Markers of History

State Historic Marker
Virginia Z-265
York County/Warwick County

Location: East side of US-17, at the bor­der between Newport News and York County, just S of Commerce Cir, Yorktown, VA 23693

Visited: July 4, 2009, 10:45am

Transcription of marker:

York County side:

York County

Area 136 square miles

One of the eight orig­i­nal shires formed in 1634. First called Charles River, which was named for King Charles I. The name was changed in 1643 to York for Yorkshire, England. Cornwallis’s sur­ren­der, October 19, 1781, took place at Yorktown.

Warwick County side:

Warwick County

Area 69 square miles

One of the orig­i­nal shires formed in 1634, it was given the name of Warwick River. The river itself was named for the Earl of Warwick.

My impres­sions: So this is the sec­ond time today that we found a state his­tor­i­cal marker at the bor­der of a city. This is from the Z series of mark­ers (from the let­ter in their alphanu­meric code). These are double-sided mark­ers, placed at bor­ders of coun­ties with infor­ma­tion on both juris­dic­tions. This one is not found in the cur­rent edi­tion of the marker book. If I had to guess, I might guess that it’s because Warwick County doesn’t exist any longer. In 1958, in con­sol­i­dated with the City of Newport News.

I also found it inter­est­ing that the let­ters were larger on the Warwick County side than the York County side. It was obvi­ously an adjust­ment made to ensure that both sides were filled, given that the York County side has more text on it.

There was a small piece of inter­est­ing his­tory I found in the Wikipedia arti­cle on the for­mer County. In 1949, Newport News attempted to annex the county. Warwick County was able to fend it off by ced­ing 4 square miles to York County, which Wikipedia calls “a clever legal maneu­ver which was seen as a narrowly-won tech­ni­cal vic­tory.” In 1952, the county suc­cess­fully peti­tioned the General Assembly to become an inde­pen­dent city (since Virginia’s inde­pen­dent city sta­tus guar­an­tees that land can’t be annexed by adja­cent com­mu­ni­ties). Without the threat of annex­a­tion, nego­ti­a­tions on annex­a­tion con­tin­ued and six years later, the vot­ers of both cities (Warwick and Newport News) approved con­sol­i­da­tion in a referendum.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

State Historical Marker
Virginia K-311
James River

Location: Just S of the James River Bridge on the E side of US 17/US 258/Carrollton Blvd, Carrollton, VA 23314

Visited: July 4, 2009, 10:15am

Transcription of marker: The James River flows about 340 miles from the junc­tion of the Jackson and Cowpasture rivers in Botetourt County to Hampton Roads at the Chesapeake Bay. In 1607 the first per­ma­nent English set­tle­ment in the New World was estab­lished on its banks at Jamestown. The colonists used the river as a path for explo­ration. With mod­ern cities and ship­yards as well as ancient plan­ta­tions lin­ing its banks, the James River remains one of Virginia’s most impor­tant nat­ural resources.

Department of Historic Resources, 1991

My impres­sions: On pre­vi­ous trips (which were all south­bound), we had seen the marker about the time we flew past it on the other side of the road, so this time, my wife was alert to find it (or, at least, a place to pull off the road before we reached the bridge, head­ing north). She cor­rectly guessed which signs were point­ing to a place to park, and was slow­ing down even before I spot­ted the marker.

There is some­thing about the James River. My wife has men­tioned to me a few times how, on her vis­its to my home­town, she found the Ottawa River sim­i­lar to the James. And now, I think I can see the sim­i­lar­i­ties. Both are fairly wide rivers (though the James, espe­cially at this point, is wider) and it can be miles between cross­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. And, look­ing at this marker, the Ottawa held an impor­tant role in Canada’s explo­ration at a sim­i­lar era (in fact, Samuel de Champlain is reputed to have lost his astro­labe near Cobden, ON in 1613).

