THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407070061
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY EDWIN SLIPEK JR., SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Long : 208 lines
IT'S ANOTHER perfect day at the beach. Whadda gonna do?
Richmonders Tom and Mariz Whitehead Grove intend to savor every minute of it. Amazingly chipper at 6:30 a.m., they descend into the small lobby of the Halifax Hotel.
``Did you see the sunrise? It was beautiful,'' says Maria to anyone in earshot. ``I saw the sun come up without getting out of bed.''
Night clerk Mildred Slichter glances up. With just minutes to go before relinquishing her 11-to-7 graveyard shift, she's happy for company and agrees that the Groves' third-floor oceanfront room has its charms. As they chat, it's obvious that Slichter, in her sixth season with the Halifax, is fond of the boxy, powder-blue stucco hotel on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront at 26th Street.
``I can tell you what guests will be here the second week of July each year and what room they'll be in,'' she says proudly. ``We have guests who come and sit on the porch and talk about watching the German submarines during the war.''
``Originally, this type of place was all up and down the beach,'' she says of the three-story, 35-room, family-owned-and-run hotel. The Halifax still serves home-cooked meals (rolls are baked daily), and conversation is the sport of choice.
``It's a fantastic place,'' says Slichter, her eyes twinkling. ``We're the last one left.''
With breakfast still an hour away, the Groves gravitate toward the aroma of coffee brewing in the casually comfortable front lounge. Settling into rockers on the glass-enclosed porch, another couple comes off the Boardwalk and through the porch's jalousied front door.
``Well, that's our first walk of the day,'' the pulled-together middle-aged woman announces triumphantly. She's wearing a white blouse and red cotton skirt, her hair is swept back in a perfect twist. Her husband, prepped out in a cotton canvas hat, nods convivially to the Groves.
``Who are they?'' asks Maria. ``They are so nice.''
Someone explains that they are Dr. and Mrs. James Harris of Blackstone. ``He has a family practice and is the mayor of his town.''
Maria nods approvingly. ``They are so much like the guests who stayed at the Avamere,'' she says as the Harrises disappear into the hotel.
Unlike the Harrises and many Halifax patrons, the Groves are first-timers - refugees from the former Avamere, an even older hotel that had stood next door until it was demolished earlier this year. Its site is now a gravel parking lot. The Groves, who have fond memories of the old Avamere, are in a kind of mourning.
``Basically, the two were just alike,'' Maria explains, ``but the Avamere was a little more sophisticated. It provided a room off the lobby with set-ups at cocktail time.'' Guests brought their own bottles. The Halifax, by contrast, neither serves spirits nor promotes a happy hour. Those who imbibe presumably do so in their rooms. The ice machine is located at the foot of a back stairway at the bathers' entrance.
``And gentlemen had to wear coasts and ties (in the dining room for dinner), and they had white table cloths,'' Maria continues.
``Last year, friends asked, `What are you going to do now that the Avamere is being demolished?' and I replied, `I'm calling the Halifax'''
We're not pretentious. We're not the Taj Mahal,'' says Joan Pool Joyner, who has run the Halifax since 1981. The Portsmouth native with a gentle but observant demeanor settles into a straight-back chair in the Halifax dining room. Now that breakfast has been cleared, she's got a few minutes to relax. Chintz floral curtains flutter in the sea breeze. Just beyond, morning beach-goers, laden with umbrellas and coolers, parade toward the sand.
``It's a homey type situation, that's what we are trying to do here,'' Joyner explains, ``You can be as busy as you want to be or as lazy as you want to be. And we wanted to do this just the way the Gilliams did things.''
One can't stay long in the Halifax without hearing the Gilliam name. Charles and Margaret Gilliam and Margaret's mother, Patricia Legget Kitchin, owned and operated the hotel for almost 30 years before selling it in 1981. The Halifax first opened for business on Memorial Day 1951. It was built by Kitchin on the site of the former Halifax Cottage, a two-story frame structure that was moved a block away and later demolished. Eventually, she turned over management of the hotel to her daughter and son-in-law. But even after the torch had been passed, Kitchin continued to exert a strong presence.
``It was like she was the queen,'' Joyner says with a smile. ``She'd sit in one of the chairs near the front desk and speak to everyone who entered or left the hotel. And then, at dinner time, on the arm of her nurse, she would make her way into the dining room. She was old and very stooped, but when she walked into the room, if she spotted a water glass that wasn't filled or anything else that didn't meet her approval, she saw that it was attended to.''
``And then, Joyner says, in the late '70s, ``Mrs. Kitchen died the day the hotel closed for the summer.
Families who have been staying at the Halifax for years (or generations) continue to loyally trek from the Richmond and Roanoke areas, Northern Virginia and smaller towns like Blackstone. While the clientele is mostly Virginian, a number of guests also come from North Carolina and Maryland. And while change continues to come slowly to the Halifax - by design - Joyner says changes have been made.
``We changed the dress code - saying that men did not have to wear coats and ties in the dining room,'' she says. On ocean cruises, Joyner says she observed a general relaxing of dress in the dining room. ``It's not the `Love Boat' scene like you see on TV. They don't dress every night on the ship,'' she says. ``And at the beach, men don't especially want to wear a coat and tie.'' The Halifax requests that men wear shirts with collars at dinner. A number of male guests opt for sport coats or blazers.
In the guest rooms, which are still simply furnished with their original modern blonde beds and bureaus, TVs (with cable) have been installed. ``It was expensive,'' says Joyner. A hugh floor model TV set, however, still dominates the lounge. At certain times, particularly for sporting events, six or eight guests invariably gather around the set.
