DATE: Monday, May 26, 1997                  TAG: 9705230894

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   33 lines

THAT WAS THEN

City Hall Avenue Through the years

Almost constant construction has characterized this site at City

Hall and Monticello avenues and Brewer Street since 1891, when the

Norfolk Armory and City Market were built there on ground reclaimed

from Town Back Creek. This first building, a turreted brick

structure, was later used to house the city's municipal offices. It

was torn down during the early 1950s to make way for the Rennert

Building, later known as the Maritime Tower and later still as

Systems Management American Corp., that also housed a bank and a

J.C. Penney store on its ground level. The picture shows the initial

construction work on the Rennert Building that was completed in

1959. It, in turn, was demolished in November 1996 to make way for

the western terminus of the proposed MacArthur Center mall.

Old-timers will recognize such familiar landmarks as ``Doc''

Twiford's seafood restaurant as well as Kresge's, Grant's and Smith

& Welton stores on the Monticello (left-hand) side of the picture.

The no-longer-existing Brewer Street, center, leading into City Hall

Avenue and marked with the building bearing the Union Life Insurance

Co. sign, was once the hub of a popular market where housewives

shopped for fresh produce from area farmers for Sunday dinners while

picking up the latest gossip from other shoppers at the same time.

GEORGE H. TUCKER

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