Booklet features 50 sites to preserve in Virginia Beach

By Laine M. Rutherford

Correspondent

Virginia Beach

The stately brick house shown on page 5 of "The 50 Most Historically Significant Houses and Structures in Virginia Beach" is familiar to thousands of yearly visitors and decades of field-trip-traveling schoolchildren.

The Adam Thoroughgood House, built circa 1719, is a popular Virginia Beach historical landmark. Tour guides lead guests through the home, imparting a glimpse into the lifestyle, architecture and history of one of Virginia Beach's earliest prominent families.

But how many people know about the Weblin House (page 52), thought to be the oldest existing brick house in Virginia Beach, possibly built in 1670? Or the Hermitage House (page 30), located a stone's throw away from the Thoroughgood House, portions of which were constructed in 1699?

And who knew when driving down 35th Street that they were passing New Age pioneer Edgar Cayce's circa-1925 house (page 20) or the cabin they were staying in at First Landing State Park was built mainly by black workers in 1933 (page 23)?

Published by the Virginia Beach Historical Preservation Partnership and released earlier this summer, the booklet provides an overview of well-known - and almost unknown - buildings in the city.

Each site has its own page, with a brief historical description of the property, a glossy photograph of the exterior and the site's address.

"This is a way of consolidating Virginia Beach history in one place, something that's been needed to be done for a long while," said Mac Rawls, chairman of the book's editing committee and former Virginia Beach director of museums.

"A lot of what people deem to be historical does have to do with houses and structures, and it can be an important way of looking at history and helping people understand it," Rawls said.

"We wanted something people could synthesize in their minds of what the overall history is of Virginia Beach."

The most important goal the partnership had for publishing the booklet, Rawls said, was to save the structures that remain at the Beach from further deterioration, or worse, the wrecking ball.

"We've got a tremendous amount of history here, and we don't want to hear people saying, 'Oh yeah, I remember that. It's been bulldozed down.' "

Work on the booklet began three years ago. Committee members, representing the entities that make up the Partnership - the city of Virginia Beach, the Princess Anne County/Virginia Beach Historical Society and the Hampton Roads Realtors Association - began by gathering information on the 600 Beach locations included in local, state and national historical registers.

"We took those 600 sites and decided we had to have a manageable figure, so we settled on 50," Rawls said. "It easily could have been 75, 100 or more, and I can see possibly revisiting this and publishing something else in the future."

Churches were excluded, save for Old Donation Episcopal (page 38). A newer home, the Frank Lloyd Wright House (page 25), not yet included in any registers because of its relative youth - circa 1960 - was added because of the significance of its famed architect.

"We spent quite a bit of time driving around, looking at the properties," remembered committee member Mark Reed, of the city's department of museums and historic preservation. "It gave us a perspective on how diverse and spread out the properties are."

Structures in the booklet encircle and dot the city - from the Oceanfront to the North Carolina border, from the Great neck Corridor to General Booth Boulevard to Kempsville.

"The area is so large - we don't have an Olde Towne like Portsmouth, or Ghent like Norfolk," Reed said. "The Beach started out as agricultural communities and this really shows it.

"What was so interesting is to see how many of these are places we drive by every day and don't even realize what they are. Development has just kind of surrounded them."

Rawls said the visits, and the subsequent decisions, were like an adventure.

"It was quite an eye-opener for all of us. Many on the committee are what you would consider historical experts and none of us knew all of the 50 sites," he said. "It revealed to us, as we hope it will to the general public, what is historical in Virginia Beach."

John and Marianne Littel are the current owners of the Hermitage. For the past seven years, the couple worked to restore the home, where possible, to its original appearance, or to add authentic period pieces and elements to the structure.

"We had to peel away a lot of stuff to get to the historical roots beneath, but its been satisfying," John Littel, 43, said. "We feel like it's a living thing and we're just custodians for a little while - we're doing stewardship and there's a real value in that."

Rawls said he hopes more private owners will follow the lead of the Littels. In a presentation to the City Council, Rawls commended owners caring for historic properties, discussed adaptive reuse, such as the Edgar Cayce Hospital's (page 21) conversion to a massage school, and highlighted sites in danger of becoming history themselves - as in no longer existing. (Rawls plans to give a similar presentation to the Planning Commission on Wednesday. )

"The Roland Courts Theater is a prime example of a historic property at risk," he said. "You have an old deteriorating building on extremely valuable land, owned by someone who lives out-of -town. At one time, it was beautiful."

Rawls imagines the mission revival-style building on 17th Street (page 45) re-purposed as a space for artists to show their work, and where small productions could be staged in the existing 250-seat theater.

"The Partnership came to the conclusion early on that with over 600 properties identified there were too many for us to become the savior for, so our hope is this booklet will manifest attention on what can be saved," he said.

Glenda Knowles, chairman of Partnership, envisions the booklet will do more than line Beach bookshelves.

"City Council can use this as a tool, the Planning Commission can use it in terms of recognizing the importance of preserving these properties - because they are significant," Knowles said.

The 50 Most Historically Significant Houses and Structures in Virginia Beach costs $5 and can be purchased at the Francis Land House, 3131 Virginia Beach Blvd.

Laine Mednick Rutherford, Laine.R@cox.net