Markers of History

State Historical Markers
Virginia Q-8-Q
Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781

Location: Crawford Pkwy, west of Court Street, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:45pm

Transcription of marker: A brick wind­mill near here was close to the south­ern limit of a line of British redoubts erected in March 1781 by order of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, who under Major General William Phillips, com­manded British troops occu­py­ing Portsmouth. This line of for­ti­fi­ca­tions extended north in an arc along Washington Street to the water­front near Court Street.

Virginia State Library, 1962

My impres­sions: I’m a lit­tle con­fused when I take this marker together with marker num­ber Q-8-P, also titled Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781, which I blogged about on Thursday. I am fairly cer­tain that at least one of these mark­ers is no longer in the loca­tion the marker text assumed, because there is very lit­tle north-south dif­fer­ence between their loca­tions, only the width of Crawford Parkway.

They may both be moved from their orig­i­nal loca­tions, because Q-8-P seems fur­ther east than the arc described in this marker, and the cur­rent marker [Q-8-Q] seems to be too far north, given Q-8-P’s ref­er­ence to Dinwiddie Street.

The other thing that strikes me about this marker is that the low­er­case q in the marker num­ber seems “off” to me. It doesn’t look like a q should look in that type. It looks like some­body was impro­vised with a back­wards p. But that could just be my eyes.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

Path of History
Craney Island

Location: Crawford Pkwy, just west of Court St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:40pm

Transcription of marker:

Craney Island played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the War of 1812, fly­ing the Flag of 1795, with fif­teen stars and stripes. American defend­ers held off over­whelm­ing British forces there on June 22, 1813.

Two hun­dred British sol­diers were killed, thir­teen taken pris­oner and forty deserted. There were no American casu­al­ties. This suc­cess­ful bat­tle saved Norfolk, Portsmouth and the Gosport Shipyard from British occu­pa­tion and destruction.

The USS Merrimack (1856 – 1861) was at Norfolk Navy Yard in 1861, when Virginia seceded from the Union. The Federal forces burned and sank the Merrimack as they with­drew from the Navy Yard.

The Confederates sal­vaged the ship and con­verted her to an iron­clad. She was com­mis­sioned the CSS Virginia in February 1862.

In May of 1862, as the Confederates aban­doned the Norfolk area, efforts were made to lighten the Virginia enough to allow her to move up the James River. Unable to do so, she was destroyed by her crew off Craney Island on May 11.

My impres­sions: More War of 1812. And I’ll con­fess that about all I remem­ber from what I learned of that war in his­tory class was “We won.” Oh yes, “and the Americans think they did.” I know the def­i­n­i­tion of “win” is what is impor­tant in fig­ur­ing out what one believes about the war, but as usual, I lack the knowl­edge of what hap­pened to even begin to under­stand it. Maybe a library trip is in my future, so I can pick up the his­tory that isn’t con­densed into only a few para­graphs on a marker here and there.

Given my under­stand­ing of the geog­ra­phy, this seems like a strange loca­tion for a marker about Craney Island, pre­sum­ably there because of the desire for the Path of History to be a walk­a­ble path.

I also received word, via a Flickr com­ment, that next month a his­tor­i­cal marker will be unveiled com­mem­o­rat­ing the Battle of Craney Island. (From fur­ther research, I believe that this will be a state his­tor­i­cal marker, but can’t con­firm that detail yet.) Unfortunately, it appears that my sched­ule won’t per­mit me to attend the unveil­ing, but I def­i­nitely hope to get there in the days after it’s unveiled.

Markeroni sta­tus: Awaiting response on inclu­sion of Path of History.

Path of History
Crawford Bay

Location: Crawford Pkwy, just east of the inter­sec­tion of Court St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:35pm

Transcription of marker:

The peace­ful waters of Crawford Bay play host each year to a num­ber of boat­ing events includ­ing the Cock Island Race and the Crawford Bay Crew Classic. The homes vis­i­ble across the inlet are in a neigh­bor­hood called Swimming Point.

