THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 3, 1995 TAG: 9507030074
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
Wesley Creel rested his hand on a 19th-century steam pumper crammed into a corner at the Museum of the Albemarle.
``Here's an artifact that almost defies being placed in here,'' said the new museum director, noting that the building on U.S. 17 was erected around the 9-foot-tall firefighting machine. ``We can't put a mannequin of a driver up here, because the person's head would go right through the roof.''
The pumper, named ``Inez,'' and a 1929 Moth boat tucked without mast or sail in a nearby alcove, demonstrate the need for a larger structure to house the defining objects of Albemarle history.
And Creel, who came to the museum last month after a stint in Raleigh administrating the state's Museum of History branches, is looking forward to when he and his staff can make full use of the treasures locked in a mere 8,500 square feet of museum space.
He may not have to wait too long. Creel was sent to Elizabeth City to help prepare the Museum of the Albemarle for its move to a giant building planned for downtown. The 50,000-square-foot structure slated for construction at Ehring-haus and Water streets would dwarf the current site and open a whole new world for local museum-goers.
``It's going to be a major museum resource for the citizens of the Albemarle region,'' Creel said, ``but also for the citizens of North Carolina. the citizens, and especially schoolchildren.''
North Carolina Museum of History Administrator Jim McNutt called the planned building ``a jewel of a project.''
``It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun,'' McNutt said from his Raleigh office. ``It will be a significant undertaking.''
Last fall, the state purchased the downtown property, home of the old Davenport Motors building, for about $800,000. Officials said they preferred the site to a nearby parcel the city had set aside for the museum.
Architects, paid from the remainder of a $1 million 1993 appropriation, soon will draw up plans for the new building, based in part on the vision Creel and his staff have for what artifacts will go where. Solid planning will yield a design that can accommodate items like poor Inez, whose top juts into the current site's ceiling.
``This is how she should look,'' Creel said, pointing to an old photograph on a nearby wall that shows the pumper at work. ``She should have two horses tied to her. That makes the impact that it's horse-drawn. And with two firemen in the seats.''
The move is still a few years down the road. The Department of Cultural Resources won't ask for the $8.3 million or so to build the new building until sometime next year. It won't be addressed by the General Assembly until 1997.
Creel said it's hard to guess how the project will fare with lawmakers. ``I would hope that it would be recognized on its own merit for being a significant contribution,''he said.
``If the funding can be made available, we will have a world-class facility.''
Born in New Orleans in 1949, Creel has nearly a quarter-century of museum administration under his belt, and he says he has overseen seven new-museum projects.
Creel holds a graduate certificate in museum studies from the University of Leicester in England and a bachelor of arts in anthropology from the University of Arizona. He has served as curator of the University of Kentucky Museum of Anthropology and as director of the Arkansas Museum Services Division.
He came to North Carolina as assistant administrator of the state's museum section in 1988. For the 20 months before Creel came to Elizabeth City, he oversaw the Museum of History Section's three branch museums: Museum of the Albemarle, Museum of the Cape Fear in Fayetteville and Mountain Gateway Museum in Old Fort.
Local museum supporters said Creel will be able to apply his museum-building experience to the Albemarle project.
``It's nice to have someone who knows the ins and outs and has been through the process,'' said Barbara Snowden, chairwoman of the Museum of the Albemarle Board of Trustees.
Creel replaces Charlene Akers, who spent only a year as museum director. He said he welcomed the challenge of his new job.
``An $8.3 million construction project, a 50,000-square-foot building, has enough of a gravitational pull,'' Creel said. ``I think any museum person would want to be a part of that. It's going to be an exciting project.''
Equipment and exhibit costs, which sometimes outstep construction in cost per square foot, will probably bring the total project to more than $10 million, Creel said.
To supplement expected state funds, the trustee board plans a fund-raising campaign aimed at offsetting uncovered costs.
In the next few years, the museum's six full-time staff members and corps of part-timers and volunteers will continue to maintain the present site for upwards of 10,000 annual visitors and extension programs for some 24,000 students reached every year.
But ``a good portion of not only my time but the staff's time'' will go toward planning the new facility, Creel said. MEMO: This story also appeared in the North Carolina Edition, p. B1
by CNB