Location: West end of Town Point Park at the Elizabeth River, steps east of the Armed Forces Memorial and its marker, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:30pm

Transcription of marker: On March 8, 1862 CSS Virginia steamed past this point (1) to a battle which would forever change naval warfare. This ship had previously been a Union steam frigate, USS Merrimack, which had been destroyed near the Gosport Navy Yard (2). Confederate forces found its hull to be sound and constructed a superstructure with iron plates to create a new kind of warship. The Virginia proceeded out into Hampton Roads where she sank USS Cumberland and severely damaged USS Congress (3). The next day she returned to destroy the Union fleet and open the port. However, USS Monitor, another ironclad, had slipped into Hampton Roads undetected by the Confederates (4). A major naval battle ensued (5). Neither ironclad did significant damage to the other. The Virginia tried to ram the Monitor but failed to sink her and opened a gash in her own hull. She returned to Gosport never to fight again. She was scuttled and burned on May 11, 1862 to prevent her capture by Union forces (6).

My impressions: I love the way this marker uses a map to help you understand the geography of the battle, complete with a “YOU ARE HERE” indicator. I’m not sure whether this is the best marker I’ve seen on the subject of the Monitor and the Merrimack or whether I’m just getting familiar enough with this important event in local history that my brain is able to fill in the details which would have confused me by their omission (since a marker has limited space, there are ALWAYS omissions!).

And I’m glad that, more than two and a half weeks after this trip to Norfolk, I have finally finished blogging about the markers I found that day (when I really hadn’t intended to make it a snarfari). Tomorrow, we move on to July 4th (one day later) and an intentional snarfari. We’ll start with a couple of markers from the drive to Yorktown and, sometime soon, I’ll have to figure out how to post the markers I found along the Colonial Parkway and at Historic Jamestowne. After all that, I have a few markers and sites from around Virginia Beach, and after that, it will be snarfs from this week and the future. Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave a comment on anything you see here.

Location: West end of Town Point Park beside Elizabeth River, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:25pm

Transcription of marker:

The Armed Forces Memorial is located here on a river that has for more than 200 years carried servicemen off to war and returned them home to loved ones. Within the Memorial are 20 inscriptions from letters written home by U.S. service members who lost their lives in war. The letters have been cast in thin sheets of bronze and are scattered across the Memorial as if blown there by the wind. From the Revolutionary War through the Gulf War each conflict is represented.

Revolutionary War 1775–1783 • War of 1812 1812–1815 • Civil War 1861–1865 • World War I 1917–1918
World War II 1941–1945 • Korean War 1950–1953 • Vietnam 1962–1975 • Gulf War 1990–1991

Caution: The Memorial contains bronze letters protruding from the walk. Please watch your step and show appropriate respect. Adults should accompany children, and no pets please.

Examples of bronze letters

My impressions: This is quite the unique monument and it is very touching. There is something about letters between people who know each other. And I’m not sure it has translated as well into the e-mail and instant messaging age. Reading these letters feels quite intimate, and that we are getting to hear from these people as they really were.

I also have to admit to some surprise that the Memorial, with its curls of bronze “paper” on the ground was ever approved. It seems that so easily somebody could trip and fall (though I believe there is ample space around them for wheelchair/walker access). I wonder if the fact that it’s surrounded by water on two sides (and therefore is not a “convenient short-cut” to anywhere, as well as only having two entrances in the brick wall that surrounds the memorial helped.

I am glad that it is there, because I think it fulfills excellently its function of helping us to remember the sacrifices made by those who have served and those who were left behind by family members who served their country (and those who could not return).

Markeroni status: Direct-logged.

Cannonball Trail
Battleship Wisconsin: Berthed in Norfolk, the Homeport of Naval History

Location: Foot of Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:20pm

Transcription of marker: Redefining the skyline of downtown Norfolk, battleship Wisconsin stands stoically with dominating presence. After months of dredging and construction, Wisconsin majestically slipped into the seemingly tailored berth without a hitch on 7 December 2000–fifty-seven years after the warship was originally launched. Berthing the 45,000 ton, 887.3 foot long and 108 foot wide battleship was a major feat of engineering. The waters of the Elizabeth River around Nauticus are extremely shallow for the 37 foot deep draft of Wisconsin. Varying tidal and weather conditions further complicated the berthing facility design. Working in conjunction with City of Norfolk and U.S. Navy planners, architects from the Norfolk-based firm Glenn & Sadler designed the channel and berthing facility next to Nauticus. Chained securely for hurricane force winds, Wisconsin presently floats on the water at an average of two to four feet above the bottom. This marker made possible by a gift from Glenn & Sadler, a Division of Transystems Corporation.

