From Myers House Garden, Looking to the MacArthur Memorial
Artist
Carroll H. Walker
(American, 1904 - 1990)
CultureAmerican
Date1963
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 1/16 × 9 5/8 in. (17.9 × 24.4 cm)
Overall, Support: 8 × 9 7/8 in. (20.3 × 25.1 cm)
Overall, Support: 8 × 9 7/8 in. (20.3 × 25.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Carroll H. Walker
Object number67.40.33
On View
Not on viewLabel TextBank Street, Myers House in Foreground, July 4, 1963, 1963 Gift of Carroll H. Walker 67.40.32 From Myers House Garden, Looking to the MacArthur Memorial, 1963 Gift of Carroll H. Walker 67.40.33 Funeral of General of the Armies, Douglas MacArthur, April 11, 1964, 1964 Gift of Carroll H. Walker 67.40.213 Funeral of General of the Armies, Douglas MacArthur, April 11, 1964, 1964 Gift of Carroll H. Walker 67.40.215 Although born in Arkansas, General Douglas MacArthur identified as a Virginian and had family ties to Norfolk. In 1960, Mayor Fred Duckworth proposed transforming Norfolk’s old City Hall and Courthouse into a repository for MacArthur’s papers, military decorations, and mementos collected during the general’s 50-year career. The Classical Revival building was designed to demonstrate the city’s status and ambitions in the 1840s, but plans for a modern courthouse and municipal offices made the grand building obsolete. Redesigning the structure as a memorial required substantial renovations. Builders removed all the interior partitions and numerous bearing walls before sinking screw piles from within the building to support an internal steel frame, opening up the area under the rotunda. After MacArthur passed away in April 1964, his body was brought to the city, where it was greeted by 150,000 mourners, the largest single gathering of people in Norfolk’s history, according to reports.