One of the few eighteenth-century manor houses remain­ing in Hampton Roads, the Dale-Reed House, is located in Swimming Point. The fam­ily of Revolutionary War hero Richard Dale once lived in this home. Although mod­ern­ized, the home still has sec­tions of what is prob­a­bly the old­est house in Portsmouth.

My impres­sions: This is a busy area for mark­ers: There is another Path of History marker just west of Court Street. Across from that, there is a block that includes three state his­tor­i­cal mark­ers and a Civil War Trails marker.

Markeroni sta­tus: Awaiting response about inclu­sion of the Path of History list to Markeroni.

We’re in a bit of a con­fus­ing land right now, because there are appar­ently three state his­tor­i­cal mark­ers, each titled Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781. So far, I’ve seen two of them. So this one is from the bend in Crawford Pkwy, right near the Civil War Trails marker I wrote about yes­ter­day, next to the Elizabeth River and its marker (which I’ll write about next).

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8P
Arnold’s British Defenses, 1781

Location: Crawford Pkwy, Portsmouth, VA, 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:30pm

Transcription of marker: This marks the north­ern limit of a line of British redoubts erected in March 1781 by order of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold who, under Major General William Phillips, com­manded British troops occu­py­ing Portsmouth. This line of for­ti­fi­ca­tions extended in an arc south along Dinwiddie and Washington Streets to Gosport Creek and defended Portsmouth from American attack from the west.

Virginia State Library, 1962

My impres­sions: I had to look up what a redoubt actu­ally was. And when I did, one of the Flickr results that came up for me was of one in Kingston, Ontario, just a few blocks from where I lived my sec­ond year of uni­ver­sity there. I guess I’ll have to make sure to get back there, next time I’m in town. (Whenever that is!) I never man­aged to make it to that museum while I lived there. Always meant to…

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged.

You can cer­tainly tell that I was excited to get out and around after my cold! I missed the bus to start my trip. Rather than wait an hour for the next bus in that direc­tion, I decided to cross the road, catch the bus in the other direc­tion a few min­utes later, and then see if I could fig­ure my way there on my own.

Four bus trips and a ferry trip later, I was in Portsmouth (though I ended up arriv­ing there about the time I had planned to start head­ing home!)

The first mark­ers I saw (not count­ing the three I saw from the bus…and yes, I kept track of their loca­tions so I can go back for them) were three mark­ers between Crawford Pkwy and the Elizabeth River: two state his­tor­i­cal mark­ers and this Civil War Trails marker about Portsmouth Naval Hospital

Civil War Trails
Portsmouth Naval Hospital

Location: Crawford Pkwy (between Harbor Ct and Court St), Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:30pm

Transcription of marker:

Portsmouth Naval Hospital
* * *
Administering to Both the  Union and Confederacy

This is the site of the Portsmouth Naval Hospital which served both the Union and the Confederacy dur­ing the Civil War. The Portsmouth Naval Hospital, the U.S. Navy’s first hos­pi­tal, was founded in 1827 by Secretary of the Navy Samuel L. Southard. Architect John Haviland cre­ated Building No. One’s impres­sive Greek Revival design which fea­tures and embell­ished Doric por­tico of 10 columns. The facil­ity opened in 1830. The hos­pi­tal was built on the site of the Fort Nelson of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 era, which was a for­ti­fi­ca­tion made obso­lete by the con­struc­tion of Fortress Monroe across Hampton Roads on Old Point Comfort. Materials sal­vaged from the fort’s demo­li­tion were used in the con­struc­tion of the hos­pi­tal building.

When Virginia left the Union the hos­pi­tal was used by the Confederacy until Portsmouth was aban­doned by Southern forces on May 10, 1862. The Union main­tained the hos­pi­tal through­out the remain­der of the War sup­port­ing the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

In the hos­pi­tal grave­yard is a memo­r­ial to the 337 dead of USS Cumberland and USS Congress killed when these ves­sels were sunk on March 8, 1862, by the CSS Virginia. Fifty-eight Confederates are also buried there.

