A performing arts center rises at Lambert's Point

A spring in the desert.

That's how the Rev. Anthony Paige envisions a proposed performing arts center in the old sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Lambert's Point.

"When you can reinvigorate the arts in a community, I think that's what begins its renaissance," said Paige, who has been pastor of the church for 17 years.

"The center is going to provide more venues to a community that's starving for opportunities in the performing arts."

The idea for the center developed in discussions between Paige and Wilbert James Jr. during a funeral service for James' mother in August. Mary Elizabeth James had been a member of First Baptist for more than 44 years.

The Lamberts Point neighborhood, south of Old Dominion University, has long struggled to rebuild after years of economic distress. The church's old worship hall also has needed renovations.

"It made me sad to see the disrepair into which the old sanctuary had fallen," said James, 51, who now lives in California but attended the church in his youth.

"I asked Rev. Paige what they planned to do with it."

Besides sporadic use by the Governor's School for the Arts' vocal music program, the sanctuary has mostly sat empty since a new one was constructed in 2002.

The building dates to 1893, when it was known as Burrows Memorial Baptist Church.

James, who remembers being baptized in the old sanctuary, offered to help raise money for a performing arts center he wants to dedicate to his parents.

"The idea is to create a venue for the community to come together and see things of culture," James said. "I believe this area of town is just begging for a place where all of us can come together - a place where diversity can thrive."

James' goal is for the Wilbert and Mary E. James Performing Arts Center to open on Aug. 26, 2008, the one-year anniversary of his mother's death.

"It's an ambitious goal, but I think it's achievable," said James. "I hope this community will relish the idea of a cultural arts center and people who support it can come by and drop a donation in the plate."

Church member and architectural engineer Dwayne Sellers, 27, volunteered to design the new center, which will hold about 550 people.

"Because the sanctuary is 130 years old, we're having a hard time finding information about how it originally looked," said Sellers, who is employed by Turner Construction. "But we're trying to maintain at least what we see is existing now."

Sellers said one of the main concerns is preservation of the front stained-glass window, which needs repair.

James estimates the total renovation will cost $150,000.

"We're hoping it will stay in this range," he said, adding that "in kind" donations for goods and services also are welcomed.

Though James, who is president of Toyota Auto Body California, no longer lives in Norfolk, his heart - as well as his father and three sisters - remains here.

"Whenever I'm even remotely close to the East Coast, I come home," he said.

The close-knit family was shaken by Mary James' sudden death in August, the result of a suspected blood clot.

"For all of us, life will never be normal again after losing our mother," said Beverly Nedab, 47, the youngest of the four James siblings. "The prospect of this center is really significant to my family, because my mother's heart and soul were in that church."

The James siblings, whose family lived in Lamberts Point before moving to Colonial Place in the early 1970s, hope the performing arts center will attract local youngsters, giving them an outlet for artistic expression.

"I feel it is an extension of the work my father and mother have done all their lives," said Nedab. "They've been an important part of many young people's lives."

Mary James, a licensed practical nurse who retired from the Lafayette Villa Nursing Home in 1994 to help care for one of her grandsons, spent her life caring for others - not just her family and friends, but often, strangers.

"I can't remember a single time, since I was old enough to remember, that we didn't have somebody else outside of the family staying at our house," said James.

He recalled a teenager walking up as he chatted with his mother on their porch one afternoon in 1975

"Are you Mary James?" the girl asked. "I was told by someone that if I needed help to come see you."

Mary James invited the girl into her home. Fifteen minutes later, she came back out and asked her son, then an engineering major at Old Dominion University, to move his things to the guest room.

"We'll be having house guests for a while," she said.

Several hours later, the girl returned with her baby. They stayed at the James' home several weeks, until a safe return to her family was arranged.

It didn't matter that the James family was black and the girl was white. Mary James lived the principals of her Christian faith - that all people are children of God.

"That was typical of my mother," said James.

What also struck James, and has stayed with him for the 32 years since, was his father's response.

"When Mama told Dad about our house guest, he just said, 'I'll bring more food.' "

James sees it as a testament to his parents' relationship.

"In one of the last discussions I had with my mother before she died, she was explaining to me how she could never have done the things she did to help others without my dad," James recalled. "She said he never complained and always supported her decisions."

Paige remembers Mary James as a motivator.

"Mary's ministry was the ministry of encouragement," he said. "She liked to stay in the background, but she was a driving force for getting things done. Everyone in this church knew and loved her."

While still grieving the loss of his wife of 52 years, Wilbert James Sr. is proud of the effort his son is making to help create the performing arts center.

"I think it's a fantastic idea," said the 76-year-old family patriarch. "It will get some children off the street and into church. (Mary) would have loved it. She enjoyed the performing arts."

Paige believes the center will continue the positive social and cultural impact made in Lamberts Point by Old Dominion University's expansion in recent years.

"Art is built in us and has to be expressed," said Paige. "I think art is going on in poor neighborhoods as well as exclusive neighborhoods. This center is not going to be just about Lamberts Point - it's going to be about the West Side."

INFO: First Baptist Church of Lambert's Point is at 1268 W. 38th St., Norfolk.  To make a donation to the Wilbert and Mary E. James Performing Arts Center or for information, call 489-7890 or e-mail fbclambertspoint@aol.com.

-By Lia Russell, 222-5829, lia.russell@pilotonline.com.