THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 8, 1996 TAG: 9610080294
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 79 lines
The historic hand-crafted dome that for decades crowned Elizabeth City's first hospital will once again have its place in the sun.
Escaping a trip to the landfill, the dome will be at home atop a new pavilion in Waterfront Park by next summer.
``It will be a great wedding setting,'' said Lydia Gardner, wife of Elizabeth City Mayor Rick Gardner and a daughter of the hospital's top administrator in the 1940s, Louis Worsley. Gardner has helped spearhead the restoration project with Elizabeth City Downtown Inc.
The 24-by-22-foot pavilion will have columns on its front reminiscent of the hospital and will serve as a respite for pedestrians and a site for picnics, concerts and special occasions such as weddings.
The floor will be made of bricks inscribed with the names of donors who contribute $50. Organizers hope to sell 2,500 engraved bricks. Larger granite blocks with inscriptions sell for $1,000. Donors may memorialize family members, friends or pets, or buy a brick for someone else.
``They make a nice Christmas gift,'' said Gardner.
The dome will serve as a memorial to the hospital founded in 1914 by Drs. Oscar McMullan and John Saliba. Built on four acres of land that juts into the Pasquotank River, the hospital's classic architecture and four large Corinthian columns gave it the appearance of a four-story mansion. The hospital drew patients from beyond the area because of the belief that cool river breezes and the beautiful, relaxed setting were good for the health. Hundreds of natives were born and treated there.
The Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County governments bought the hospital in 1930 with endowments from the Duke Foundation and Joseph P. Knapp. The county built a new hospital on U.S. Highway 17 in 1960.
``You'll never have a hospital like that built again,'' said Diana Gardner, marketing director of the Albemarle Regional Cancer Center. Gardner put together a history of the hospital for its 75th anniversary in 1989 while she was marketing director there. ``If you go to a museum, you look at fragments or replicas of the original. We've got a chance to save the only piece left of the old hospital.''
The dome and the building under it became part of the College of the Albemarle until Craig Barkley bought the old hospital and made it into an apartment building.
Barkley donated the dome to the city in June 1995 when he tore down the decaying front section. The city accepted it, but donations toward its restoration were slow coming.
Barkley wrote scathing letters to the media criticizing well-to-do Elizabeth City natives for not showing interest.
``That dome is hand-crafted,'' said Barkley in a recent telephone interview. ``It's nothing expensive, but it is good workmanship and it was done right here in town. I found the response to be lethargic. Once it's gone you can't get it back.''
Now the dome has a home.
Brick sales are brisk, and several businesses have donated materials or given them at cost, said Peggy Langley, executive director of ECDI.
``It will give people who do not live near the water a place to go to be able to enjoy sitting near the water or have a picnic lunch by the river,'' said Langley. ``Now the dome will become another part of history.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
JEFFREY S. HAMPTON
Holding plans for the new Museum of the Albemarle are, from left,
Peggy Langley, executive director of Elizabeth City Downtown; Jean
Poston and Lydia Gardner, dome project co-chairs, and Jennifer Rich,
president of Elizabeth City Downtown. by CNB