Evening star., 1953-07-19
By George Kennedy
Stor Stoff Corresponden;

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va, July
18.-The booming surf tumbles
with rhythmic regularity Gay and
night on Virginia Beach. The
flags have been standing out
from their staffS. whipped by a
northeast wind blowing off the
ocean.
Beach umbrellas were tipped
into the sand for windbreakers.
Only the ventureSome plunged
into the waves. For six days the
wind blew steadily and every one
was cool and comfortable, but
few felt like swimming. Then
on Wednesday the wind stopped.
The sky became cloudless. The
umbrellas went up to protect the
thousands of loafing vacationers
from the sun. That's the way
it is on the ocean. x
Virginia Beach might be
termed the beach that came
back. A little more than a year
ago it was almost gone-washed
away. During these east wind
situations the waves We're break
ing at high tide over the concrete
boardwalk. The beach has been
replaced by a dredging operation
that cost more than 81 million.
OF the beaches available to
Washingtonians. Virginia Beach
is the one with a wide range of
accommodations. A couple can
find rooms in the cottages or the
new motels for 81 a night. or
with guest card, at the Cavalier
Club put up for $50 a day, Amer
lean plan. That's tops at the
latter establishment. The min
imum is $40 less.
Lot Going On.
1t is beach where, compared
to others south of Jersey and
north of Florida. there is a lot
doing. Louis Prima is playing at
the Surf Club, which, due to a
change in its economy, is now
open to the public. And there is
a summer theater in a tent,
where BELL, Book and Candle"
was on the boards during the
week.
It started as a little summer
resort for Norfolk. About 1890,
a railroad was built from the
seaport city to the beach and
the residents who could afford it
began following the custom be-
coming popular in New York
and Boston of summering on the
beach. The railroad carries
freight only today. Although
the beach is visited by vacation
ers from all over the Western
world, it is still primarily Nor
folk resort, or a Norfolk suburb.
It has never attracted the
wealthy. 1t did not have a single
instance of the millionaire CO.
room cottages" of Newport,
Lenox or Bar Harbor. But in
the booming '20s Norfolkers de-
cided that their summer resort
would have the finest hotel on
the East Coast. The moving
spirit was Thomas P. Thompson,
an architect. who has more re-
Gently been associated with the
promotion of the Norfolk-Por
mouth traffic tunnel.
S1,29O,OOO Hotel.
Norfolk citizens purchased
stock in the hotel corporation to
the tune of 100000. Ir
Thompson designed the struc-
ture and it was constructed at
a cost of $1,290,0O0 The rest
was borrowed. 1t would cost
nearer So million to replace it
today. This summer the hotel
was changed to a club.
The Cavalier is on the golf
route. Many of it's former
guests and present members
travel a circuit of Sea Island.
Pinehurst, the Cavalier and
Skytop in the Poconos. The
late w. L. Mackenzie King,
Prime Minister of Canada, used
to stay here every April for the
golf. In fact April is the peak
month at the Cavalier, which
stays open all year.
There are two golf courses
here, the one owned by the Cav
alier and the course of the Prin-
cess Anne Country Club. The sea
air makes it difficult to maintain
the green's. In the upland coun-
try, Pinehurst etc, they are Of
bent, a perennial grass. Here
they have to be planted twice