Perhaps the biggest recent change was the installation of an elevator. ``And this year we put in a brand new kitchen,'' says Joyner. ``I think the old stove had come over on the Mayflower.'' While the kitchen may be new, the cook, Gloria Tillett, has been in the Halifax kitchen for 25 years. Tillett, a native of Hertford, N.C., started working in the Halifax kitchen at age 18. Now she's in charge. She is assisted by Louise James, a native of South Mills, N.C.
Each evening, the matter-of-fact women churn out dishes that have proven to be popular with guests over the years. Crab cakes can usually be expected on Wednesdays and Saturdays. On other evenings, guests choose among Virginia ham, fried fish or roast beef. Side dishes are served up family style: black-eyed peas and stewed tomatoes, spinach, macaroni and cheese. A different salad is served nightly.
``Rolls are served every night,'' says Tillett, up to her elbows in flour as she finishes shaping that evening's batch. James says ``Tipsy Cake'' is the perennial favorite dessert, explaining: ``It's angel food cake topped with custard, sherry, perhaps crushed peaches and topped with whipped cream.''
Have Tillett and James seen changes at Halifax? Yes. ``A younger clientele has started coming in,'' says Tillet. ``Younger families with children.''
Continuity is also apparent in the dining room with the wait staff. Kathryn Barnes Ebersole was among the young, fresh-faced waitresses serving breakfast on a recent morning. The staff wears Khaki skirts and peach-colored polo shirts that match the tablecloths. Ebersole, a recent VCU fine arts graduate, is one of the ``older'' waitresses, most of whom are high school students. But summer after summer, she keeps coming back. It's a family thing. Ebersole's mother and sister were waitresses at the Halifax, her brother was a bellboy and dishwasher, her father was a night clerk, and her mother-in-law is the weekend dining room hostess.
No doubt about it, the Halifax is a family affair. ``We have some families that take eight or nine rooms to accommodate three generations,'' says Joyner. Thinking for a minute, she remembers that a Richmond family, booked for July, will include four generations. Joyner says families have no problem with their children walking around the hotel. ``Parents don't mind. We know who belongs here and who doesn't,'' she says.
When families ask what to do, Joyner suggests a drive to Williamsburg or to the Norfolk Naval Base. ``That's the world's largest,'' she says. ``But many guests just like to rock on the porch. The Boardwalk is an amusement in itself; just watching.''
Indeed. By midmorning, every rocking chair has an occupant. Most are filled by members of the Ray Havens Class of Richmond's Bethany Christian Church located on Forest Hill Avenue.
``We love it,'' it's a small-town atmosphere. It's not like the Holiday Inn,'' says Alton McNeely, a retired tobacco man. ``It's like sitting on your own back porch.
``It's better than sitting on your own back porch,'' adds Jay Waters, a former clothing buyer for Thalheimer's who is sitting nearby. ``We don't have the beach.''
It doesn't take long for talk to turn, as if often does at the Halifax, to stories of World Ward II and life at the beach during those years. Louis Crawford, an accountant sitting nearby, has fond memories of Virginia Beach during the war.
``The Navy had taken over the Cavalier Hotel as an officers club,'' Crawford recalls. ``I got a job parking cars at the Surf Club where I could make more money than working at the grocery store in Norfolk.''
Crawford says he didn't have car then. ``Nobody did. On a hot day in Norfolk, you could just step out on Virginia Beach Boulevard, wave three times and get a ride - by bus, car, whatever.''
The men are now on a roll.
``I remember when there were blackouts during World War II,'' says Charles Lee, a retiree of C&P Telephone. He remembers staying on the top floor of the former Fitzhugh, ``where the breezes blew from one end of the building to the other. In 1947 it cost $5 a night. The Boardwalk was so crowded you had to dip and dodge the bikes.
In 1957, the Lees brought their daughter to vacation at the Halifax. ``But there were changes even then,'' Lee says. ``The Fitzhugh had been torn down.'' At that time, the Halifax, open for just six seasons, was one of the newer hotels. ``It's funny,'' says Lee, reflecting on how time flies. ``We were sitting on the bench in front of the hotel the other night and some people on the Boardwalk walked by and said, `That is an old place.' ''
Old, perhaps, but going strong. The Fitzhugh, the Myers Cottage, the Avalon and now the Avamere, are all gone. The stuff of memories. But the Halifax and its modest charms are being discovered by new generations.
But what about Tom and Maria Whitehead Grove? Have they been won over? You bet. ``You feel a certain sense of security,'' says Maria, ``It's a controlled crowed, you might say.''
Joyner says, ``A lot of people view the Halifax as their cottage away from home.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos by JAY PAUL
From left above, Effie Alvis, Esther Jones and Margaret Nicholas are
Richmond residents who have been visiting the Halifax, left, twice a
year since 1987. thye enjoy people-watching and walking on the
Boardwalk, but they avoid the beach. They don't like to get sand in
their shoes.
JUST THE FACTS
The Halifax is the powder-blue hotel behind the white awnings on
the Boardwalk at 26th Street. It's open May to early October.
Breakfast and dinner are served for hotel guests Monday through
Saturday. Sundays, breakfast only.
Double rates (with meals) are $52-$56 per person until Sept. 5.
Children's rates are available. Call 428-3044.
PHOTOS BY JAY PAUL
Joe Vaden of Chesterfield holds 9-month-old granddaughter Victoria.
The family has vacationed in Virginia Beach for 41 years.
Gloria Tillett, right, started working in the Halifax kitchen 25
years ago at 18. Now, she's in charge. She is assisted by Louise
James.
by CNB