THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504210258
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
This has been a bad year for memories. The wrecking ball, hard at work, has been smashing symbols of the good old days up and down the beach.
The Dome was razed and the Peppermint Beach Club is gone. So are the Avamere, Halifax and Sea Escape hotels, holdovers from earlier days of the resort before high-rises dominated the landscape.
Very little is left along the Oceanfront that even hints of times gone by in Virginia Beach. Now finally there is some good news on the character preservation front.
A 70-year-old gray shingled cottage on 23rd Street is not facing the bulldozer. Instead the charming old house is becoming a restaurant - Tautogs at Winston's Cottage - due to open before Memorial Day .
The shed-roof structure with one dormer was once owned by lifelong Beach resident Agnes Winston. Now it has got the youthful energy of young partners Bill Gambrell, a city planner, along with Scott Ferguson, Jim Graziadei and David Tuttle behind it. Gambrell and Ferguson can be found down at the little cottage late most every afternoon, checking on work in progress and discussing the restaurant.
While planning a modern, up-to-date dining facility, they are trying to preserve the character of the little home which Winston and her husband Henry built in 1926. The early Beach grew up along 23rd, 24th and 25th streets around the Seatack Life-Saving Station on 24th, now the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia.
Agnes Winston's father, Ben Simmons, was a surfman at the station and she grew up on 24th Street. When she married Henry Winston, they built their 23rd Street home. Winston lived there until 1992 when she moved to First Colonial Inn.
At the time, Gambrell and wife Ann purchased the house from Winston with plans to open a bed and breakfast or maybe a restaurant or antique shop. The restaurant won out and the partnership was formed.
From the outside of the cottage, little has changed except for the addition of a handicapped ramp and a terraced deck, a step lower than the original porch. Outside dining under awnings and canopies is planned for both porch and deck.
The original shower house, a quaint structure, has been moved from the rear of the house out to the front and placed off to the side adjacent to the sidewalk. The shower house will become a cold drink and ice cream stand.
The rear yard will provide some parking for restaurant patrons, a bonus for locals in the summer. A big old cedar tree and some crape myrtles will retain the old beach yard feeling.
Although walls have been removed inside the cottage, the bearing walls are framed out and indicate where the original rooms were. The fireplace is intact and Gambrell plans to stoke it up on chilly winter evenings. The bar has been constructed with interior doors from the cottage itself.
The restaurant kitchen area on the rear encompasses all of an addition that the Winstons built onto the house in 1949. A small upstairs apartment will continue to be rented out.
``It's been an immense project,'' Gambrell said, ``a real challenge to come in and change it and not mess it up.''
The demise of many historical structures has not been lost on Gambrell and he has made a point of purchasing furniture and equipment from other Beach landmarks. For example, some of the dining tables are from the Peppermint Beach Club and some other restaurant items are from the Avamere, he said.
Tautogs at Winston's Cottage will have a gourmet raw bar with steamed shrimp, oysters and clams. Seafood also will be featured among the six or so entree items. They want to concentrate on local fish, such as the ugly tautog with its delicate sweet meat.
All four partners worked at the old Wesley's Restaurant that was once at 32nd Street and Holly Road. They want to model Tautogs after Wesley's with consistently good food and service but not as costly, Gambrell said.
Fielding Tyler, director of the Life-Saving Museum at 24th Street, is in the business of preserving the history of the resort area. He is upbeat about the transformation of the old cottage into a restaurant.
``It's a positive step,'' Tyler said, ``toward keeping our oceanfront heritage.''
P.S. Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge is seeking volunteers to collect data on bluebird nesting activity weekly through Aug. 31 at the refuge. Training is provided.
If you are interested, call 721-2412 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
QUALITY OF LIFE, planning, pursuing and paying for it, is the topic of a forum, sponsored by the Southeastern Association for Virginia's Environment, at 7 p.m. Thursday in Building F, Virginia Beach Campus of Tidewater Community College.
Regional experts will speak and audience participation will be invited. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Bill Gambrell, left, a city planner, and Scott Ferguson are among
four young partners who are turning a 70-year-old gray shingled
cottage on 23rd Street into a restaurant, Tautogs at Winston's
Cottage - due to open before Memorial Day.
by CNB