Notes for future snar­fers: This is one marker you have to be pre­pared for, because you are mov­ing too quickly to stop in time once you’ve seen it (and it’s a long drive if you miss it, head­ing north and have to cross the whole bridge again). You’ll want to watch for signs for the Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries area, called Ragged Island and use its park­ing lot. The marker is just S of the park­ing lot entrance.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

State Historic Marker
Virginia Q-8I
City of Portsmouth

Location: US Route 17 at bor­der between the cities of Portsmouth and Chesapeake, High St W, oppo­site Academy Ave, Portsmouth, VA, 23703

Visited: July 4, 2009, 9:50am

Transcription of marker: The site of this city was patented in 1659 by Captain William Carver. Established as a town in 1752 and named by its founder, Lt. Col. Wm. Crawford. Chartered as a city in 1858, it has the country’s old­est naval ship­yard. Established 1767, the nation’s old­est naval hos­pi­tal, com­menced 1827, and is the birth­place of the world’s largest naval installation.

Virginia State Library, 1959

My impres­sions: After all the mark­ers I’ve found in the older areas of Portsmouth, it came as a sur­prise to hear my wife say she’d spot­ted one as we were dri­ving past a sea of fast-food out­lets and busi­nesses. (You can see the Wendy’s in the back­ground of the photo, even.) Though the set­ting seems a lit­tle incon­gru­ous, what bet­ter place to recount the his­tory of the city but as you enter it? (OK, we were leav­ing, but it was on the far side of the road, intended for those enter­ing, I’m sure.) That said, I think there are other mark­ers to com­mem­o­rate nearly every event described on this marker, so it almost seems super­flu­ous. Then again, this is right on US 17, and not every­body is going to ven­ture to the older part of town, so per­haps it has ben­e­fit for get­ting more eyes on the city’s history.

Markeroni sta­tus: Visit logged.

One other way of deal­ing with the back­log (and the sense I have of some series of posts get­ting repet­i­tive) is to try to com­bine some posts where mul­ti­ple mark­ers are in the same place or on the same sub­ject. I don’t have hard and fast rules about when to com­bine, but this is one of them, where there is a state his­tor­i­cal marker which is for a build­ing in the same loca­tion which is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8-V
St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church

National Register of Historic Places
St. Paul’s Catholic Church

Location: 518 High St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 2:55pm

Transcription of state marker: St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church was first built by French and Irish immi­grants between 1811 and 1815 and was the first Catholic con­gre­ga­tion estab­lished in Portsmouth. Increasing mem­ber­ship neces­si­tated the build­ing of new struc­tures in 1831 and 1851. Fire destroyed the third build­ing in 1859; that same year the con­gre­ga­tion began con­struct­ing a fourth struc­ture, com­pleted in 1868. It burned in 1897. The cur­rent Gothic Revival church here, noted for its stained glass win­dows, was designed by John Kevan Peebles and ded­i­cated in 1905. It was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Department of Historic Resources, 2003

Transcription of another plaque beside the state marker:

A bur­ial ground for early paris­hon­ers and clergy of St. Paul’s Catholic Church was located on this site dur­ing the nine­teenth cen­tury. Among those buried here were:

Patrick Robertson, who bequeathed the funds to pur­chase this prop­erty in 1810 and con­struct the first St. Paul’s; Rosalie and Bartholomew Accinelli, found­ing mem­bers of this con­gre­ga­tion; Antonio Sylvestre Bilisoli, a found­ing mem­ber of this con­gre­ga­tion who fought dur­ing the American Revolution; Rev. Francis Devlin, pas­tor from 1844 to 1855, who died min­is­ter­ing to the cit­i­zens of Portsmouth dur­ing the Yellow Fever epi­demic of 1855; and Rev. Joseph Plunkett, pas­tor from 1855 to 1870 and dur­ing the con­struc­tion of the fourth St. Paul’s.

