2008 EAST BEACH HOLIDAY PORCH TOUR
DECEMBER 6TH & 7TH
The 3rd Annual Holiday Home Tour will take place on December 6th and 7th at East Beach, featuring beautifully decorated homes in the mid-Atlantic's most heralded New Urbanist waterfront community. Visitors will enjoy carriage rides, walks on the beach, entertainment, and holiday shopping at our gift gallery.
Interestingly, I picked up a copy of Chesapeake Bay today to see what creek the cover referred to, and found that the article referred to Little Creek, East Beach, and the entire Ocean View area. Here is an excerpt from the article.
Ocean View Renaissance
Little Creek and East Beach are at one end of the long stretch of shore that runs about six miles east to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. The success of East Beach is mirrored by the renaissance of the entire stretch, known as Ocean View.
Anyone who grew up in Hampton Roads remembers Ocean V
iew, or at least the stories their parents used to tell. The “Atlantic City of the South” had luxury hotels, beach cottages, movie theaters, drug stores with soda fountains and, most memorable of all, an amusement park. You could take the trolley to Ocean View Station from downtown Norfolk and spend the day riding the merry-go-round, the Ferris wheel, the “Skyrocket” roller coaster, bumper cars and dozens of other rides. You could bathe in the beautiful Chesapeake, dance at the hotels, listen to concerts or buy an ice c
ream cone from Dumar’s. Old Ocean View flourished for half a century, then died as seedy neighborhoods and motels moved in after World War II. But about 15 years ago, the turnaround began. And now memories are being cherished and revived. In March, in the new Pretlow Branch of the Norfolk Public Library (another example of the Ocean View revival) the Ocean View Station Museum opened. The museum (757-531-0445; www.ovsm.org) is decorated with dozens of black-and-white photographs from the town’s heyday and includes, as its centerpiece, a restored roller coaster car.
When I was a little kid, the only thing left of the Ocean View this article talks about was the amusement park. One of my favorite old family pics is of me and my cousin as toddlers riding a merry-go-round at Ocean View while my mom stands off to one side, her arm and her handbag visible in the picture, my cousin looking gleeful on his horse. The park was demolished in 1979 and I think closed way before that. I have no real memories of it; I was so young when we went that the picture is the only way I know I was there. I still like Ocean View, a
s it is a locals beach just like Buckroe. Last December, I took a walk on the beach and ran into a very friendly little golden retriever and his temporary owner - a man wearing a blue work uniform, who said the puppy was a soon-to-be Christmas gift for his grandson. One afternoon in May, I drove over to Ocean View just b/c I felt like driving across the bridge - it's about 15 minutes from Hampton - and wanted to check out a taqueria I'd read about (we've since gotten some taquerias on the Peninsula). I checked out the new Pretlow library and enjoyed the museum stuff, which I took pics of but never posted. And last month, I went to the Chesapeake Bay Art Association's 46th Annual Outdoor Art Show in OV. The OV "revival" has been happening for awhile; there have been million dollar beach homes interspersed with the seedy motels the article talks about for awhile now. The community of East Beach is farther down towards Little Creek, set off from the street, more of a separate community.View Larger Map
The East Beach Holiday Porch Tour is sponsored by the Hope House, which also sponsors the Stockley Gardens Art Festival, which I finally went to back in May.
East Beach and Hope House Foundation invite you to capture some holiday spirit during the East Beach Holiday Porch Tour on Dec. 6 and 7. The event is free and open to the public. Hours are Saturday noon to 7 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m. The porches along the avenues of East Beach will be lit and decorated for the holidays. Everyone is invited to enjoy a walking tour or a horse-drawn carriage or sleigh ride through the neighborhood along with music, carolers and Santa. Plus, there are plenty of children’s activities in Santa’s workshop. The festivities start at 4487 Pleasant Avenue and wind through the neighborhood to the Bay Front Club, where you can get a head start on holiday shopping at the Holiday Gift Gallery. It will be filled with local artisans and specialty shops selling one-of-a-kind gifts and home décor items. The East Beach Holiday Porch Tour brings people from all over Hampton Roads to enjoy entertainment and southern hospitality. Neighbors will serve hot chocolate and refreshments from the porches and other refreshments will be available from local vendors. East Beach is situated on 100 acres along the Chesapeake Bay in Norfolk. Surrounded by water, the neighborhood is fashioned after classic Southeastern seaboard coastal villages. The master plan for this $400 million development includes 700 residences, neighborhood restaurants, boutique shops, a Bay Front Club and offices. Public space, walking paths and bay front greens enhance the vistas and create open spaces for the beachfront community. Boating, fishing and water sports of all types are steps away from the neighborhood. East Beach is a unique initiative between the developers, East Beach Company LLC, the City of Norfolk and Norfolk Redevelopment & Housing Authority.
