Phillip Staten has left his post as the executive director of Riddick’s Folly after just one year with the museum.

Riddick’s Folly’s Board President Jay Butler said he could not make any comment on any personnel issues regarding the museum, but that Lee King, the museum’s curator for the past 18 years, will remain on staff.

“Lee King is continuing in the same position,” Butler said. “He’s more than capable to handle anything we need done.”

The announcement comes just two weeks before Staten is supposed to speak at the Suffolk Christian Women’s Connection’s “Historical Brunch” at the Hilton Garden Inn.

Riddick’s Folly is the four-story, twenty-one room building located on N. Main Street. It was built in 1837 by Mills Riddick, and was coined Riddick’s Folly after many thought him a fool for building a home so big that it would never be able to stand.

The building became a museum in 1977, after the house and grounds were sold to Nansemond County in 1967, according to the Riddick’s Folly Web site.