THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290490
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM HOLDEN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
The fate of another Oceanfront architectural landmark will be decided next month when the owners of the Peppermint Beach Club vote on a plan that could demolish the 88-year-old building.
Elkan Lachman, whose family owns controlling interest in the Peppermint and its property, said Wednesday that the building's poor condition may exclude it from on-going plans to redevelop the site, which has a city-assessed value of $1.8 million.
``We are planning on a great deal of improvements there,'' Lachman said. ``We're working with the city on a new beautification plan, and we want to add new, family-oriented amusements. Right now, we think the Peppermint building is in too bad a shape to continue.''
If the dance hall at 15th Street is razed, it would end the club's membership in a dwindling group of Oceanfront properties that date to the middle and turn of the century.
Last April a wrecking crew tore down the Avamere, a 1950s-era hotel famous for its front-porch rocking chairs that evoked a laid-back Southern seaside hospitality that many consider increasingly rare at the Oceanfront.
Next month, an auctioneer will call for bids on the fixtures and memorabilia of the Avamere's next-door neighbor, the Halifax Hotel, which awaits a similar demise. A 130-room hotel is expected to rise on the site where the two hotels stood at 26th Street.
Just nine blocks south, the 50-year-old Sea Escape Motel awaits final action on a plan to flatten the shocking pink structure and replace it with a mini-park and Dairy Queen eatery.
And earlier this month, the city demolished the Virginia Beach Dome, the first geodesic dome built in the continental United States and the site of performances by some of the nation's most prominent musicians. The city hopes to attract a developer to build a dinner-theater complex on the site.
While Lachman said that no final decision has been made on the fate of the Peppermint, the current club manager is assuming the building's demise is eminent and is planning a final weekend of concerts as a send-off.
``We figure it's the last one at the Peppermint,'' said Keith Overton, who has run the club since 1989. ``My lease is up April 30, 1995, and I'm having problems with the Health Department. The roof leaks, and we can't get a new lease unless the roof is fixed. Without the Health Department giving us a license to serve food, we can't open.
``So we're going to have one last, big wild fling for the Peppermint,'' he said.
He is calling the party ``The Last Resort, a Tribute to the Peppermint,'' and said he would close the dance hall Saturday after concerts by five local bands. The patio will be open Sunday, the last day of business.
If the Peppermint goes, it will mark the near end of the resort's shingle-style buildings, a style of architecture that once flourished at the Oceanfront and is now all but gone.
Popular from the 1880s until the present, the shingle style has been called by many art historians America's first modern architecture because it does not rely on traditional ornamentation like cornices, columns or pediments typical of buildings modeled on Greek and Roman architecture, said Robert Wojtowicz, an assistant professor of art history at Old Dominion University.
``You see the best examples of shingle style along the New England coast, and there are a few handsome shingle-styled houses in Ghent,'' he said. ``But I don't think there are many in the Beach.''
The term ``shingle style'' comes from the materials used to cover the building, typically cedar shake, he said.
``The most distinctive part of the Peppermint are its two gabled ends, which I'd call Flemish-looking. It looks to me like there was once a bull's eye window on the building, but it's now been filled with exhaust vents. The roof now has red asphalt shingles, but it once must have had a shake roof.''
While he admired the building, he admitted it has limitations.
``It's not a particularly beautiful or sophisticated example of shingle style,'' he said. ``It's been so drastically changed over the years that I don't know what kind of integrity it has aside from the roof, and that's been covered with asphalt.
``It's kind of sad because it is the last evidence of what the Beach looked like at the turn of the century. This building predates the Cavalier Hotel, which was built in 1928. It's homey and charming. It's kind of sad to see it go, but I don't know how it could be saved.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff
The Peppermint Beach Club's leaky roof may exclude it from owners'
plans to redevelop the site. A farewell concert is planned.
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VANISHING HISTORY
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
by CNB