My impressions: I’m a little underwhelmed by this marker. Rather than the history of the ship, it focuses on how it came to be where it is, but doesn’t draw further back than a decade. It is also the last sentence that bothers me. This is the only Cannonball Trail sign I’ve seen to date that includes a sponsorship message. I might be OK with it, were the company donating it not also mentioned in the marker text. It almost makes me wonder whether the first mention of Glenn & Sadler was warranted or a matter of rewarding a donor in some way. I mean, I’ve never heard of Glenn & Sadler other than from this marker, but there is a perception problem, I think, when one recognizes a contribution made by somebody who sponsors the marker (and, presumably in this case, requires their name to be recognized as a sponsor). It diminishes the credibility of the marker text and makes me less inclined to trust it without further research.

Setting that aside, the presence of Wisconsin on the waterfront is another of those things that indicate that I’m not a long-timer here. Even though it’s been there less than a decade, it is another of those things (like Town Point Park) which define downtown Norfolk in my mind.

Markeroni status: Direct-logged.

Location: Foot of Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:20pm

Transcription of marker:

Battleship Wisconsin and the sister-ships of the Iowa Class arguably hold a symbolic status as monuments in naval surface warship design. Unlike torpedo boats, tin-can destroyers, flat-top aircraft carriers, and pig-boat submarines, the teak decks and towering masts of Wisconsin have perceivable design connections to a bygone era of romance, glory, and naval lore. In the great Nelsonian line-of-battle tradition, the Wisconsin silhouette features visible elements of armored big-gun firepower and elegant lines.

Formally placed into U.S. Navy commission on 16 April 1944, the bluejackets and officers of Wisconsin shared a common and unique bond as battleship sailors-serving aboard a vessel that was distinctively important to the fleet. Following centuries of naval tradition and surface warship development, Wisconsin is formidably armed with a main battery of three 16″/50 gun turrets and a secondary battery of five duo-purpose 5″/38 gun mounts. Accommodating various types of aircraft, the decks of the Wisconsin once bristled with numerous antiaircraft gun mounts in World War II, the Korean War, and throughout the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, the Wisconsin crew coordinated the first Tomahawk missile strikes against Iraq using contemporary communications and intelligence gathering equipment.

My impressions: This marker does a good job of placing the Wisconsin in context for people, like me, who don’t know all that much about warships and their history or design. That said, I wonder if this is “too much of a good thing,” having three markers of the same series beside the USS Wisconsin. I guess it helps keep one walking along the Cannonball Trail, but three markers so close to each other on one ship…some of this felt repetitious after the marker I posted last night…and we still haven’t gotten to the third marker; that will come later tonight.

Markeroni status: Direct-logged.

Cannonball Trail
Battleship Wisconsin: BB-9 and BB-64 in the Homeport of Naval History

Location: Alongside the USS Wisconsin, at the foot of Plume St, next to Nauticus, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:15pm

Transcription of marker:

Battleships bearing the name Wisconsin have graced the waters off Norfolk and Hampton Roads since the beginning of the twentieth century. Ornately designed to show-off the “Stars and Stripes” of the United States, the first battleship Wisconsin (BB-9) was commissioned in 1901. John Philip Souza and the United States Marine Corps Band once performed patriotic marches from the wooden decks of the first Wisconsin. In 1906, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt traveled to Norfolk with many other Americans to bid farewell to the first Wisconsin sailing on a two year voyage around the world with the famed “Great White Fleet.” Serving primarily as a Midshipman training ship during World War I, the first Wisconsin was scrapped in 1922.

