Markers of History

Cannonball Trail
Monticello Hotel, 1898

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.

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8-M
Crawford House

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

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:30pm

Transcription of marker:

Erected 1835 by J. W. Collins, Portsmouth’s first five-storey build­ing and for many years a lead­ing hotel. Presidents Van Buren, Tyler, and Fillmore were enter­tained here.

Virginia State Library , 1961

My impres­sions: There were two things about this marker that sur­prised me: first, that the text was so short. Second that in that short text, they high­light all the pres­i­dents who were enter­tained there…and they’re all pres­i­dents that I think most peo­ple for­get about and don’t have much of a clue who they were. Oh, well. I also won­der about the nam­ing: was it called Crawford House after the founder of Portsmouth? Or was Crawford Street named after him and the hotel named after the street?

Notes for future snar­fers: This is on the same block as the statue of William Craford that I wrote about ear­lier today.