Markers of History

Cannonball Trail
Granby Street

Location: Granby St (as you might have guessed), on the west side of the street between Main St and Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: June 23, 2009, 4:00pm

Transcription of marker:

Granby Street was named in 1769 to honor Englishman John Manners (1721 – 1770), Marquess of Granby. The orig­i­nal street ran three blocks from Bute Street south to Town Back Creek, a semi-navigable stretch of marsh­land run­ning the length of today’s City Hall Avenue. Town Back Creek was a bar­rier to devel­op­ment in the north­ern por­tion of the Borough until a bridge was built in 1818 to span the creek at Granby. As it became more acces­si­ble, Granby Street was trans­formed into a res­i­den­tial area of stately homes.

The elec­tric street­car debuted in Norfolk in 1894, and neigh­bor­hoods were estab­lished along the route. Many Granby Street res­i­dents moved to the new sub­urb of Ghent, and busi­nesses of every kind replaced their for­mer homes. By 1910, Granby Street sur­passed Main Street as Norfolk’s busiest shop­ping dis­trict. From 1976 to 1986 part of Granby was closed to vehic­u­lar traf­fic and renamed Granby Mall. Granby Street declined through the 1990s, but with the open­ing of Tidewater Community College and MacArthur Center it has been revi­tal­ized with res­i­dences, the­aters, and restaurants.

My impres­sions: I think the big sur­prise to me in this marker is how hon­est a por­trayal it appears to be of some very recent events. I mean, to only one decade later, refer to an area as declin­ing, as this describes Granby Street through the 1990s, shows a will­ing­ness to face harsh realities.

Going off the topic of his­tor­i­cal mark­ers, I find it inter­est­ing that at one point part of the street was closed to vehi­cles, but that it didn’t work to attract peo­ple. It reminds me of the Sparks Street Mall in Ottawa, which never seems to live up to its poten­tial (although part of the prob­lem there may be the num­ber of gov­ern­ment build­ings in that area).

It’s also inter­est­ing for me to see how recent some things I take for granted are. I mean, I just moved to the area six months ago, so it stretches my mind to think of the area with­out the MacArthur Center, despite how recently it’s been built.

Markeroni sta­tus: Awaiting inclusion.