Markers of History

Taking it easy for the week­end, so only one post today…tomorrow, I’ll start post­ing some of the mark­ers I found in Norfolk when I was there for the re-opening of Town Point Park and the first day of Harborfest ear­lier this month.

Wildcard Markers
History of Thalia

Location: Thalia Station Dr, just S of Virginia Beach Blvd, Virginia Beach, VA 23452

Visited: June 27, 2009, 7:25pm

Transcription of marker:

HISTORY OF THALIA

The word “Thalia” is derived from the Greek “thallein”, mean­ing to flour­ish and bloom. The com­mu­nity of Thalia is gen­er­ally bounded on the west by Thalia Creek, on the east by Lynn Shores Road, on the north by the Eastern Branch of the Lynnhaven River and on the south by the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway. Thalia is a part of the Edward H. Mosley estate known as “Summerville Plantation”, and appears in the offi­cial deed of record book at the Princess Anne County (now Virginia Beach) Courthouse dated 1807. Thalia was a sched­uled stop for the Norfolk, Albemarle and Atlantic Railroad. During World War II, Camp Ashby, (aka Camp Thalia) the German Prisoner of War Camp, was located on what is now the site of The City of Virginia Beach Central Library and the prop­erty adjoin­ing it.

AUNT PENNY’S PARK

This pri­vate park is to honor John J. and Paula L. “Aunt Penny” Collins for their unique con­tri­bu­tions to the com­mu­nity of Thalia. They estab­lished one of the very first com­mer­cial busi­nesses in Thalia, pre-1950. Their “Cabins-in-the-Pines”, at 4145 Virginia Beach Blvd., encom­passed a restau­rant, tourist court, hard­ware store and an Amoco gas sta­tion They were devoted to the com­mu­nity of Thalia and gave unselfishly of their time in pub­lic ser­vice. Among other con­tri­bu­tions, they played a lead­ing role in estab­lish­ing the first all-volunteer fire depart­ment in the City of Virginia Beach (for­merly Princess Anne County) at Thalia in 1952. In 1990, Aunt Penny real­ized her life­time dream with the devel­op­ment of Collins Square Shopping Center.

My impres­sions: I’m not sure I recall ever see­ing a marker like this one before. Superficially, the col­or­ing reminds me of the plaques for Canadian national his­toric sites, but I’m intrigued by what would lead this marker to be placed. I’m guess­ing (and I could quite eas­ily be wrong) that it was either “Aunt Penny” or her fam­ily who placed this marker. And so it’s one that I would take with a grain of salt.  Not only because there wasn’t likely, say, the sort of review pro­cees a state marker or one placed by a city would have, but also because there are some def­i­nite leaps to hyper­bole or mar­ket­ing. The last sen­tence, espe­cially with­out any expla­na­tion of what her “life­time dream” actu­ally was and how the shop­ping cen­ter devel­op­ment real­ized it…over the top.

But putting all that aside, I did learn some things about Thalia…I didn’t know there had been a rail­way sta­tion or a POW camp there and the vol­un­teer fire depart­ment infor­ma­tion was neat to see. Most of all, it was nice to see some pri­vate recog­ni­tion of his­tory in a place that appears turned over to strip malls, traf­fic, and devel­op­ment. The char­ac­ter of the area may have changed, but the marker is a reminder of ear­lier days. I just hope that, if the com­plex ever gets taken over by new own­ers that the pub­lic and vis­i­ble reminder of the area’s his­tory will remain.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

State Historical Marker
Virginia K 276
The Testing of Grace Sherwood

The Testing of Grace Sherwood

Location: In front of Sentara Bayside Hospital at the inter­sec­tion of Independence Blvd & Witchduck Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23455

Visited: May 19, 2009, 7:05pm

Transcription of plaque:

The witch­craft case of Grace Sherwood is one of the best known in Virginia. She was accused of bewitch­ing a neighbor’s crop in 1698. Allegations grew over time until the Princess Anne County gov­ern­ment and her accusers decided she would be tested by duck­ing, since water was con­sid­ered pure and would not per­mit a witch to sink into its depths. Sherwood’s accusers on 10 July 1706 tied her hands to her feet and dropped her into the Western Branch of the Lynnhaven River near what is now known as Witch Duck Point. Sherwood floated, a sign of guilt. She was impris­oned, but was even­tu­ally released. Sherwood lived the rest of her life qui­etly and died by 1740.

My impres­sions: I must con­fess that there is a cer­tain detach­ment in the text of this marker that strikes me. It seems to stick to such a bare bones recita­tion of facts that it leaves out a whole lot of the impact of the story. I do won­der if part of that is because of the (newer) statue which stands nearby (and which I’ll dis­cuss in my next post here), which appears focused on the no-win sit­u­a­tion of a choice between death or guilt and how unjust that was to Sherwood.

Notes for future snar­fers: The Bayside hos­pi­tal park­ing lot is con­ve­nient for view­ing this marker (and it is at the far end of the lot from the build­ing, right near the inter­sec­tion itself, along­side Independence Blvd).  Also acces­si­ble from this park­ing lot is the statue of Sherwood, which I’ll dis­cuss in my next post.