THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507220091
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 160 lines
Naysayers said they'd never do it.
Critics said it wouldn't work.
But city officials and officers of Chesapeake's Museum and Information Center Inc., a nonprofit group working on establishing the city's first museum, say they're well on their way to opening the doors.
The museum and visitors' information center, to be in the old Portlock School building on Bainbridge Boulevard in South Norfolk, is scheduled to be complete by late summer or early fall of next year.
Chesapeake is ready for its first museum and its first city-restored historical building, said Pauline B. Dennis, president of the museum group.
``Chesapeake is becoming more aware of saving historical buildings and of historical preservation in general,'' she said.
Architects from the Norfolk-based firm of Hanbury, Evans, Newill, Vlattas are about three-quarters finished with the plans for restoring the interior of the 1908 building. Once the plans are completed and approved by city officials and the museum group, the city will ask construction companies to bid on the project.
Some major work, including overhauling the exterior, replacing all doors and windows, getting rid of asbestos plaster and outfitting the building for utilities, already has been completed.
All told, the city will spend about $723,000 on restorations to the school, not including an estimated $90,000 needed to refurbish an old Fire Department building next door that will be given to the museum group for storage or office space.
``It's an absolutely wonderful project,'' said John Paul C. Hanbury, principal architect in charge of the restoration. ``I think it's wonderful for the city of Chesapeake, and it's just a gem of a building.''
The museum group will be responsible for purchasing furniture and equipment and for operating the facility.
``We've had a lot of community help on this project,'' said J. Pat Kallaher, the city's building and grounds supervisor.
That was after a somewhat rocky start.
Another group of city residents had advocated using the Portlock School as an arts center as well as a repository for history, because they said a museum at that site would not attract enough financial support.
City Council's 1993 decision to back the museum idea caused a rift among some active members of the South Norfolk community.
Critics since have charged that the museum effort was losing ground, because it has taken two years to get to the point where designs are being drawn.
But Dennis said the doomsayers will be proven wrong in a little more than a year, when the building opens.
``It is a reality,'' she said. ``We're not going to back out now. We've been through enough that we're even more determined.''
Organizing the effort just took some time, Dennis said.
When council approved the idea and agreed to pay to restore the school, the group of citizens interested in creating a museum had been meeting informally in peoples' homes.
A year of paperwork later, the group secured its legal status with state and federal agencies as a tax-exempt organization with permission to solicit donations from around Virginia.
Now there are more than 80 members, a board of directors and officers.
Their first fund-raising campaign got under way this weekend, with pamphlets and letters sent to residents and businesses all over Hampton Roads. The goal is get at least 100 donations of $500 - $50,000.
Vice Mayor Robert T. Nance Jr., City Council's liaison with the museum group, predicts a strong show of support, particularly from Chesapeake residents and businesses.
``How often do you get a chance to contribute to a museum being born?'' he asked. ``A lot of businesses have told me that, and I think a lot of people are going to contribute.''
Memories might prompt some to consider donating time or money.
Norfolk County, which was what the area was called before it merged with the city of South Norfolk in 1963 to become Chesapeake, purchased the land for the school from the Shea family in 1895 for $150, according to a copy of an old deed Dennis holds.
An engraved marble slab in the building's entryway says it was built in 1908.
There's still a generation of folks who remember spending their primary grades in the four-room schoolhouse.
``Most everybody, all the older ones around here in Portlock, did go there,'' said J.H. ``Hammy'' Rowland Jr., second vice president of the museum group, who attended Portlock School as his father did before him. ``A lot of people living here now, some of their mothers were teachers there.''
Gone are the old outhouses that Rowland and his classmates used when they had to go to the bathroom. Somewhere along the way, restrooms were installed inside the building; the plumbing is old and rusted now, and will be ripped out and replaced.
The inside of the building is gutted to its brick walls, with only the wooden skeletons of the four classrooms and their coat closets remaining.
But standing in the hallway outside the room where he attended second grade, Rowland can still hear the ringing of the hand bell that was used to signal kids to class.
``This is the first room I ever got my hand paddled in,'' he said. He can't remember his offense, but it was a status symbol for mischievous boys to get such a punishment in those days.
There are still holes in the bricks of each classroom, connecting the rooms to the basement of the building, part of what used to be a system of moving warm and cool air by convection.
In some places, imprints of the rows where the old desk legs were screwed down are still visible on the wood floors.
The building, last used for an office for the Jaycees, has been vacant since the early 1980s, Kallaher said.
The plan is to preserve as much of its historical character as possible.
The Greek revival-style facade, with its imposing white columns, already has been restored. A parking lot, with access for people with disabilities, will be added at the back of the building, where the main entrance for day-to-day use will be, Hanbury said.
Some old slate blackboards, found in the basement, will be recycled as tiles for the entryway. A quick-thinking city employee saved a portion of the original wooden baseboards, so it will be replicated for the entire interior.
The wooden floors, laid over a tongue-and-groove base, will be preserved as much as possible, although some sections are rotted and sagging and probably will have to be replaced and covered with carpet.
One classroom will be converted to restrooms and office space. The other three will be display rooms.
There's only one hitch now: finding exhibits for the museum to display.
Dennis said her group is turning its attentions to that task, now that the details of the restoration are almost taken care of.
Plans are to house historic documents from the city's past; the museum will have a special humidity-and-temperature-control system to help preserve them.
One room likely will be reserved for local history, Dennis said.
Also, she said, businesses that have played a significant role in the community may be asked to create displays. An exhibit could highlight well-known athletes from Chesapeake, she said.
There will be other local history programs for children as well, she said.
The central hallway of the building likely will be the spot for an information center and gift shop, she said.
``These are just ideas,'' she said. ``There will be interest for all people.'' MEMO: More information about the museum is available by calling Pauline B.
Dennis, president of Chesapeake's Museum and Information Center Inc.,
545-1155. Donations to the project may be made by sending checks payable
to CMIC to P.O. Box 5012, Chesapeake, Va. 23324.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
[Color cover photo]
Pauline B. Dennis is president of the non-profit Museum and
Information Center Inc. which is restoring the Portlock School
building.
``A lot of people living here now, some of their mothers were
teachers there,'' said John Hamilton ``Hammy'' Rowland Jr., who
attended Portlock School. as did his father before him.
John H. Rowland Jr., who attended Portlock School and is working on
the renovation project, says that when he stands outside his old
second grade class, he can still hear the school bell ringing.
by CNB