THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610250219
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IDA KAY'S PORTSMOUTH
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: 49 lines
Do the people of Portsmouth really want to destroy the handsome Norcom High School building on Turnpike Road?
Every time I pass that building in the afternoon sun, I am struck again by its beauty.
Furthermore, it is not an old building and it was constructed when we still expected public buildings to last forever. Norcom is solidly put together and the first half-century of its life is only the beginning of its usefulness.
Now they're talking about tearing it down. Why?
Norfolk has recycled its solid school buildings by refurbishing them as schools. Surely, we can recycle the wonderful Norcom structure for city offices. The gym and the auditorium would make wonderful parks and recreation facilities. There is land in the area to add other buildings, if needed, to house more offices.
This city does a lot of talking about history, but it thinks nothing of destroying really good buildings that would be meaningful in years to come. That's been a trend for years. The structures razed along Crawford Street in the name of progress actually would have completed the Olde Towne picture. Houses allowed to go to ruin in Park View for lack of codes enforcement would have completed the next era of architectural history.
The original Woodrow Wilson High (later Harry Hunt school) on High Street that was torn down to make way for the new Norcom High was a marvel of its time, containing wide hallways and many other fine features in a multilayered brick structure. It could have been the nucleus of a new campus, adding character to the site.
I don't think we should keep every old building, but I do question the judgment of those so smitten by newness that would tear down very good buildings to replace them with lesser structures.
We talk about history, but we often forget what will be history in the future.
The current Norcom High School was built almost 50 years ago when schools were revered and their halls were hallowed. They were built to be beautiful and to stand as monuments to the value of education. Norcom bespoke reams to the community with its very handsome facade and its extremely solid construction.
There is nothing fleeting about this building or about many others built before the mid-20th century. We should not in our eagerness to get a new city hall get snowballed into destroying the Norcom structure.
We razed one solid edifice to build the new Norcom. Let's don't destroy another one in the name of the same project. by CNB