The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
It all began with the "Secret Nine."
There wouldn't have been enough money without the "Secret Nine." Who knows how long it would have taken Virginia Beach to have a library were it not for the "Secret Nine."
But who were the "Secret Nine"?
"Can't tell you," said a laughing Mason Gamage, who sat smack in the middle of things when the mysterious group went to work more than 50 years ago. "That's the secret."
Actually, Gamage said he's perfectly willing to divulge the inner workings of the so-called Secret Nine. He just can't remember.
Strange, because the still-robust former director of planning for Princess Anne County and Virginia Beach can re-create 40-year-old board meetings in great detail. Yet questions about the Secret Nine are returned with a blank stare.
Apparently, Gamage, 84, has forgotten one heck of a story. Because the sole known account of the founding of the public library - attributed only to "one of the participants" - is a real page-turner.
"Nine outstandingly forceful and civic-minded business men were contacted by a Senior Women's Club member and asked to give one day of their time to the library fund drive," the sprightly tale began in the document titled "A Report On The Community Achievement in Virginia Beach and Princess Anne County, Virginia.
"They were told, 'A pretty girl will pick you up in her car on the morning of February 25th, act as an efficient and entertaining Girl Friday all day, feed you lunch and drive you home when your work is done!"
When the men convened at "The Secret Nine Drive Headquarters" they discovered nine desks bearing large placards displaying each one's name, nine newly installed telephones, nine pitchers of ice water and nine young ladies serving hot coffee.
"The gentlemen were given prepared forms bearing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of persons to be called, and were told to call wherever necessary to 'get your man!' "
The Secret Nine raised $17,650 that day. By the middle of 1958, $38,000 had been collected.
One year later, on May 10, 1959, the Virginia Beach Public Library opened with 7,000 books in a modest two-story building at 302 22nd St. that still exists today.
Fifty years later, it has evolved into an entire library system featuring eight area branches, central, public law and municipal reference libraries, a bookmobile and more than 910,000 materials.
The "Secret Nine" got it all started, though. Whether some of the details of their adventure have been embellished for dramatic effect remains unclear. But unless Gamage has a sudden flashback - or someone else steps forward - this, too, will remain their little secret.
Paul White, (757) 418-1447, paul.white@pilotonline.com
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commodifying art
BigD--Go to the library and educate yourself on the arts. Using the term "Art Work" shows the VP readership that you appreciate art only as long as it "work"s.
It really is a shame that the limit of VB culture is vanquished somewhere beneath a shadowy and tacky beach.
Virginia Beach Library..
...is one of the best Library's there is. I'm constantly using it and bragging about it to people. If you beach folks haven't gone on line and checked it out (www.vbgov.com/libraries), you should. Nothing could be easier to use and the Librarians are very helpful I always come out with something interesting. Again, the online service is fantastic! You can peruse the entire Library from your home, reserve it and then, when it's available, you'll get an email telling you where it is (you choose which library you want it to go to) and that you can pick it up. When you go in to pick it up you go to the "reserved" section, go to the desk, put the book down, scan your Library Card and you get a receipt!! That's it, I'm usually in and out in less than 5 minutes. Then you get an email telling you it's almost due. But...if you want to renew it, you just go online and do it there....
Come on folks, THIS IS FREE and is soooo easy to do...give it a try. Don't know what you want to read? Talk to a Librarian and she'll ask a few questions the recommend something...it'll be what you're looking for.
The secret nine
The Secret Nine and many others worked really hard to raise the $17,000 to start a library. A few years later, the city spent six times that much to place that pile of junk in front of the main library on Virginia Beach Blvd. This money should have been used for many other things with higher priorities. OH, I forgot, this is called Art Work. That's right, I'm not a lover of the Arts when other projects are much more important. However, it does give the hungry people something to look at while walking past it.
Great memories
I remember going there when I was in high school...and then walking the 2 or 3 blocks to the beach.