THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 22, 1994 TAG: 9412210174
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
THE RIDDICK'S FOLLY exhibit is called ``Mills Riddick: Family, Friends & Neighbors,'' but a lot of the focus is on his granddaughter.
Visitors to the museum seem to zero in on Anna Mary, one of the six children of Missouri and Nathaniel Riddick, an attorney who was the son of Mary Taylor and Mills Riddick.
``The house passed through Nathaniel's family,'' said Susan Ward, museum director.
Anna Mary, seen in the exhibit as a little girl and an old woman, is almost one with the historic Greek Revival house, built in 1837 on North Main Street.
She was born in 1841 and, except for the Civil War period, lived there until her death in 1936.
Anna Mary was the first Riddick child born in the city. It is believed that she was born in the house.
``She lost her fiance during the Civil War,'' Ward said, ``and may have been mourning the rest of her life.''
A good part of Anna Mary's life is recounted in the exhibit, which will continue through April 16.
Her paintings are upstairs and downstairs. Those downstairs are on permanent exhibit; those upstairs, including a lovely, somber snow scene, are part of the current exhibit.
Another part of the exhibit features some of Anna Mary's clothes, and there is a quilt top she made with fabric from her dresses including a few on display.
Also on display, on loan from a Riddick descendant in Burke, is a portrait of Anna Mary and her younger brother, Mills; there are pictures showing her at age 89 and others taken when she was in her 90s.
Some of the photographs and other mementoes of the Riddick family and their friends came from descendants, some from the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society, some from the Riddick vaults.
The exhibit lives up to its title, one room devoted to the Riddick family, another to items connected with some of their friends.
While such museum displays sometimes have the reputation of being bone dry, they are often fascinating history come-to-life.
And they can be controversial.
One item on display at Riddick's Folly is a slave list, which can be used for genealogical research.
Mills Riddick, who has a few direct descendants still living in Suffolk, owned about 60 slaves, some with last names - usually those of one of their owners - but most have just a first-name listing.
The slave acquisition papers from 1844 can make for frightening reading. One slave, Dick, was bought for $500. Another, Charlott, for 50 cents.
Other display items include a daguerreotype of Mary and Mills Riddick, furniture, letters and personal belongings.
There is a photo of the Main Street home of Mr. and Mrs. Mills Copeland Daughtery, family friends. Their house was torn down in the 1890s and a market built there. Later, that was torn down to make way for the former Woolworth store.
A circa-1830 dresser is on display. It was made by Edward Arnold in a cabinet shop on Main Street where the great fire of 1837 began.
Also on display is a scrap of wallpaper found in 1988 during the building's renovation. ``It may be the original wallpaper,'' Ward said.
An explanatory display is a six-generation descending chart. It starts with the builders of the house and ends with Ann Withers Rollings, its last owner. She lived there most of her life, part of the time with Anna Mary after Rollings' husband died.
In 1967, Rollings sold the building to the city.
Lee King, who as assistant director of Riddick's Folly set up the display, calls it ``one of the best exhibits I've ever worked on - and I've worked on about 30.'' MEMO: ``Mills Riddick: Family, Friends & Neighbors'' is on display at
Riddick's Folly, 510 North Main St., through April 16. Museum hours are
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays. For
more information, call 934-1390. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
A setting in the exhibit, ``Mills Riddick: Family, Friends &
Neighbors,'' shows a dress that belonged to the granddaughter, Anna
Mary.
by CNB