THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504270129
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 21 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GREG GOLDFARB, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
Silvery sunbeams glimmer on Crystal Lake as a cool, late morning breeze breaks over the bows of two kayakers slashing through the jagged swells.
Frank Reidy smiles, returns their waves and continues strolling farther around his waterfront back yard to where two neighborhood kids are quietly fishing off his bulkhead.
``There aren't any worms,'' complains a little girl, leaning on a shovel and standing over a freshly dug hole in Reidy's vegetable garden.
The boy, not waiting for bloodworms for bait, has already placed an entire chicken wing on the end of his line. Reidy suggests that the wing be boned out, cut into small pieces, then snagged onto the hook.
``That might work a little better,'' he softly advises.
For almost a century, untold numbers of children have played in and around what is now Reidy's historic North End home, located at the end of 52nd Street on Wilder Drive and publicly known as Greystone Mansion, Greystone Castle and as the Crystal Club.
But Reidy, shareholder/engineer of a 700-employee design and assembly company in Singapore that manufactures buses, taxis and motorcycles, worries about maintaining this idyllic setting.
Reidy wants the city to give him a tax break or let him open the house for commercial use to help defray the cost of maintaining it. Without either, he says, the house could some day fall prey to developers who may raze it to build townhouses or condos.
At least one city official, however, says it's unlikely Reidy will get what he wants. And as long as the majestic, three-story house, valued at between $770,000 and $1 million, remains in private hands, Reidy says, its future should not be threatened.
``I hate to see old things torn apart,'' said Reidy, a shareholder/vice president of Pennsylvania General Energy from 1985 until last month. ``There's no reason why this house shouldn't be here 100 years from now.''
When Reidy, 54, bought the house in 1981 for $240,000, he and his wife Juliette had three children living at home. Two of the children are now grown and Reidy works out of town up to six months a year, leaving Juliette with a big house on an acre of land that they'd like to open to the public.
``Taxes and upkeep on the house cost between $12,000 and $15,000 a year,'' said Reidy, a Philadelphia native. ``We would be happy to work with the city to open the house, from time to time, to raise funds for local charities and to develop a public awareness of the history of Virginia Beach, in exchange for a reduction in taxes.
Reidy said his annual heating bill runs between $3,000 and $5,000. Electric is $2,000. Yard upkeep, $3,000. His annual real estate taxes are $8,000, compared to neighbors who pay about $4,500, he said.
Reidy also said that shortly after moving in he spent $50,000 replacing the house's roof, plus another $50,000 replacing the house's plumbing and converting its electrical system from fuses to circuit breakers. Another $50,000 was spent remodeling the kitchen.
The 30-room house, which has 92 windows, was built between 1900 and 1902 by Dr. John Wesley Miller Masury, a master mariner and a Navy commander in World War I. Masury received his medical degree in 1896 from Columbia University, where he became addicted to morphine - a habit that reportedly haunted him the rest of his life.
When the 10,000- to 12,000-square-foot house was built, only one other cottage graced the Oceanfront between Cape Henry and 31st Street, Reidy said. At the time, the Greystone Castle was located on a 28.5-acre site and had a half-mile-long, lighted and covered boardwalk that extended from a small cottage on the beach to the house.
The house, surrounded by water on two sides, was built using imported Scottish granite, and its original equipment included an electric elevator, and an attic organ that piped music into every room. The house featured its own power plant, which also powered railcars that traveled from the resort town of Virginia Beach to Cape Henry.
In the 1930s the house, with a ballroom big enough for 200 people, was converted into a private nightclub and gambling casino, known as the ``Crystal Club,'' before it was purchased in the 1940s by William C. Wilder, who sold it to C. William Emanuelson. He and his wife then renovated it and lived in it from 1964 until 1981, Reidy said.
Reidy said the house has been used in the past for various fund-raisers, and the neighbors didn't complain.
He would like to rent it as a venue for meetings, retreats and mini-conferences, and offer breakfast, lunch and dinner affairs. Prices would range from $50 to $60 per person, per day, for a minimum of six, and a maximum of 15 guests. His wife, a preschool teacher, would run the business.
So far, Reidy said, neither he nor his wife have had any serious discussions with either the Planning Department or other city officials, but he plans to pursue it. They also want to have the house designated as a historical landmark, and allow the city to host visiting dignitaries there.
Vice Mayor W.D. ``Will'' Sessoms Jr., the only City Council member to visit the house since Reidy has owned it, he said, used to play at the estate as a child.
Sessoms said that the house should be preserved but added that it is unlikely the city will allow the house to be used for commercial purposes.
``I don't think the city can go along with it,'' Sessoms said.
The vice mayor said that the city doesn't provide tax breaks for historic houses now, and he doubts that it will in the future unless owners come forward and present a ``hardship'' case for tax relief.
``I don't see that happening,'' Sessoms said. ``Most people realize that when they buy a house like that.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by CHARLIE MEADS
Frank Reidy, who owns Greystone Mansion, also known as Greystone
Castle and the Crystal Club, sits on the terrace.
Juliette Reidy shows off a large Chinese vase, circa 1880, in the
living room of her home.
The formal dining room at Greystone Castle is noted for its
Corinthian beams in the ceiling. The Reidys would like to rent the
home for meetings, retreats and mini-conferences.
by CNB