DATE: Thursday, August 28, 1997             TAG: 9708270007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B13  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: OPINION 

SOURCE: Patrick Lackey

                                            LENGTH:   92 lines

PORTSMOUTH: BALTIMORE SUN WRITER MOVED BY CITY'S HISTORY AND CHARM

Because of a coin toss that the South won, Portsmouth was featured on the cover of the Baltimore Sun travel section one Sunday last month. It was the kind of glowing plug that money cannot buy, though it tries.

The story ran in a paper with a Sunday circulation of half a million, in a city within easy driving distance of Hampton Roads. The writer, Sandra McKee, was charmed by Portsmouth's friendly residents and rich history and told why.

McKee, 48, vacations each summer with her father, who lives in West Virginia and doesn't get to visit her often. Usually the pair has a destination in mind. But for last summer's trip, their 17th, they reached the end of her driveway and flipped a coin: Heads they'd turn south; tails, north.

The coin came up heads - it was the South's turn to win. Having no idea when they'd stop, they started down I-95.

Past Richmond, they saw a sign for James River plantations and took the exit. On back roads, they saw signs that said Portsmouth and decided on a whim to go there. Neither had been to Portsmouth before. They didn't know what to expect.

McKee described the drive: ``We saw small towns, country inns, dilapidated gas stations, antiques stores and ducks floating serenely on a farmer's pond. And then we came to Portsmouth.'' I wonder if they saw that pretty roadside pond in Windsor.

After a night on the outskirts of the city, McKee and her father asked someone how to get downtown. The person, whom McKee described as a ``kind stranger,'' told them to go down the road they were on to the ``last light.''

As they followed those friendly instructions, the father wondered aloud how they'd know which light was last. ``The answer,'' McKee wrote, ``turned out to be the Portsmouth/Norfolk Harbor.''

At the visitors center on Crawford Street the pair picked up brochures for the Naval Shipyard and Lightship museums and for a walking tour of Olde Towne, a square mile of homes dating to as early as 1752. After visiting the museums, which McKee describes in her story, they took the walking tour.

``. . . As we walked past the many historic houses,'' she wrote, ``it became apparent they were designed to resemble the houses Portsmouth's original settlers had left behind in England. The streets reflect their homesickness as well, with names like London Boulevard, Glasgow and Queen.''

McKee and her father were stopped in front of the house at 315 Court Street, admiring its classic revival style, when a bit of Portsmouth magic occurred.

The residents of the house, Tom and Sally Macon Williams, were working in the yard. Sally, 68, liked the looks of McKee and her father and invited them in.

For a good while, Sally and Tom regaled their visitors with stories about their house, which was built in 1859 from earlier plans by architect Pierre L'Enfant, who designed the streets of Washington, D.C. The house served as Yankee headquarters in Portsmouth during the Civil War; local lore has it that the Southern lady of the house pushed the Yankee commander, Gen. Benjamin Butler, down the stairs.

Here is McKee's description of the Williams' home: ``Inside, the sun filtered through shutters hung in front of the long, beveled glass windows that hold their original glass panes. The ceilings reach 13 feet above the original hardwood floors. Two large columns and an arch separate the double living rooms. Twin fireplaces with marble mantels in each room promise warmth in winter, while a grand piano that once belonged to an old friend speaks of times remembered.''

McKee hadn't intended to write about Portsmouth. Normally she's a sportswriter covering tennis and auto racing. But Portsmouth and its people touched her.

She mentioned in her story Portsmouth's ``1945 art-deco dinner theater that features big-screen movies in surround sound.'' Naturally she noted the Children's Museum, which she said is recognized as the best in Virginia. She pointed out thatPortsmouth has more sites on the National Register of Historic Places than any other Virginia city.

In short, she recommended Portsmouth for a weekend vacation. If she'd known in advance about the bed and breakfasts in Olde Towne, she and her father would have stayed in one.

Staff writer Ida Kay Jordan recently wrote about McKee's visit in the Currents, the community news section for Portsmouth readers of The Virginian-Pilot.

``Hooray for the Williamses!'' Jordan wrote. ``They offered Southern hospitality at just the right time.''

They did that. And other Portsmouth residents were friendly to Mckee as well.

Two lessons might be learned from this tale. One, win coin tosses. Two, tourism is everybody's business. Given the billions that tourists spend in Virginia, the second lesson is worth remembering the next time a tourist interrupts you to get directions or stops in the middle of traffic to read a map.

Tourists are a vulnerable lot, often lost or befuddled. They appreciate, remember and talk or even write about kindnesses extended to them. I'll bet McKee will never forget how Tom and Sally Macon Williams made her father's and her vacation special. MEMO: Mr. Lackey is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.

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