THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 1997 TAG: 9701070224
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 71 lines
Seven houses - one built before the Civil War, the others comprising a bungalow court unique in Virginia - have been added to historic Suffolk homes ripe for renovation.
The package includes the Finney House, a Main Street dwelling with 3,000 square feet and a history dating to about 1840.
Once part of a grand hotel, it also served as headquarters for a Yankee general and later was a school where young ladies were taught Latin, music and the social graces.
The three-bedroom bungalows of College Court, clustered around a central, grassy court, are thought to be unlike any other in Virginia and possibly the East Coast. The name comes from the homes' location on the grounds of what once was the Suffolk Female Institute, known informally as ``the college.''
The ``planned bungalow development schemes were popular on the West Coast in the early years of the 20th century,'' according to Suffolk's National Register of Historic Places inventory, completed in 1987, but `` . . . bungalow courts with pedestrian access were seldom seen on the East Coast.''
The cottages were built around 1915, seven years after the institute closed.
It's the historic significance of the collection that Realtor Harry Lee Cross III hopes will attract attention to the listing.
Cross, and some other Suffolk residents aware of the city's unique history and abundance of old homes that could be restored, are seeking historic-minded Good Samaritans with money to invest.
The price is $282,500.
``What we would like to see is for these houses to go into private ownership,'' Cross said. ``What would probably have to happen is to find somebody willing to come in and rehab and then sell. It would be fine if somebody were interested in the package.''
The area of the buildings is in a national historic district, which covers most of downtown Suffolk - even the area a block and a half away where the city is building a courthouse.
``With the courthouse going up, it would be a great location,'' Cross said.
For years, the complex was in the estate of the Pinner family. No member is left in town. But in their time, Cross said, the Pinners were involved in several Suffolk businesses. They owned a real estate company and insurance company, and some were major players in the peanut industry.
For the past several years, the homes have been owned and rented by a former Suffolk city official who now lives in Richmond.
The bungalow court was ``real fashionable'' in its day, said Sue Woodward, a member of the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society. People would sit out on the court on summer evenings to socialize.
Cross said the older home, at Main Street and Finney Avenue, is in good structural condition, although it has no heating system and the plumbing is questionable, he said. Except for kitchens and bathrooms, the bungalows are more modern.
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources found the entire complex impressive.
``A low-pitched, hipped roof with a clipped gable end alludes to Oriental motifs with its ornamental cut-out rafter ends,'' the inventory says of No. 3 College Court. ``The porch intensifies the Oriental flavor with its heavy craftsman post and beam system supported by battered brick piers.''
Nobody knows now where the Pinners got the idea for the bungalow court, but Cross thinks it was probably a shrewd investment.
``In those days, fewer people owned, and more people rented,'' he said. ``This was uptown stuff.'' ILLUSTRATION: JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The Virginian-Pilot
The package includes the Finney House, a Main Street dwelling with
3,000 square feet. Once part of a grand hotel, it also served as
headquarters for a Yankee general.