THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 13, 1997 TAG: 9701130040
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COLUMN
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: 71 lines
I will be willing to wager that most of the tourists who visit the MacArthur Memorial - formerly the Norfolk Courthouse and City Hall - leave without learning much about the historic Tuscan-columned building that has become the repository for General of the Army Douglas MacArthur's military and personal artifacts as well as his burial place.
Assuming my hunch is correct, I would like to try to correct this oversight in today's column.
The classical revival courthouse now serving as MacArthur's shrine was the architectural manifestation of Norfolk's new dignity when the Virginia General Assembly passed an act on Feb. 13, 1845, and changed the borough's status to that of a city. The imposing building that housed Norfolk's courts and civic offices for more than a century was first occupied on May 20, 1850. Judge Richard Baker was the first justice to preside there.
Commenting on the event, the Daily Southern Argus criticized Baker's dilatory way of laying down the law with these pointed remarks: ``With all deference and respect we hope Judge Baker will turn over a new leaf to insure a more prompt and efficient administration of the laws. As business is now conducted, it not only involves much delay and expense, but in many cases amounts to an absolute denial of justice.''
Going back a bit: In 1833 the Virginia General Assembly authorized the Borough of Norfolk to fill in that part of Town Back Creek (now City Hall Avenue) extending east from Bank Street. At that time Norfolk's first borough courthouse occupied a 1790-91 brick building at the southwest corner of East Main and Nebraska streets. This facility remained in use until Norfolk's second courthouse - now the Mac-Arthur Memorial - was completed. By 1837, the site of the present building had been reclaimed from the creek. Eight years later the city fathers began thinking in terms of building a new courthouse there. The issue was put to the voters in April 1846, and the electorate approved of using the reclaimed land for its new courthouse.
Five months later, the Norfolk Common Council paid William R. Singleton $100 for the plans he had prepared for the proposed building. A native of Portsmouth, Singleton was then one of America's leading architects. Later, Thomas U. Walter, the Philadelphia architect who designed the dome and the House and Senate wings of the Capitol in Washington, was called in as Singleton's consultant.
Funds for the $50,000 building were raised by selling the old Borough Courthouse and assessing each qualified Norfolk voter a $1 fee. By August 1847, work had progressed sufficiently on the foundations for the cornerstone to be laid.
The parade that preceded the ceremony was pronounced by the newspapers to have been the largest public procession in the history of the city.
Over the years, Norfolk's former Courthouse and City Hall witnessed many stirring events, two of which were notable.
On Aug. 25, 1860, Stephen A. Douglas (The Little Giant), who opposed Abraham Lincoln in the earlier Lincoln-Douglas debates, spoke from the portico to a crowd of more than 5,000. John S. Wise in ``The End of an Era'' (1899), wrote: ``I drove into Norfolk, and seeing a great crowd assembled, paused and heard part of a speech by Stephen A. Douglas. I was greatly impressed by his tremendous voice, every tone of which reached me more than a block away.''
In May 1862, Norfolk Mayor William Wilson Lamb formally surrendered the city that had been occupied by Confederate forces to Federal Gen. John E. Wool on the same portico. The crowd greeted the announcement with three cheers for Jefferson Davis and three groans for Abraham Lincoln. ILLUSTRATION: The Tuscan-columned building that has become the
burial place of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, as well as
the repository of his military and personal artifacts, had housed
Norfolk's courts and civic offices for more than a century. The
building was first occupied on May 20, 1850.
STAFF
File photo