Markers of History

State Historic Marker
Virginia Q-8I
City of Portsmouth

Location: US Route 17 at bor­der between the cities of Portsmouth and Chesapeake, High St W, oppo­site Academy Ave, Portsmouth, VA, 23703

Visited: July 4, 2009, 9:50am

Transcription of marker: The site of this city was patented in 1659 by Captain William Carver. Established as a town in 1752 and named by its founder, Lt. Col. Wm. Crawford. Chartered as a city in 1858, it has the country’s old­est naval ship­yard. Established 1767, the nation’s old­est naval hos­pi­tal, com­menced 1827, and is the birth­place of the world’s largest naval installation.

Virginia State Library, 1959

My impres­sions: After all the mark­ers I’ve found in the older areas of Portsmouth, it came as a sur­prise to hear my wife say she’d spot­ted one as we were dri­ving past a sea of fast-food out­lets and busi­nesses. (You can see the Wendy’s in the back­ground of the photo, even.) Though the set­ting seems a lit­tle incon­gru­ous, what bet­ter place to recount the his­tory of the city but as you enter it? (OK, we were leav­ing, but it was on the far side of the road, intended for those enter­ing, I’m sure.) That said, I think there are other mark­ers to com­mem­o­rate nearly every event described on this marker, so it almost seems super­flu­ous. Then again, this is right on US 17, and not every­body is going to ven­ture to the older part of town, so per­haps it has ben­e­fit for get­ting more eyes on the city’s history.

Markeroni sta­tus: Visit logged.

Civil War Trails
Olde Towne Portsmouth

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

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:45pm

Transcription of marker:

Olde Towne Portsmouth
* * *
Southern  Architectural Splendor

The one square block his­toric dis­trict before you is Portsmouth’s Olde Towne. The dis­trict dates to 1752 when Portsmouth was founded by William Crawford. Olde Towne con­tains one of the largest col­lec­tions of his­toric build­ings in Virginia fea­tur­ing Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival, Georgian, and Victorian archi­tec­tural styles.

Olde Towne is the cen­ter­piece of Portsmouth’s Civil War his­tory. Several of the build­ings found through­out the dis­trict played an impor­tant role in events that unfolded in Portsmouth dur­ing the war.

The 1846 Courthouse was once the site of gov­ern­ment in old Norfolk County. Before the Civil War, slaves were sold at the front of the build­ing, and it was here that a vote was taken approv­ing secession.

On April 19, 1861, the day before the Federal evac­u­a­tion of Gosport Navy Yard, mem­bers of Portsmouth’s mili­tia com­pa­nies slept with their weapons in the cour­t­house. The build­ing was used as a hos­pi­tal by Union troops from 1862 until 1865.

The Macon House Hotel knew both gai­ety and despair dur­ing the war. From its Middle Street porch the Virginia Defenders, a local vol­un­teer infantry com­pany, accepted a flag from the ladies of Portsmouth. After the Confederates evac­u­ated Portsmouth in 1862, the Federals used the Macon House as a troop quar­ters and hos­pi­tal. The names of Federal sol­diers carved into the hotel’s floor are still visible.

Two houses, Pass House and the William H. Peters House, played a major role in the Union occu­pa­tion of Portsmouth. The William H. Peters House served as head­quar­ters for Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler while he com­manded the Union forces in Portsmouth. Local leg­end claims that Butler earned his nick­name of “Spoons” while in Portsmouth because of the sud­den dis­ap­pear­ance of fam­ily sil­ver­ware when homes were occu­pied by his troops. The James Murdough Home, known as the Pass House, took on an omi­nous air when it became the head­quar­ters of the Union Adjutant General. In order to leave the city, cit­i­zens first had to report here and secure a pass.

These his­toric build­ings and the many oth­ers that line Olde Towne’s streets pro­vide a glimpse into what a Southern city looked like dur­ing the Civil War.

My impres­sions: When it comes to the National Register of Historic Places, one of the things I’ve avoided record­ing so far are his­toric dis­tricts, because it is too easy to say “Yes, I’ve been there,” but not have done any­thing to appre­ci­ate the his­tory there. A marker like this, though, opens the area up to me, and so I think next time I pay a visit to Portsmouth, I’ll spend some time in Olde Towne, appre­ci­at­ing it, and I’ll record my visit here and at Markeroni.

Markeroni sta­tus: I have direct-logged this site, which has not yet been trans­ferred to its proper data­base code to be recorded by others.

Because I’m being metic­u­lous and want­ing to have every­thing just so, I hadn’t pre­vi­ously included this church, though I had vis­ited it last sum­mer when my wife (who was then my fiancee) and I met with some friends of ours for a meal, one of whom attends Trinity. Also fit­ting that this is posted this week, as yes­ter­day was Trinity Sunday in the church year!

