DATE: Thursday, May 22, 1997                TAG: 9705220478

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   58 lines

NEW MUSEUM STIRS MEMORIES OF OLD SCHOOL THE FORMER PORTLOCK ELEMENTARY WILL NOW BE HOME TO CHESAPEAKE ARTIFACTS.

Some who were present Wednesday at the dedication of the city's first history museum can remember leaving the four-room brick building as children with multiplication tables on their minds and the smell of coal fire on their clothes.

What was the Old Portlock School for the first half of the century will soon become a museum and information center, thanks to the efforts of local activist Pauline Dennis and a crusading crew of neighbors.

The museum won't open to the public until June, but former students, city leaders, business people and residents got their first look at the restored schoolhouse after Mayor William E. Ward presented the keys to Dennis, president of the museum's board of directors.

``It's been a rough four years,'' Dennis told the crowd. ``This is the first of two great days. Today we received the keys, and soon we'll be opening the doors.''

Dennis thanked those who stuck by the museum until approval, money and agreements over uses came through. She also introduced some newcomers, including the recently hired curator Ruth Akright and the museum's lawyer and insurance company, which will allow Dennis and others who have been storing artifacts in their homes to bring them to their new place in the museum.

The crowd filed through the empty rooms that will house permanent and visiting displays, including Native American items, Victorian-era furniture and children's toys to explain life as it was in Chesapeake and its predecessor, Norfolk County. There will be an office, a display of brochures describing the region's attractions and room for meetings in the museum and in a building next door formerly used by the neighboring fire department.

The former students and teachers were especially impressed with the restored wood floors, which can be identified as authentic by dents showing where students' desks were screwed down.

``The floors used to be black from all the oil they used on them, and we left every day smelling like smoke from the coal fire,'' said Tama Evans, who attended elementary school in the building and later taught third grade there.

It was Evans' husband's family, the Sheas, who gave the land for the school. It took 13 years from the date of the deed, August 1895, to build the Portlock School, which remained open until the 1960s. It was used by the city's Parks and Recreation Department and by the Jaycees, but has been empty since the 1980s.

Saving the elementary school building became a priority for some former students after the high school next door was torn down. John Ben Gibson, who attended both schools and whose mother was a teacher at the elementary school, said he was on a lunch break from work when he saw the wrecking ball heading for the high school he graduated from in 1942.

``I drove my car under the crane and told them not to tear it down before I got one last chance to go inside,'' said Gibson, who served as the first president of the museum's board of directors. ``I went in and got a desk.''

While the museum dedication allowed many locals to remember their personal history, Ward and others reminded the crowd that the building will serve the whole city.

``Chesapeake is fortunate to have a rich history,'' said Ward.

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