While we are looking to the 20th anniversary of
our move to Nauticus, as historians we can’t help but look back from whence we
came. In the case of the Hampton
Roads Naval Museum, that place was the Pennsylvania House on Naval Station Norfolk.
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| Pennsylvania House at Naval Station Norfolk |
The Pennsylvania House began life in 1907 as an exhibit hall
for the state of Pennsylvania. It
is a 2/3-scale replica of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Its Navy life was varied. In World War I it served as an
“Officer’s Material School,” a kind of Officer Candidate’s School. One candidate remembered his course of
study as “seamanship, ordinance, regulations, and navigation,” with the day
beginning at 5 a.m. and extending until lights out at 10 p.m.
It was in World War II and later that many fond memories
were made as the old exhibit hall jumped with life as an Officers' Club,
including the fabled “Green Room.” Time caught up with building in the 1970s and the Navy decided to focus
on its history here in Hampton Roads.
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| The Naval Museum's original two staff members, Michael Curtin and Patricia Geeson. |
The Hampton Roads Naval Museum opened in 1979 with a staff
of two, supplemented by sailors to man the front desk. It enjoyed fifteen years of service to
the Navy’s history underneath the graceful clock tower. It was a rite of passage for new museum
staff to climb into the tower and learn to change the light bulb in the electrical
closet there. Other high (or low)
lights included pigeon control in the tower, and cleaning the chandelier that
lit the long staircase to the second floor. The first docent class to give tours of the newly-moved Naval Museum at Nauticus was trained
in the Pennsylvania House.
(This blog post was written by Joe Judge, HRNM's Curator.)
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