My impres­sions: This is an inter­est­ing place­ment for this marker, with the hos­pi­tal vis­i­ble across the water. I won­der if this is an attempt to “future-proof” the loca­tion, so that, if the naval hos­pi­tal were to expand at some point in the future, it wouldn’t be caught inside the new gates. it was also fun to have such a scenic loca­tion for a clus­ter of three mark­ers. Was a nice way to get the excite­ment up after the crazi­ness of the morn­ing!  I also have to say that this marker does a remark­able job of con­dens­ing a whole lot of his­tory into a small area.

Markeroni sta­tus: I direct-logged my visit ear­lier today.

Cannonball Trail
Commercial Place

Location: NW of where Commercial Pl & E Main St meet, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: June 1, 2009, 2:55pm

Transcription of marker: When a sur­vey was done in 1680 to lay out the town of Norfolk, one of the few streets shown was “the street that lead­eth to the water­side.” The orig­i­nal loca­tion was just to the west of this site. It fanned out from Front (now Main) Street south to the Elizabeth River. As the new town devel­oped, this area became its com­mer­cial hub. When a mar­ket was built here near Front Street in the early 1700’s the area became known as Market Square. At the river’s edge a ferry dock and com­mer­cial wharves devel­oped. About 1900 the name changed again, to Commercial Place. This illus­tra­tion “Old Norfolk Evening” by artist John Morton Barber, recre­ates the south­ern end of Market Square/Commercial Place in 1887. Double-edged steam fer­ries shut­tle back and forth across the Elizabeth River to Berkley and Portsmouth. The English ship Carnarvonshire is being towed into the har­bor to load goods for her voy­age across the Atlantic, and the side-wheel steamer Luray is car­ry­ing pas­sen­gers down­stream toward Town Point.

My impres­sions: I’ve been near this spot before but hadn’t really paid atten­tion to the marker, nor the small strip of green around it in down­town Norfolk. This cir­cle is dom­i­nated by a Confederate mon­u­ment (which I’ll have to snarf at a later date, since my bus came before I could take a photo of it).

Markeroni sta­tus: My visit was logged on Sunday, after the marker was added to the database.

OK, if I didn’t want to say much of any­thing about the American Revolution or the Civil War, I’m likely to be even less forth­com­ing about the Spanish-American War. Truth be told, about the only thing I knew about it was its name. It wasn’t until a few min­utes ago that I real­ized that it was about Cuba.  But any­way, on to the monument:

Spanish-American War statue

Location: Crawford Pkwy at North St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 1, 2009, 2:10pm

Transcription of marker:

Spanish-American War
1898 – 1902

Erected by the cit­i­zens of Portsmouth and Norfolk County. Sponsored by the Austin R. Davis Camp No 4 — United Spanish War Veterans and Auxiliary to com­mem­o­rate the valor and patri­o­tism of those who vol­un­tar­ily served in the war with Spain, the Phillipine insur­rec­tion and the China relief expedition.

Dedicated May 23, 1942

My impres­sions: The statue looks inter­est­ing, but it is intrigu­ing how the text was placed. The marker I tran­scribed above is to the back of the man it por­trays. The front of the pedestal has a crest of the Spanish American War Veterans. I find it inter­est­ing how many mark­ers and mon­u­ments in Portsmouth are in the mid­dles of streets: there were the first two state his­tor­i­cal mark­ers I saw there, as well as the Confederate Monument, and now this one. Though this one doesn’t have the fence of the Confederate Monument, its set­ting is nicer, with more grass, and I could actu­ally get to it with­out wor­ry­ing that I was going to be struck by a car.