During World War II, the second battleship Wisconsin (BB-64) was commissioned under the command of U.S. Navy Captain Earl E. Stone. Born in the “Badger State” of Wisconsin, Stone earlier served as a Naval Academy Midshipman aboard the first battleship Wisconsin (BB-9). Surviving the Imperial Japanese strikes at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Stone had a key role in organizing the war-winning communications intelligence efforts of the U.S. Navy. For a job well done, he received the highly coveted appointment to command the second battleship Wisconsin (BB-64) in the spring 1944.

Sailing into the embattled waters of the Pacific, the crew of the second battleship Wisconsin earned five battle stars during World War II. Home-ported at Pier 7 on Norfolk Naval Base, the second Wisconsin earned another battle star in the Korean War and, similar to the first Wisconsin (BB-9), served primarily as a Midshipman training ship during the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, the crew of Wisconsin (BB-64) coordinated the first Tomahawk missile strikes against Iraq.

My impressions: One of my first trips around the area after I moved down here was to go to see USS Wisconsin. It is certainly an impressive sight to walk down the street and all of a sudden see it once you’ve walked through the gates in front of it. And it is interesting how they wove together the history of the two Wisconsins on this marker (though the repeated specifications of BB-9 and BB-64 through the text grew tiresome, especially since the descriptions of first or second Wisconsin were quite clear already).

Markeroni status: Direct-logged.

Location: City Hall Ave & Boush St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:15pm

Transcription of marker: Tidal flooding from hurricanes and northeasters has always been a part of Norfolk’s relationship with the sea. In 1693, the Royal Society of London reported that “there happened a most violent storm in Virginia, which stopped the course of ancient channels and made some where there were never any.” Hurricanes in 1749 and 1806 formed the Willoughby Spit section of Ocean View, and a hurricane in August 1933 killed 18 people. In March 1962, the City was struck by the “Ash Wednesday Storm,” a massive, slow-moving northeaster which caused widespread destruction along the entire east coast. By the early 1970’s, permanent flood protection for downtown was constructed.

This storm water pump station and the adjacent floodwalls protect the low-lying areas of downtown from tidal flooding. Large steel doors at various points allow passage through the wall, but are periodically closed when tidal flooding is anticipated. Beneath City Hall Avenue, which was once a canal, is a large box culvert that collects storm water runoff from the downtown area. The box culvert carries storm water to a “sump” or pit beneath the pump station, where trash and debris are removed before pumping the water into the river.

My impressions: Having grown up in a town along a river, but with a great deal of elevation change beside the river, it is unusual for me to consider flooding, and given where I lived, hurricanes are also phenomena only experienced via the crazy news reporters who ride out the storms and broadcast on the news channels. I also remember the flooding from one of my early visits to Norfolk, where a walking path along the river was under a couple of feet of water from “run-of-the-mill” flooding.

It’s also unusual to think of the weather “creating land,” like Willoughby Spit. But these are things that the people here have lived with.

Markeroni status: Direct-logged.

Location: Corner of City Hall Ave & Granby St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:10pm

Transcription of marker: The Monticello Hotel, which opened at the corner of City Hall Avenue and Granby Street on September 27, 1898, was the largest and finest hotel in Norfolk for over 60 years. By 1885 Town Back Creek had been filled to Granby Street. Construction of the hotel spurred additional development along the new City Hall Avenue. The hotel suffered a devastating fire on January 1, 1918. In addition to the flames, fire fighters had to deal with bitter cold and ice. When it reopened in 1919, two additional floors had been added, including a large dining room and horseshoe-shaped ballroom known in later years as the Starlight Room. This became a favored location for balls, dances, and community events. The grandly appointed mahogany bar doubled as a billiards parlor during Prohibition. During the 1933 hurricane, the hotel and a broad area of downtown suffered considerable flood damage. The Monticello Hotel was the first building in Norfolk to be imploded in January 1976 to make way for the Norfolk Federal Building now on this site.

My impressions: Well, we have quite the elemental story here: fire, ice, wind, flooding, and implosion! I love some ways of glossing past something. When they say the “bar doubled as a billiards parlor during Prohibition,” that seems to me to be a sly way of saying tha the bar had a billiards parlor cover, but you could still get your drinks. I could be wrong, but that’s how it reads to me. This is also one of those times I’m glad I’m young, because no event described on this marker took place after my birth (although I’m not sure when the construction of the federal building was completed).

