NORFOLK
The Seaboard building downtown boasts a storied history over the past century, and it's about to add a new chapter - actually, many thousands of new chapters.
It will be converted to the city's main library, probably by the end of the year. City officials gave a tour Wednesday of the ornate neo-Palladian stone-and-brick structure before construction crews begin work.
Seaboard will temporarily house much of the collection at nearby Kirn Memorial Library, which will be razed to make way for a light rail station expected to open in early 2010.
The three-story building, on the corner of Plume and Atlantic streets, was constructed in 1900 by the federal government for the federal courts and the U.S. Post Office. It's probably best known as City Hall during some of Norfolk's most tumultuous times from 1938 until 1965, spanning World War II and massive resistance in the civil rights era.
"The building is so magnificent," Mayor Paul Fraim said. "We're honored to have ownership of it again."
It's individually listed on the state and national historic registers.
The building's most stunning feature is a light-filled, two-story atrium with Venetian architectural elements including arches, columns, terra cotta friezes and marble details.
It will serve as a reading room, city historian Peggy Haile McPhillips said.
The city recently purchased the building for $7.2 million and plans to spend about $2.2 million making it usable as a library. Until earlier this year, it housed the offices of USI Insurance.
Fraim said only minor modifications will be made, including removing walls added in later years, and that the main structure will not be altered.
All of Kirn's collections will not fit at Seaboard, which is about half the size of Kirn.
The most used resources - including public computers, the local history and genealogy collection, children's books and programs, and popular fiction and nonfiction - will be in Seaboard, library director Norman Maas said.
Less popular materials, such as older fiction and nonfiction, will be stored at a service center or warehouse, which has not been finalized. When an item there is requested by a patron, it will be sent to Seaboard or to a branch library within a day or two.
Fraim said the city has no plans yet for a permanent home for the city's main library. Seaboard is too small and antiquated for that, he said.
"We need to find the right location," Fraim said, adding that he'd prefer a downtown location.
Tidewater Community College has a standing offer to partner with the city on a new downtown library. Old Dominion and Norfolk State universities have made similar offers.
Even when the library moves out of Seaboard, Fraim said the city will find another public use for it. It's possible the Sargeant Memorial Room local history and genealogy collection would remain, he said.
Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com
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Watch The Dot
What does the main library have to be downtown?
I hate going downtown, and so do many others. Parking is a problem and expensive. Why can't it be moved to Wards Corner area?
Maybe
The Portsmouth and Norfolk libraries should combine their resources. Cut out some of the Admin overhead and buy new books with the money.
Bad choice
Having worked in this building several years ago, I know the building well enough to know that it is not an appropriate site for a public library. Chopped up spaces, poor lighting and poor access for the elderly and disabled are just the tip of the iceburg. $2 mil will do little to change that.
get rid of waterside
Why don't they take waterside down and construct a permanent library there, seems like a good idea, half the merchants are gone anyway; or where Granby Towers was going to be, or any other failed construction project that is now a dirt lot
Old Building, New Library
Other than the spelling errors I agree with cigim94543. That's a good name for the city official and cronies. I'm sure eventually it will come to pass and the building will come down.
But the real reason for my comment is that in all the uses mentioned for this building they left out Social Services. I guess the city wanted to forget that. It was the city's central Social Service building until Sept. 1978 when we moved to the old social security Franklin Bldg. on Brambleton Avenue. It is a beautiful building and I am glad to see from the picture that the atrium/skylight is still there. That was quite a building to work in and I could see it being used as some sort of library building.
Please don't tear it down when you're done using it though.
I can't believe
what i'm reading; wrecking ball fraim is sparring this olde downtown Norfolk historic relic. It's just a matter of time when he and cronies declare it unsafe, unsalvagable and then order the wrecking ball. The Kirn materials will go into long term storage elsewhere or dispersed to the remaining libraries. that's somthing most tresidents will believe. Say, has anyone heard about the new condo project being built at Town Ponte Park water front, "New City Central Residential"?? A picture is in tuesdays paper 05/13/08 Hampton Roads Section page 6. and waterside is nowhere to be found. Wrecking ball fraim and cronies aren't talking about this one...
Unbelievable
It's pretty pathetic that a city can throw millions of dollars on failed building projects, more on a new mall and a seven-mile "train to nowhere" but has no permanent main public library.
That building looks cool.
That building looks cool. It looks like it's out of some wicked movie. Time Bandits or Labyrinth or something. Cue David Bowie.