I won­der whether the logo/crest was instantly rec­og­niz­able in the era when this statue was placed. And the tim­ing is curi­ous: 1942, four decades after the war ended (using the date there). Was it sim­ply a mat­ter of funds? Did World War II have any­thing to do with it? I don’t know the answers, but they are cer­tainly inter­est­ing ques­tions. Maybe some­day I’ll do some read­ing and see what I can find to answer them.

Notes for snar­fers: This is very close to the North Street ferry landing.

Markeroni sta­tus: This site has not yet been sub­mit­ted for inclu­sion in the Markeroni database.

After this, I took the ferry, and there was one more snarf in Norfolk before I returned home, and you’ll read about that in my next post.

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.

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8-N
Norfolk County Court House 1845 – 1862

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:35pm

Location: Corner of High St & Court St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Transcription of marker:

Begun 1845, occu­pied 20 July 1846. The archi­tect, Wm. R. Singleton, a Portsmouth native, also designed the old Norfolk city court house. This build­ing stands on one of the four cor­ners des­ig­nated for pub­lic use in 1752 by Lt. Col. William Crawford, founder of Portsmouth. The site was for­merly occu­pied by the clerk’s office when an ear­lier court house, occu­pied in 1803, stood on the north­east cor­ner, opposite.

Virginia State Library 1961

My impres­sions: The set­ting is nice for this marker, but I find it under­whelm­ing, both because it’s about some­thing that used to be there and isn’t now, and because it isn’t all that clear why the site of the for­mer cour­t­house should be impor­tant. I think that there were far more com­pelling facts on the Path of History marker for Towne Square, across Court Street from this state marker.

Notes for future snar­fers: Besides this and the Towne Square marker, there’s also the Confederate mon­u­ment in the mid­dle of Court Street and Trinity Episcopal Church across High Street. There are many other mark­ers in the area.

Markeroni sta­tus: Logged visit yesterday.

Path of History
Towne Square

Location: On High St, near the cor­ner of Court St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:35pm

Transcription of marker:

The inter­sec­tion of High and Court Street was known as Towne Square, the cor­ner­stone of the com­mu­nity. The square that you are stand­ing on was known as Courthouse Square, the site of the orig­i­nal cour­t­house from 1803 – 1846. In 1855 the Ocean Hotel opened at this location.

Portsmouth Parish, now Trinity Episcopal Church, was built on Church Square in 1762. This church still serves the cit­i­zens of Portsmouth.

The final square, Market Square, is where cit­i­zens bought and sold their goods.

The fire that burned the Hotel Monroe, also destroyed 13 busi­nesses on the north side of High Street, east from Court Street. The loss was esti­mated at $1.5 mil­lion. The Famous, a women’s fash­ion store occu­pied the site from 1940 to 1991. Today the build­ing is the home to the Tidewater Community College Visual Arts Center.

Prison Square was the site of the city jail and the loca­tion of pub­lic exe­cu­tion until 1860. In 1846, a new cour­t­house was built on this prop­erty and today the build­ing serves as an art museum.

The Ocean Hotel was con­structed on this cor­ner between 1853 – 1855 by Col. Winchester Watts and Col. Arthur Emmerson. It was later renamed the Hotel Monroe and was destroyed by a fire on August 9, 1957.

My impres­sions: This is the only time dur­ing the day that I felt a lit­tle uncom­fort­able, when a man asked me if I had some change. He was polite (wait­ing until I’d fin­ished with my photo), but in the cir­cum­stances, I wasn’t going to daw­dle. In fact, I don’t think I actu­ally read this marker until I was prepar­ing this post.

Notes for future snar­fers: This inter­sec­tion is quite reward­ing for snar­fers. Across Court Street from this Path of History marker is a state marker about an old court house. In the mid­dle of Court Street is a memo­r­ial to Confederate war dead. And across High Street is Trinity Episcopal Church, which is on national and state lists as well as hav­ing a state marker placed there.

Markeroni sta­tus: Like other Path of History mark­ers, I will wait until I can gather some more infor­ma­tion before sub­mit­ting this for inclu­sion in the Markeroni database.