THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994 TAG: 9406100603
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAIGE FLEMING, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
DATELINE: 940611 LENGTH: Long
The streets are clean and quiet. The homes, ranging from rambling Victorians to single-family shotguns and duplexes, are in varying stages of repair and renovation.
{REST} The front porches invite daydreams, the swings seem too comfy to pass up and, surely, that's a pitcher of lemonade on the table.
Still, the almost sleepy feel of this patch of history belies all the work going on by residents. If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of wallpaper being pulled down, tile being cut, nails being driven, floors being sanded and prayers being uttered.
Eventually, the renovations pay off, say those who have survived the ordeal.
The first thing Brenda Wallace and her husband, Robert, did after they moved to Olde Towne from Virginia Beach, they said, was put in a swimming pool.
``Here we had just bought this old Victorian house that needed renovating from top to bottom,'' she says, ``and we put in a pool. Our neighbors must have thought we were crazy.
``But we had to have some kind of relaxation because we knew it was going to be a long time before we took another vacation.''
So far, the Wallaces have been at it for 10 years. Are they finished yet?
``Almost,'' she says, ``we see the light at the end of the tunnel. As soon as the front hall, stairway and these two front rooms are complete, the house will be finished. Well, maybe. . . .''
Just blocks off downtown Main Street, Olde Towne is not a busy place. Unless you decide to explore the side streets, you could miss it altogether.
And that's just what happened for much of this century until 1985, when residents got together, formed a civic league and put Olde Towne on the map. Now, the neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The civic league keeps tabs on issues like zoning, architectural changes to exteriors and historic preservation. The couple responsible for much of the energy behind this is John and Nancy Faircloth.
The Faircloths live in a 22-room English Tudor, hugged by lots of lush, just slightly overgrown shrubs, bushes and trees. This has been their home since 1983, when they came to Suffolk in search of a farm.
They had gotten to the farm too late to make an offer - but on the way back home, driving through downtown, they were guided by fate, they say, down a side street.
``We were looking for a bigger place,'' Nancy Faircloth says. ``We had outgrown our house in Norfolk, and when I saw this place, I knew this was it - I grew up in an English Tudor. It was home.
``But the house was a wreck,'' she recalls. ``It didn't start out this way.''
Most residents have similar war stories. Brenda Wallace, whose house was built in 1893, said that when she and her husband were redoing the kitchen, ``if you wanted to walk through it, you had to balance on the floor joists because that's all that was left.
``You saw dirt when you looked down and the second-story wood flooring when you looked up,'' she says. ``It stayed that way for four months.''
Also, someone had converted the house to a duplex during the 1930s, blocking off the downstairs from the upstairs.
``Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was a real treat,'' she says. ``Since all the bedrooms are on the second floor, it meant going downstairs, out the front door, around the house and in the back door to the only working bathroom.
``You didn't do it unless you really had to.''
The Faircloths tell similar stories.
``We felt like we were camping at a construction site,'' Nancy Faircloth says. ``At one point, in order to get to the refrigerator, we had to go out the front door, around the yard and reach in the back door.''
Both families say they survived renovating by doing a few rooms at a time, slowly carving out a living space. They could not have done the job, they say, without the help of their neighbors.
``We're all renovating,'' Brenda Wallace says. ``If I need anything, I just call a neighbor. We borrow saws, ladders, tar paper.''
Even so, some jobs have to be hired out, they say, including the wiring, air conditioning, heat, plumbing and electrical work.
Though renovation seems on the minds of many, not everyone in Olde Towne has been bitten by the bug. There are those who live happily enough, liking things just the way they are.
Ernest Stagg and his family live on Pearl Street, around the corner from the Faircloths. Stagg arrived a couple of years ago, he said, because ``it was a nice, quiet place to live with good neighbors and affordable houses.''
``I like it just the way it is,'' he says. ``I feel safe and I don't worry about crime.''
On a recent morning, rows of smaller, white homes along Pearl Street stood like soldiers, clean and beaming in the sun. Across the street, a man changed the oil in his car, and a couple hosed down their white wicker furniture, readying a porch for the firefly nights of summer.
\ Olde Towne was established by the John B. Pinner family, peanut moguls who once owned and ran most of Suffolk, many residents say.
The family built its first home at Pinner Street in the late 1800s, later adding other homes along the road for daughters and grandparents. The neighborhood grew stately, with Greek revival trim, columned facades and wide green lawns.
But as time passed, families moved in and out of the neighborhood. Many homes fell into disrepair, becoming low-rent properties.
Then, in 1985, a rebirth took place.
The Olde Towne Civic League was formed by residents representing more than 100 houses in what was once called Joyner Park. After winning a $4,500 state grant to hire a historian to survey area buildings, the league was on its way to making the neighborhood a historic district.
Today, Olde Towne is not only on the National Register of Historic Places, but also part of the Virginia Historic Landmark Commission. John Faircloth, president of the league since its inception, and his wife, the league's secretary since the beginning, say the group's efforts are worth it.
``We wanted to see this civic league started because it's important to the whole area,'' he says. ``We wanted to see this architecturally pristine area preserved.''
\ But hopes for a bright future don't end there. Nearby, an economic resurgence is taking place.
On June 1, the City Council announced that a new courthouse will be built on Bank and Main streets. Bob Chisom, executive director of the Downtown Suffolk Association, said he looks forward to its completion.
The courthouse, as well as other incoming business, will help stabilize and rejuvenate the whole area, including the Olde Towne district, Chisom said.
In trying to develop the area, he said, the Downtown Suffolk Association considers what would ``co-exist harmoniously with the residential and historic districts.''
``We are looking for substantial retail/service spinoffs in terms of employees and financial gain from these new endeavors,'' Chisom said. ``The good part about downtown Suffolk is that retailers were able to maintain a downtown in spite of the loss of major retailers to the malls.''
``And the ones that will benefit most are the ones that stayed in the downtown area throughout the economic readjustment,'' he said. ``Now, they will feel some of the reward.''
by CNB