DATE: Monday, September 1, 1997             TAG: 9708290757
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COLUMN 

SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER

                                            LENGTH:   81 lines

NOTED ARCHITECT'S ACHIEVEMENTS STILL STAND IN NORFOLK

Two of Norfolk's most historic buildings - the former Norfolk Academy at 420 Bank St., now the headquarters of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, and Freemason Street Baptist Church - were designed by Thomas Ustick Walter (1804-1887), America's greatest 19th century architect, whose genius also conceived the majestic dome of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Born in Philadelphia 193 years ago Thursday, Walter began his career as a bricklayer. His architectural talents were recognized early by connoisseurs, however, and after several years of study under architects of his native city and an extended tour of Europe to acquaint himself personally with its architectural glories, he returned to this country. From then on, he was avidly sought after for plans for public buildings and churches all over the nation.

Walter's first Norfolk building was the Norfolk Academy, between Bank and Cumberland streets. Using the Doric-style Temple of Theseus in Athens as his inspiration, Walter created the city's finest example of the then-popular Greek Revival style. Once the cornerstone was laid in May 1840, progress on the building went rapidly. When it opened the next year, John R. Scott, a fiery-tempered Irishman, was appointed its first headmaster. Legend has it that when the weather was hot and humid and the boys were unruly, Scott would swoop down on the culprits and toss them out of the nearest window.

The academy also had its one brush with fame on Sept. 16, 1849, when Edgar Allan Poe lectured there on ``The Poetic Principle.'' It was to be Poe's last public appearance before his tragic death in Baltimore one month later.

While still a school, the academy served temporarily as Norfolk's Post Office during the 1855 yellow fever epidemic. Later, during the Civil War, it was commandeered by the Federal occupation forces as a hospital. Still later, after it was no longer an educational institution, the building was the headquarters for the Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

Walter's second Norfolk building was Freemason Street Baptist Church. Since he frequently visited here during the mid-1840s as a consultant on the Norfolk Court House and City Hall (now the MacArthur Memorial), then in the process of construction, he was asked to design the church that still stands cater-cornered to the Moses Myers House at Freemason and Bank streets. An ardent Baptist, Walter agreed and the cornerstone was laid in August 1848. Two years later, on May 30, 1850, the new Gothic Revival edifice was dedicated with the Rev. Tiberius Gracchus Jones, one of the great figures in Virginia Baptist history, as its first minister.

The tall steeple of the church is topped with the only remaining weathervane of dozens, plain and fancy, that formerly indicated the wind's direction for Norfolk citizens. Created by some long-forgotten local tinsmith, the vane, supposed to represent Gabriel's trumpet, was placed on the top of the original spire (much taller than the present one) when the church was built.

According to tradition, a prominent Presbyterian who lived directly opposite the church objected strenuously to the original steeple because he was afraid it might topple over in a high wind and destroy his house. He was finally talked out of his objection, however, by a Baptist friend who assured him, ``The devil would hardly look for a good Presbyterian under a Baptist steeple.''

Walter's original Freemason Street spire was the tallest structure in Norfolk for 49 years until it blew down in a memorable rain and windstorm that devastated Norfolk on Aug. 18, 1879. When it was over, half of the houses in the city were roofless and hundreds of trees had been uprooted. At the height of the storm, a Virginian-Pilot reporter, who was braving the elements to assess the damage, heard a woman scream. When he asked what was wrong, she shrieked, ``My God, the Baptist church steeple has blown down on all of those houses!''

Fortunately, she was wrong, for the steeple fell into Freemason Street instead. Finally, when the debris was cleared away, the trumpet weathervane was found thrust upright in the ground a considerable distance from the church. At that time, it was discovered to be so large that a tall man could stand upright under the large end of the horn.

But the Freemason Street Baptists had to have their steeple. And when they later decided to replace Walter's wind-toppled spire with the present one, they again placed the trumpet weathervane on its top. Since then it has not only continued to revolve with each passing breeze, it currently provides passing birds with an aerial grandstand perch from which to watch the construction activities now in progress on the MacArthur Center mall several hundred feet below. ILLUSTRATION: Architect Thomas Ustick Walter

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