My impres­sions: This is cer­tainly a strik­ing look­ing build­ing (and given their past his­tory, they seem lucky that it has stood for more than a cen­tury). I liked the tiny plaque in the gar­den beside the state marker, because it helped move my thoughts from the grand build­ing to the fact that there were peo­ple con­nected to this site. It was even bet­ter because it explained why each per­son named was impor­tant to the his­tory of St. Paul’s. And, since I’ve been going through mark­ers from Portsmouth, nice to see some con­nec­tions, includ­ing the men­tion of the Yellow Fever epi­demic, which I think I first read about in a marker in Fort Nelson Park (that appeared on this blog over the hol­i­day weekend).

Markeroni sta­tus: I’ve logged both the state marker and the loca­tion from the National Register of Historic Places, but have not sub­mit­ted the other plaque tran­scribed here.

A word of expla­na­tion about the blog over the next cou­ple of days.

This post will be the only one today, and it will be fol­lowed tomor­row with a spe­cial history-related (but not historical-marker-related) post. On Thursday, I’ll resume look­ing at mark­ers I found on a recent trip to Portsmouth, VA in a mega-post about Fort Nelson Park, which con­tains roughly a dozen mark­ers from Portsmouth’s Path of History, which I’ll com­bine in one post so we don’t have an entire week or two on the his­tory of the Portsmouth Naval Hospital.

Now on to the marker about Collier’s Raid:

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8-G
Collier’s Raid

Location: Crawford Pkwy & Washington St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:55pm

Transcription of marker: A British fleet under Commodore Sir George Collier sailed up the Elizabeth River and shelled Fort Nelson in May 1779, dur­ing the Revolutionary War. A land­ing force of 1,800 infantry­men led by Brig. Gen. Edward Mathew cap­tured the fort on 10 May after a brief resis­tance. The British occu­pied Portsmouth, Gosport, and Norfolk, and burned Suffolk and the Gosport ship­yard. Collier also cap­tured or burned 137 ves­sels in Hampton Roads and dis­man­tled Fort Nelson. The British force then embarked and sailed to New York.

Department of Historic Resources, 1998

My impres­sions: As some­body from out­side the US, from a coun­try that peace­fully moved from colony to coun­try, it takes me aback to think that this was hap­pen­ing in 1779, three years after that “magic” date of 1776. Reading the marker it seems almost ran­dom: the British forces did a lot in this area and then the one cryp­tic sen­tence: The British force then embarked and sailed to New York.

It almost sounds like “Nothing left to destroy here, we might as well move along…want to catch a Broadway show?” This is actu­ally a tan­ta­liz­ing taste to me. That one sen­tence on its own seems so incon­gru­ous that it leaves me want­ing to research what actu­ally hap­pened. WHY did they leave here and sail to New York?

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

State Historical Marker
Virginia K-265
Fort Nelson

Location: Crawford Pkwy, west of Court Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:50pm

Transcription of marker: On the site of Portsmouth’s Naval Hospital stood Fort Nelson. There, Virginia’s Revolutionary gov­ern­ment late in 1776 con­structed the fort of tim­ber and rammed earth. Three years later, the British fleet com­manded by Admiral Sir George Collier con­fis­cated its artillery and sup­plies and destroyed most of the para­pet. In 1779 – 1781, Lord Cornwallis and General Benedict Arnold occu­pied the fort. It was recon­structed in 1799 of earth lined with brick, fol­low­ing a design by archi­tect B. Henry Latrobe, and aban­doned after the War of 1812. The Confederate gov­ern­ment strength­ened Fort Nelson, but on 10 May 1862 the Union army occu­pied Norfolk and Fort Nelson.

Department of Historic Resources, 1997

My impres­sions: It is some­times inter­est­ing to think about forts that do this, pass­ing from one set of hands to another mul­ti­ple times. It seems that if it wasn’t good enough to pro­tect the other side, why would you want it to save yours? Or is it just the invin­ci­ble assump­tion of the vic­tors that they are supe­rior to the van­quished? Or is a fort only as strong as the peo­ple who defend it?

