. Grant especially likes to sit in his black porch swing, on breezy summer evenings and drink in the blossoms' pungent scent.
``If the wind is right, it smells like honeysuckle,'' says John Monroe, sitting in the shade of his magnolia tree, sipping iced tea and strumming his guitar.
The trees bloom from May through June. At Christmas, many people use the leaves to decorate. Loretta Grant takes a stepladder and breaks off leaves that she sprays gold. She trims her mantel with gold ribbon and magnolia leaves.
Loretta's always loved the trees. When she was a child, they were her playground. No one went off to camp in those days. Instead, the trees were filled with kids
A few of the trees are in poor health, their branches filled with disease. Some have been cut down, but they're being replaced with young sprouts.
``They're not going to be here much longer,'' says a neighbor who's lived on the street with the original magnolias for more than 50 years. ``They're just getting like the rest of us. Old.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Neighbors love the 25 or so magnolias dating to the mid-19th
century, but aren't so wild about the constantly dropping leaves. by CNB