Markers of History

Path of History
Court Street Baptist Church

Location: Court St, between Queen St and London St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 1, 2009, 2:00pm

Transcription of marker:

Established in 1789, the Portsmouth and Norfolk Baptist Church served as the first Baptist con­gre­ga­tion in South Hampton Roads. The name was changed in 1791 to Portsmouth Baptist Church and again in 1855 to its cur­rent name, Court Street Baptist Church. This Romanesque Revival-style church is the third build­ing to occupy the site and con­tains the cor­ner­stone of the pre­vi­ous building.

Black mem­bers of Court Street Baptist Church wor­shiped in the base­ment until May 1865 when 318 of the con­gre­ga­tion founded their own church, Zion Baptist. This church became the sec­ond African-American Baptist Church estab­lished in Portsmouth. Located on Green Street, it is still in use today.

My impres­sions: The build­ing is quite unique-looking and I was inspired to look at it even before I saw the Path of History marker. One thing that seems strange to me, given the times and places I’ve grown up, is to think about the for­mal­ized racial seg­re­ga­tion that existed for so long in so many places, and in churches, of all places. I don’t really have much to say, but as I re-copied that marker today, it did come to mind.

Markeroni sta­tus: Will be sub­mit­ted once I have gath­ered infor­ma­tion about the Path of History.

National Register of Historic Places
and State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8-B
Monumental Methodist Church

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:55pm

Location: Corner of Dinwiddie St & Queen St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Transcription of State Historical Marker:

This church, founded 1772, is one of the old­est Methodist churches in Virginia. The first build­ing was erected, 1775, at South and Effingham Streets. The church was moved to Glasgow Street near Court in 1792. It estab­lished the first Sunday school in Portsmouth in 1818. Monumental was moved to this site, Dinwiddie Street, in 1831.

Virginia Conservation Commission 1948

Transcriptions of other markers:

Marker #1:

Monumental UMC
has been placed on the
National Register
of Historic Places
by the United States
Department of the Interior
Nov. 14, 1772

Marker #2:

A. D. 1772
Methodist Society formed by Rev. Robert Williams of England and Isaac Luke of Portsmouth, Virginia

1775
Built at South and Effingham Streets

1792
Moved to Glasgow Street near Court

1818
Formed first Sunday School in Portsmouth

1831
Moved to this site and erected Dinwiddie Street M. E. Church

1856
Built Emanuel M. E. Church North Street for col­ored members

1866
Erected Sunday School chapel

A. D. 1872
Built Monumental Church in mem­ory of the founders 

My impres­sions: It’s there. The exte­rior of this church isn’t a type that moves me. (Yet.) I say that because I would have had a sim­i­lar reac­tion to the inte­rior of my cur­rent church before it became my church. And that non-reaction is prob­a­bly inten­si­fied by the fact that I was get­ting tired. I’d taken a lot of pho­tos and seen a lot of his­tory in the short time since I’d arrived in Portsmouth and it was at this point in the day that I started head­ing back towards the ferry home. And, for me, the inside of most churches is more impres­sive than the outside.

Notes for future snar­fers: It’s Portsmouth, there are LOTS of his­toric sites. If you’re local, just come on over and go wild. If you want to get as much as you can, do the research before you arrive

Markeroni sta­tus: My visit was logged today.

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.