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8-F
Cornwallis at Portsmouth

Location: Crawford Pkwy, west of Court Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:45pm

Transcription of marker: Lord Cornwallis, com­mand­ing the British troops in the south, reached Portsmouth, July, 1781. He pre­pared to send a por­tion of his force to New York. Before the move­ment was made, orders came for him to take up a posi­tion at Old Point. Cornwallis selected Yorktown, how­ever, and Portsmouth was abandoned.

Virginia Conservation Commission, 1948

My impres­sions: Terse to the point of being use­less, in my opin­ion: He came, he saw, he departed. Lord Cornwallis was here. Doesn’t tell me any­thing, and doesn’t tease me enough to excite me to learn more about Cornwallis. Oh, well.

State Historical Markers
Virginia Q-8-Q
Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781

Location: Crawford Pkwy, west of Court Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:45pm

Transcription of marker: A brick wind­mill near here was close to the south­ern limit of a line of British redoubts erected in March 1781 by order of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, who under Major General William Phillips, com­manded British troops occu­py­ing Portsmouth. This line of for­ti­fi­ca­tions extended north in an arc along Washington Street to the water­front near Court Street.

Virginia State Library, 1962

My impres­sions: I’m a lit­tle con­fused when I take this marker together with marker num­ber Q-8-P, also titled Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781, which I blogged about on Thursday. I am fairly cer­tain that at least one of these mark­ers is no longer in the loca­tion the marker text assumed, because there is very lit­tle north-south dif­fer­ence between their loca­tions, only the width of Crawford Parkway.

They may both be moved from their orig­i­nal loca­tions, because Q-8-P seems fur­ther east than the arc described in this marker, and the cur­rent marker [Q-8-Q] seems to be too far north, given Q-8-P’s ref­er­ence to Dinwiddie Street.

The other thing that strikes me about this marker is that the low­er­case q in the marker num­ber seems “off” to me. It doesn’t look like a q should look in that type. It looks like some­body was impro­vised with a back­wards p. But that could just be my eyes.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8K
Elizabeth River

Location: Crawford Pkwy, where the road curves beside the river, Portsmouth, VA 23704.

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:30pm

Transcription of marker: The Elizabeth River, explored by Captain John Smith in 1608, was named for Princess Elizabeth. Shipbuilding activ­ity began in 1620 when John Wood, a ship­builder, requested a land grant. Many his­toric ships were built at the naval ship­yard here, includ­ing the USS Delaware, first ship dry-docked in America, and CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimac) first iron­clad to engage in battle.

Virginia State Library, 1959

My impres­sions: This feels like a “name-dropper” marker. I guess a river can’t really do any­thing itself, so a marker would have to com­mem­o­rate those who have used it for his­tor­i­cal pur­poses. But it does seem rather empty and lifeless.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

We’re in a bit of a con­fus­ing land right now, because there are appar­ently three state his­tor­i­cal mark­ers, each titled Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781. So far, I’ve seen two of them. So this one is from the bend in Crawford Pkwy, right near the Civil War Trails marker I wrote about yes­ter­day, next to the Elizabeth River and its marker (which I’ll write about next).

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8P
Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781

Location: Crawford Pkwy, Portsmouth, VA, 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:30pm

Transcription of marker: This marks the north­ern limit of a line of British redoubts erected in March 1781 by order of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold who, under Major General William Phillips, com­manded British troops occu­py­ing Portsmouth. This line of for­ti­fi­ca­tions extended in an arc south along Dinwiddie and Washington Streets to Gosport Creek and defended Portsmouth from American attack from the west.

Virginia State Library, 1962

My impres­sions: I had to look up what a redoubt actu­ally was. And when I did, one of the Flickr results that came up for me was of one in Kingston, Ontario, just a few blocks from where I lived my sec­ond year of uni­ver­sity there. I guess I’ll have to make sure to get back there, next time I’m in town. (Whenever that is!) I never man­aged to make it to that museum while I lived there. Always meant to…

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.