Markers of History

So, as you may have read on the About page, I first signed up for a Markeroni account way back in 2004, but hadn’t done any­thing with it until last night. So I’ve had plenty of time to think of what my first snarf would be.

Since mov­ing to Virginia Beach, I’ve been attend­ing Old Donation Episcopal Church, and given that it qual­i­fies on mul­ti­ple cri­te­ria, I wanted to make it my first snarf. But as it hap­pens, I didn’t actu­ally get my cam­era out when I was at the church last night, but after­wards, we went a short piece down the road to a state his­tor­i­cal marker about the church’s history.

Old Donation Church

State Historical Marker
Virginia K 280
Old Donation Church

Location: In front of the Bayside branch of the Virginia Beach Public Library, 936 Independence Blvd, Virginia Beach, VA 23455

An inter­est­ing note about the loca­tion of this marker is that it is approx­i­mately a half-mile or so from the church itself and the church can not be seen from the marker and vice versa. This is espe­cially inter­est­ing, because the church is vis­i­ble from the loca­tion of the sec­ond marker I snarfed last night (which will fol­low in another post later today).

Visited: May 19, 2009, 7:00pm

Transcription of plaque:

Just east stands Old Donation Episcopal Church, built in 1736. It is the third build­ing to serve the colo­nial era Lynnhaven Parish, estab­lished by 1642. The sec­ond church, once adja­cent to the cur­rent build­ing, was con­verted into a school in 1737. The church received its present name in the early 19th cen­tury likely in com­mem­o­ra­tion of a gift of land. An 1882 fire left only por­tions of its brick walls stand­ing. The build­ing was restored in 1916 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

My impres­sions: Maybe it was the advan­tage of the light­ing only an hour before sun­set, but I found the plaque’s loca­tion sur­pris­ingly beau­ti­ful, espe­cially con­sid­er­ing it was between a busy high­way and a fairly new look­ing brick library. But there were some nice, big trees between the side­walk of Independence Blvd and the library park­ing lot. The other nice thing about the loca­tion is its promi­nence. We’ve dri­ven by this marker sev­eral times. Even though we hadn’t stopped until last night (partly, I expect, because it isn’t imme­di­ately clear from Independence Blvd where one can park), I think vis­i­bil­ity is a good thing to keep us remem­ber­ing history.

I also can’t wait to share with you some pho­tos of the church and its grounds at some point. It’s a very pretty place and one I enjoy very much.

Notes for future snar­fers: The library park­ing lot is very handy for this marker (includ­ing acces­si­ble spots for those who require them). From Independence Blvd, fol­low the library signs to the park­ing lot. (Enter the park­ing lot from E Honeygrove Rd.) The marker is between the library and Independence Blvd.