THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 22, 1995 TAG: 9507210033
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: George Hebert
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
The razing of a run-down housing project in Norfolk, reported in the news columns the other day, triggered a vivid flashback for me. At least the memory was vivid in certain details.
The project in the recent news story was Marshall Manor, a colony of squarish, rigorously plain, one-story rental units which has long been a residential landmark on Princess Anne Road. The deteriorating old flat-roofed buildings were being torn down with an eye to some as-yet-undetermined new use. Well, when I read about this, my mind flipped back more than 40 years.
As a reporter in 1950, I had to cover the launching of Marshall Manor. And the undertaking was made newsworthy, in part, because it involved a way of creating badly needed housing, for low-income families, that was much faster than many other methods. The concrete walls were cast flat, in place, then raised up to join with foundations; roofs and interior features would follow. It was a kind of prefabricated technique, but with significant parts of the prefabrication carried out on-site.
In addition to the innovative building scheme, there was something else worth reporting: The distinguished visitor for the project's inauguration was Nelson Rockefeller, who had been involved in both federal and private programs of international development, focusing on the improvement of living standards, especially in Latin America.
The second son of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Nelson already had made quite a name for himself through such public service, using both his wealth and talents. However, his visit here was well before his four terms as governor of New York, before his emergence as a presidential possibility (leading the liberal wing of the Republican Party but never realizing his ambition for the nomination) and more than 20 years before his term, in the Ford administration, as vice president.
I have forgotten what Rockefeller had to say and many of the details of the local project's conception and sponsorship. But I remember being very much impressed by his unpretentious, down-to-Earth manner. And by his youthful appearance, almost a boyishness, remarkable in a 40-something financial titan, a former assistant secretary of state, a confidant of Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, and so on.
I still have very clearly in my mind, too, the easy way he moved around among the clutter of that raw building site out there on Princess Anne Road.
Contributing to that image of ease and agility was something that I can still see, strangely enough, with more clarity than all the rest. He was wearing magnificently casual, light-colored shoes with thick, noiseless, crepe-rubber soles. I think I went out just a few days after that and bought myself a pair. MEMO: Mr. Hebert is a former editor of The Ledger-Star. by CNB