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8-A
Trinity Church
and
National Register of Historic Places
Trinity Episcopal Church

Location: The church is at the cor­ner of Court St & High St, Portsmouth, VA 23704. The marker is down the block, closer to the cor­ner of Court St & Queen St.

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:45pm

Transcription of marker:

Built in 1762 as the parish church of Portsmouth parish, estab­lished in 1761. Later named Trinity; enlarged in 1829; remod­eled in 1898. Colonel William Crawford, founder of Portsmouth in 1752, was a mem­ber of the first vestry. Buried here is Commodore James Barron, com­man­der of the U. S. frigate Chesapeake when attacked by H. M. S. Leopard in 1807; the result was his cel­e­brated duel with Stephen Decatur in 1820. The graves of many Revolutionary patri­ots are here.

Virginia Conservation Commission 1948

My impres­sions: I love the area of Trinity Church, with its church­yard enclosed by a short brick wall. But this seems to be a “throw every­thing in but the kitchen sink” marker with a whole list of dates and peo­ple and no story to tell. It describes the impor­tance, but in spread­ing itself so thin, can’t devote enough detail to any of the peo­ple or facts men­tioned to really bring color to them. (I guess I’m turn­ing into a “his­tor­i­cal marker reviewer.” I don’t think that will work as a career choice, though!) But apart from the his­tory, there’s a sim­ple beauty to the exte­rior of Trinity and the trees in the churchyard.

Notes for future snar­fers: Don’t miss the plethora of other mark­ers in the area.

Markeroni sta­tus: My visit to the his­tor­i­cal marker was logged yes­ter­day. When I have time to orga­nize my “miss­ing snarfs,” I’ll sub­mit the NRHP snarf to be included in the database.

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.

Statue
William Craford

Location: Corner of High Street and Crawford St, Portsmouth, VA 23704

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:25pm

Transcription of plaque:

Col. William Craford
founder of
Portsmouth, Virginia
February 27, 1752

Today, known as
Col. William Crawford

My impres­sions: As I’m writ­ing about these and orga­niz­ing them to write about them, I noticed that this is part of a mini-sequence of Cra[w]ford posts. I remem­ber com­ing across this statue on my first visit to Portsmouth last sum­mer and being instantly pulled in. I’m not sure whether it’s the statue itself or the space around it. I just remem­ber being impressed by it. It isn’t a tow­er­ing mon­u­ment, but I think he feels quite human-sized, and that may be part of why I relate to it.

This is one of those stat­ues that almost looks bet­ter when you get behind it. I had walked down the street to a state his­tor­i­cal marker (that I’ll write about in my next post) and when I came back I was cap­ti­vated by the detail of the bag Craford car­ries. I’m not aware of any mean­ing to the bag, but artis­ti­cally, it impresses me.

Notes for future snar­fers: This one’s pretty much in plain site at its loca­tion. Make sure to step behind it and look at the detail back there, too!

Markeroni sta­tus: I will sub­mit this statue to Markeroni once the whelm level drops.

State Historical Marker
Virginia Q-8-r
Home Site of William Crawford (d. 1762) Founder of Portsmouth

Location: In the median of High St (between Water St & Crawford St), Portsmouth VA 23704.

Visited: June 1, 2009, 1:20pm

Transcription of marker: Here stood the res­i­dence of William Crawford who in 1752 founded the town of Portsmouth on sixty-five acres of his exten­sive plan­ta­tion lands. The house site extended south on Crawford Street 113 feet, and east on High Street to the Elizabeth River. Crawford was pre­sid­ing jus­tice of the Norfolk Cy. court, Lt.-Colonel of the county mili­tia, a wealthy mer­chant and planter.

Virginia Historic Landmark Commission 1975

My impres­sions: This one leaves me with some questions…Why did he found the town? What about that first sen­tence: did he found the town on 65 acres of land or did his res­i­dence stand on 65 acres? And I also note that this is the first state marker I’ve snarfed that’s old enough to say some­thing other than “Department of Historic Resources” at the bot­tom. I found a num­ber of dif­fer­ent labels on the mark­ers I snarfed today, and I’ll try to men­tion each new one as it appears on the blog.

Notes for future snar­fers: Don’t for­get the marker for John Luke Porter, on the same median.

Markeroni sta­tus: This one is not yet sub­mit­ted. It doesn’t appear on the list on the Markeroni site and “Norfolk Naval Shipyard” is listed as Q-8-r. I’ll sub­mit a help request when the whelm level is lower.