The Demolition of Lafayette Darrell E. Cook Architectural Historian, NAVFAC Atlantic
It was impossible to overlook the demolition zone this spring, at Lafayette River Annex (LRA), in Norfolk, Virginia. With entrance gate changes and available parking diminished, machinery methodically scraped away floor after floor, room after room of Building C. Every swing of the bucket chewed off a little more history, and ended one chapter of the government’s almost-100-year history at the site, as the debris departed the compound in disposal trucks. Even the casual observer will note that behind the modern office fixtures of carpet, acoustic tile, and cubicles in the buildings that make up LRA, history has left behind clues. Ghost marks on the stucco, architectural details in the lobby and orphaned wood windows tucked in out-of-the-way spaces signal the passage of time. Additions and alterations made over the years sought to meet modern needs. Every building and man-made creation helps to tell a story. The cultural resources professionals of NAVFAC conduct fieldwork and research to peel back the layers of history, helping to tell America’s story. These archaeologists, architectural historians and historic architects steward the nation’s rich heritage while also assuring the Navy is compliant with historic preservation laws. Just as archaeologists discover and interpret sites and artifacts below the ground surface, architectural historians piece together the story built above ground in structures that shape our world.
The Navy and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources agree that LRA meets the criteria for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register honors buildings, structures, objects, sites and districts throughout the United States that played a significant role in national, state or local history. LRA lacks the fame and beauty of Monticello, but not all historic buildings please the eye or find new life as museums and many are included in the National Register only for the story that unfolded within their walls. Norfolk hosted the first U.S. Marine Hospital in the nation, after taking over a downtown Norfolk state facility, in 1800. After a series of changes and an interim location, the Treasury Department received appropriations in 1919 to construct a new hospital at the “Tanners Creek site,” now known as LRA, which opened its doors in May 1922. Constructed the same year, Building C provided quarters for hospital attendants. Due to funding shortages likely caused by the recently ended World War I, plans and photographs show that the original portion of the building was much smaller than what modern-day employees grew to know. It included just two floors above the basement level, and reached little more than half its final length. To fulfill earlier plans, the government completed large additions to Buildings A, B and C in 1932, and constructed Quarters D and E. After the Building C third floor addition, the horizontal, protruding line between the second and third floors provided an architectural clue to the change. At the time of the 1930s additions, LRA also received a landscape design by Virginia’s premier landscape architect, Charles F. Gillette, which focused on the vista from Building A through the officers’ quarters, to the river.
Beyond the design and construction, the buildings would see other changes in the missions they would support. The Marine Hospital was renamed the U.S. Public Health Service in 1951. Building C continued its housing function for many years, but by 1978 it provided dental and administration space, and in 1980, Building C also hosted a pediatric clinic.
Aerial photo, U.S. Marine Hospital (now Lafayette River Annex), looking southeast, circa 1923. Note Building C to the left of the water tower, the fields that once occupied today’s large parking area and the original wings of Building A. (Source: Documentation of Building C, Lafayette River Annex). The Atlantic Observer
The Navy took over LRA operations in 1981, opening the outpatient Lafayette River Branch Clinic, after the U.S. Public Health Service closed its hospitals. The Navy used Building C for administrative space beginning in 1981, with NAVFAC gradually taking over all the facilities at LRA.