THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 6, 1996 TAG: 9611060042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DONNA L. KOCH
LENGTH: 153 lines
This month, the Maritime Tower office building on Monticello Avenue will fall to make way for the MacArthur Center mall, continuing a cycle of destruction and rebuilding.
Until the 1950s, the site was occupied by the ``old'' and ``new'' city markets, two buildings that served as city centers. In this article, Donna Koch, a graduate student of history at Old Dominion University and faculty member at Tidewater Community College, recalls those buildings and what they meant to the city.
WALK DOWN Monticello Avenue near the MacArthur Center project, and pause for a moment when you reach City Hall Avenue. Can you hear the cries of the vegetable sellers? Can you smell the fish laid on crushed ice? Do you see a floral scene of pinks, blues and yellows?
If you do, you're experiencing the ghost of Norfolk's City Market, with its almost 300 years of memories.
In 1688 surveyer John Ferebee laid out a market square in the new town of Norfolk. The market was a center for vegetable vendors and fish mongers, street orators and town gossips, mayors and generals, petty thieves and family shoppers.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, various markets thrived in the heart of Norfolk, although not without peril. The history of city markets until 1890 was a constant cycle of destruction by fire and rebuilding, symbolic of the city itself.
As Norfolk grew, so did the markets. In 1890, the City Market found a new home on the corner of City Hall and Monticello avenues.
The three-story red-brick building dominated the city landscape, along with the Court House (today's MacArthur memorial). It was modeled after a castle, with a tower at one corner. The building's windows were not ordinary squares or rectangles, but tall arches and circles that called attention to its Romanesque style.
The building, also known as the Armory, housed an auditorium used by the Norfolk Blues military unit for drilling. When not resounding to military commands, the hall filled with the music of concerts. Much later, during World War II, the USO sponsored dances there.
The market of the 1890s was bountiful and prosperous. An 1893 Chamber of Commerce publication boasted: ``no district of the country enjoys such a variety and abundance of the finny tribes''; herring, mullet, perch, porgie, flounder, sturgeon, spot, croaker and bluefish overflowed the barrels and bins.
Along with fruits of the sea were the fruits of the earth. Crowds jostled with horses, buggies and bicycles, as merchants unloaded crates of fruits and vegetables.
In 1923 a new market opened in a building behind the Armory. Proclaiming it the finest market in the South, The Virginian-Pilot boasted: ``Even Br-er Rabbit, without whom there could be no delicately delicious rabbit hash, was represented by a sizable delegation.''
Curbside vendors hawked their wares in umbrella sheds provided by the city, and flower stalls decorated the Armory.
Memories of this market are still clear for many.
Norfolk native Lois Martin recalls the Dunkards, Mennonite farmers from Princess Anne County, who brought in their dairy products, chickens and bread. ``The Dunkards were a definite presence in the market. Their buggies, the women in black dresses and bonnets, the men with their beards.''
Marian Kiligas, who moved to Norfolk from Brooklyn in 1929, remembers stopping at the Dunkards' stands for their fresh eggs, crusty bread and creamy cheese.
In 1937, at a cost of a half-million dollars, the market was remade as a miniature Grand Central Station.
Around the top of the art deco building circled stone carvings of the products sold inside - cows, pigs, lambs. Outdoor stands remained for the farmers bringing in their produce. The Armory still stood, but it was used mostly for office space.
From 1937 to 1955 the renovated market and its surrounding vendor stalls were a hub of activity. A tile floor lit by suspended white globes was the background for the hanging hams, bushels of clams and towers of melons that Norfolkians came to see, inspect and buy.
The area around the market was also one of food. Greek groceries, Italian shops with pasta and sausages, D.D. Kenney's tea and coffee store, and such eateries as Murphy's Grill surrounded the market.
Norfolk resident Virginia Rice Webb reminisces: ``The market was a great, big gourmet store with wonderful service. Here was the only place where coconuts could be found, and the market people opened and grated them for you. This ingredient was important for the ambrosia salad for Sunday dinners.''
Ann Lawler fondly recalls the vendors outside the market. ``The women sat under canvas awnings, in the same spot every week. Most came by wagons. They shelled butter beans or peas for you while you continued shopping, and when you came back, the beans were ready.''
By 1955 Norfolk was in the midst of urban renewal. Phase One was almost complete, resulting in the removal of many of the slums downtown. The second phase focused on the central business district, and in the middle of that was the City Market.
Renewal proponents argued that the need for the market no longer existed and that the city-owned property could generate taxes if it were sold off. The Rennert Corp. of Baltimore offered to buy both the market building and the Armory, by then called the Municipal Building, for $345,000, and then spend $2.5 million to erect a four-story garage and a building for a department store.
Although there were protests on behalf of the market, there were no supporters for saving the older and more historic Municipal Building. The landmark was viewed by almost all as disposable.
The tenants of the market organized a petition drive to force a referendum on the sale, and the battle for the minds and the hearts of Norfolk's citizens began.
Those in favor of the sale had solid economic reasoning and most of the influential people in Norfolk on their side. Both newspapers editorialized for the sale, and seven former mayors supported it as well. Citizens for a Modern Norfolk, a nonpartisan group including the Chamber of Commerce, campaigned for the sale.
The save-the-market forces believed the market was paying its way, that it provided a public service, drew shoppers to the area, and that there was no provision for the 45 current tenants once the market disappeared. Many letters to the editor echoed the theme of ``think growth, not destruction.''
The sale forces won, but only by 942 votes. Areas close to the market, such as Ghent, Brambleton and Berkley voted for the market more heavily than areas farther removed, and the African-American vote was decidedly for the market.
On July 31, 1955, the market died. A brick parking garage arose, and J.C. Penney opened its store adjacent to it. In 1961 the Maritime Tower, a 15-story modernist office building, rose at the site.
The businesses inside the market had to relocate. The late Sam Sandler moved his seafood business to Northampton Boulevard, where it became Sandler Foods. Although a strong advocate for the market at the time of the sale, he has concluded that the move was the best thing that could have happened to his business.
The outdoor vendors remained for several years after the market closed, pushing their carts and sitting by their stands. But the vendors complained that competition for spots was keen, there was no place for them to clean up, and the police hassled them over parking.
Finally in 1957 the City Council, citing traffic problems, removed their permits. The vendors, mostly African-American women, dispersed. Bulldozers cleared the area in early 1960.
And what of the bright promise of the new buildings on the site of the old market? Eight years after the redevelopment projects replaced the market, a consultant's report on downtown Norfolk looked critically at these new structures:
``As presently designed the Maritime building constitutes a serious impediment to shopper flow and visual connection.''
J.C. Penney is long since gone, and this month, the Maritime Tower will fall - to, ironically, make way for a new $300 million marketplace, the MacArthur Center. ILLUSTRATION: Photos courtesy of the Kirn Library, Norfolk
In 1910- This scene from 1910 shows the back of the "old" city
market at its extension on Market Street.
In 1945 - The "old" city market, built in 1890, shown facing City
Hall Avenue. The market also served as a social center, with dances
and concerts held on the floors. The Dilliard's department store
section of the new MacArthur Center mall will occupy this site.
KEYWORDS: HISTORIC NORFOLK DOWNTOWN NORFOLK MACARTHUR CENTER
MALL by CNB