Markeroni status: Direct-logged.

Location: City Hall Ave, between Monticello Ave and Granby St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:10pm

Transcription of marker: Margaret Douglass, a white woman from Charleston, South Carolina, moved to Norfolk with her daughter Rosa in 1845 and lived near here on the former Barraud Court. She was a vest maker by occupation. In June 1852 she and her daughter opened a school in the second story back room of her house to teach 25 free black children, both boys and girls, how to read and write. Tuition was three dollars a quarter. After she was seen walking in the funeral procession of one of her deceased students, her school was raided, and she was arrested. She argued her own case in court, pointing out that the wives and daughters of several court officials taught black children weekly in Sunday School classes at Christ Church from the same books she used. After being found guilty, she served a month in jail. Later she moved to Philadelphia with her daughter and gained considerable notoriety based on her booklet about her experience in Norfolk that was published in 1854.

My impressions: In order not to get completely wound up about how wrong the world was at that point, I’m just going to thank the city of Norfolk for having the honesty to place a marker to recall a shameful part of its history.

Markeroni status: Direct-logged.

Cannonball Trail
Town Back Creek and Stone Bridge

Location: City Hall Ave & Monticello Ave, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:05pm

Transcription of marker: Town Back Creek, extending eastwardly from the Elizabeth River almost to St. Paul’s Church, was the northern end of the original town of Norfolk. By the early 1800’s new residential development had occurred north of the creek. Two early footbridges connected this newer area to the old town, one at Catherine (now Bank) Street in 1798 and one at Granby Street in 1801. In 1818–1819 the one at Granby Street was replaced by Stone Bridge. It was built by William H. Jennings  and was distinguished by an arched rise at its center. The bridge remained a local landmark until 1884 when filling of Town Back Creek to Granby Street was completed. City Hall Avenue was developed in 1885 as a grand boulevard from the City Hall (now MacArthur Memorial) to Granby Street. Most of the remainder of Town Back Creek was filled by 1905 and City Hall Avenue was extended westward. Major construction at this corner included the Monticello Hotel in 1898 and the Royster Building in 1912.

My impressions: Coming into a new place, it is quite hard to think of an urban downtown area as ever having been anything else. In most cases, very few traces of that earlier time remain, other than a river or railroad that may run through or past the city. Today, I would not have known that bridges were once needed in what is now downtown Norfolk. Always interesting to see those markers which are reminders of things we can’t see today.

Markeroni status: Direct-logged.

Municipal Historical Marker
Tripoli Street

Location: Monticello Ave & Tazewell St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:00pm

Transcription of marker: Monticello Avenue, south of Market Street was formerly Tripoli Street. It was named in honour of Commodore Stephen Decatur’s victory over the Barbary pirates, after he had requested that his own name should not be used.

My impressions: This one’s short and sweet. I appreciate the correct (ahem) spelling of honour on the marker. I also note that this is not the first time we’ve come across Commodore Decatur: the last time was across the river on the marker for Trinity Church, Portsmouth, where he is mentioned as a participant in a celebrated duel with Commodore James Barron (who is buried there).

A quick trip to Wikipedia tells me that Barron challenged Decatur to the duel over comments Decatur had made about Barron’s conduct more than a decade earlier. (Decatur served on the court-martial that found Barron guilty of unpreparedness and barred him from command for five years.) And the reason I haven’t found any markers that elaborate on the duel is because it’s not really a part of local history: the duel took place in Maryland. But this is getting afield from this marker, so I’ll leave off here.

One other interesting wrinkle on this one…My camera was the big help on this snarf…Because of road construction on Monticello Ave, I would not have been easily able to cross the road to get to this marker. (Zoom lenses can be wonderful things.)

Markeroni status: Logged.

Update (7/16): After some discussion, I’ve decided to consider these markers as city markers, so have changed the heading and category tag to match that. As there are not enough of these City of Norfolk markers outside the Cannonball Trail series to form a list, I have included them in the parent category “Municipal Historical Markers.”