THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506170124
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Virginia Beach is steeped in history, which needs to be saved from greed and stupidity.
Mostly it's the history of the white man's doings since the very first Englishman waded ashore at Cape Henry in 1607, but it's our history nonetheless.
The English who set sail for the New World aboard the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery took the time to write down their observations. Unfortunately, native Americans who preceded them to this continent by about 11,000 years did not.
The Chesapeack Indians, who inhabited what is now Virginia Beach when the English settlers arrived, did leave behind some evidence of their daily lives in the form of shards of pottery, ceramics and wild turkey bones. They did not have Wild Turkey then. That was invented later by a Tennessee distiller.
In the 388 years that have passed since the settlers landed much has happened here.
To prove it to skeptics who live here now, the folks at City Hall decided a year-and-a-half ago to conduct a study of all the historically significant sites in Virginia Beach that have come and gone - and in some instances stayed - since those early colonial days.
It's all wrapped up in a document called the ``Virginia Beach Historic Resources Management Plan,'' a 75-page volume sponsored by the city's Department of Museums, Department of Planning and Department of Historic Resources.
The study was released to the City Council on Tuesday and promptly shoveled under a pile of other written material that had to do with matters deemed more important. These included a lifeguard impersonation ordinance, a bicycle helmet ordinance, plans to build a deck at Steinhilber's Restaurant and - oh yeah, the Lake Gaston Pipeline and the Sandbridge sewer hookups.
The resources plan lays out a general strategy for marking and preserving historic sites - if only in memory. There is even mention of saving and exploiting them for the economic benefits.
It suggests doing stuff like putting significant homes, lighthouses, inns and courthouses on maps and conducting bus tours for Beach visitors. It even suggests spending - heaven forbid - actual money to preserve some of the historic buildings and sites.
More than 800 ``historic resources'' in the city are identified in the study. Included is stuff that was built as late as 1958, like the Dome at 19th Street and Pacific Avenue.
Topping the list are the Adam Thoroughgood House, built in 1680, and the Cape Henry Lighthouse, built in 1791. Both structures still stand and are in good condition. They are also listed as National Historic Landmarks and as National and State Register sites. Then, there are things like the Princess Anne Court House, built in 1824; the Life Saving Station at 24th Street and Oceanfront, built in 1903 and the DeWitt Cottage at 12th Street, built in 1895.
The city, in its wisdom, tore down the creaky and leaky Dome last year to make way for a proposed commercial enterprise known as the Dixie Stampede. This was quickly deep-sixed and now the city is looking around for something else fill the vacancy left by the Dome.
Other historic structures that didn't make it include the Peppermint Beach Club at 15th Street and Oceanfront and the Avamere Hotel and the Halifax Hotel, both at 26th Street and Oceanfront.
There are many others, of course. They'll go the way of the bulldozer as well, if community leaders remain shortsighted and the folks who live in the city don't give a fig. And our children, grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren won't have a thing left to remind them that this spot on the East Coast is where the seeds for what is now the good old U.S.A. were planted.
And wouldn't that be a shame? by CNB