Preservationists lament lost Va. Beach landmark

OCEANFRONT

The wrecking ball has claimed another piece of old Virginia Beach, sparking complaints from the chairman of the city's preservation commission.

Last month the city bulldozed the Jarvis building, a two-story brick structure that stood at the southeast corner of Pacific Avenue and 17th Street for 85 years.

City Facilities Manager Barry Shockley said the city purchased the Jarvis building in October 2006 for $900,000 from 17th Street Associates, whose last major tenant was Mckinney's Restaurant and Sports Bar.

Shockley said that on two occasions during the last five years, the city solicited proposals from prospective tenants and developers to renovate the building for new restaurants, shops or apartments.

"We were unable to come up with a deal that would be in the city's long-term best interest," Shockley said. "It just did not pan out."

Shockley said the decision to demolish was based on the building's condition and the amount of investment needed to bring the building up to code. Most of the building's systems - electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning - as well as the roof needed upgrading or replacing, Shockley said.

Mac Rawls, chairman of the Virginia Beach Historic Preservation Commission, said he believes that the city staff responsible for overseeing the building did not work hard enough to bring all the resources to bear that might have been key to saving it.

"The same staff greatly resisted involvement of the Historic Preservation Commission in the actual negotiations with potential developers, which is where I think our best shot for saving the building died," Rawls said.

Rawls said the commission previously tried to save the Roland Court theater-office complex, another 1920s-era building in the same block of 17th Street. That building was razed in May 2010.

"We need to place more value on history and treat historic properties differently," Rawls said. "It adds to the character of the resort area and makes it more appealing to visitors and residents to save some of these buildings."

The Jarvis building was built in 1926 by W. T. Jarvis, a prominent local real estate and insurance broker who also served as town clerk and treasurer.

Anne Henry, a lifelong area resident who was a young girl in the 1930s, recalled that Jarvis' office was on the ground floor at the northwest corner of the building. To the east was a barber shop, where Henry said she and other young girls had their hair cut in boyish bobs that were popular at the time.

"The 200 block of 17th Street (between Atlantic and Pacific avenues) was our downtown," Henry said. "It was a busy, bustling place, where you would go to buy groceries, stop at the drugstore, get a haircut, and whatever else you needed to do."

Henry recalled other businesses in the Jarvis building: a newspaper printing office (the weekly Virginia Beach News); and a dressmaking shop, where Lyndelle P. Holland hand-stitched the original custom swimming trunks for Virginia Beach's lifeguards.

Upstairs, directly over Jarvis's office, was a beauty salon (Vogue), and to the left were apartments, Henry said.

Mike Wareing lived in one of those apartments in the early 1980s. Wareing's father, John Wareing, opened Wareing's Gym in 1960 in the building just east of the Jarvis building.

By that time, Mike Wareing said, the area had become a nightclub district, and the Jarvis building housed a series of bars and restaurants including the Rainbow Lounge, McDougal's Irish Pub, Peppers Beach Tavern and Mckinney's.

Wareing also remembered a 1970s health food store and a succession of small retail operations that came and went on the Pacific Avenue side of the Jarvis building.

Shockley said the city has no plans for future development in the area, and that the remaining buildings on that block are privately owned. Grass will be planted on the Jarvis building site, Shockley said.

Rawls said he believes it is likely that the space will eventually be used for a right-turn lane, which he called "an unremarkable trade-off for a piece of our historical identity."

Fielding Tyler, former director of the Old Coast Guard Station, has documented many old Oceanfront properties and worked with the Historic Preservation Commission to save them.

"I've pulled out my sword and fought to save many of these places," Tyler said, citing the now-demolished post office at 24th Street and the Roland Court building.

"But downtown Virginia Beach is just not going to go back to 17th Street," he said.

Melanie Barker, melanbark@cox.net