Markers of History

Colonial Parkway mark­ers
Naval Weapons Station

Location: Colonial National Historic Pkwy, Yorktown, VA 23691

Visited: July 4, 2009, 11:55am

Transcription of marker: The piers extend­ing into the York River, just to the right, serve a major Navy instal­la­tion. Since its estab­lish­ment in 1918, then as a Mine Depot, it has served our coun­try in two World Wars and the Korean con­flict as well as in peace time.

My impres­sions: Not a whole lot to say about this, but it does always sur­prise me when his­toric sites and mark­ers are in close prox­im­ity to mil­i­tary areas. I made a def­i­nite deci­sion to forego any attempt at a photo of the sign and its sub­ject, given that. But that history/military com­bi­na­tion seems to come up a lot for the Colonial NHP. Not only does it hap­pen here along the Colonial Parkway, but also at the Cape Henry Memorial in Virginia Beach.

Cannonball Trail
Armed Forces Memorial

Location: West end of Town Point Park beside Elizabeth River, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:25pm

Transcription of marker:

The Armed Forces Memorial is located here on a river that has for more than 200 years car­ried ser­vice­men off to war and returned them home to loved ones. Within the Memorial are 20 inscrip­tions from let­ters writ­ten home by U.S. ser­vice mem­bers who lost their lives in war. The let­ters have been cast in thin sheets of bronze and are scat­tered across the Memorial as if blown there by the wind. From the Revolutionary War through the Gulf War each con­flict is represented.

Revolutionary War 1775 – 1783 • War of 1812 1812 – 1815 • Civil War 1861 – 1865 • World War I 1917 – 1918
World War II 1941 – 1945 • Korean War 1950 – 1953 • Vietnam 1962 – 1975 • Gulf War 1990 – 1991

Caution: The Memorial con­tains bronze let­ters pro­trud­ing from the walk. Please watch your step and show appro­pri­ate respect. Adults should accom­pany chil­dren, and no pets please.

Examples of bronze letters

My impres­sions: This is quite the unique mon­u­ment and it is very touch­ing. There is some­thing about let­ters between peo­ple who know each other. And I’m not sure it has trans­lated as well into the e-mail and instant mes­sag­ing age. Reading these let­ters feels quite inti­mate, and that we are get­ting to hear from these peo­ple as they really were.

I also have to admit to some sur­prise that the Memorial, with its curls of bronze “paper” on the ground was ever approved. It seems that so eas­ily some­body could trip and fall (though I believe there is ample space around them for wheelchair/walker access). I won­der if the fact that it’s sur­rounded by water on two sides (and there­fore is not a “con­ve­nient short-cut” to any­where, as well as only hav­ing two entrances in the brick wall that sur­rounds the memo­r­ial helped.

I am glad that it is there, because I think it ful­fills excel­lently its func­tion of help­ing us to remem­ber the sac­ri­fices made by those who have served and those who were left behind by fam­ily mem­bers who served their coun­try (and those who could not return).

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.

Cannonball Trail
Battleship Wisconsin: A Floating Fortress

Location: Foot of Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:20pm

Transcription of marker:

Battleship Wisconsin and the sister-ships of the Iowa Class arguably hold a sym­bolic sta­tus as mon­u­ments in naval sur­face war­ship design. Unlike tor­pedo boats, tin-can destroy­ers, flat-top air­craft car­ri­ers, and pig-boat sub­marines, the teak decks and tow­er­ing masts of Wisconsin have per­ceiv­able design con­nec­tions to a bygone era of romance, glory, and naval lore. In the great Nelsonian line-of-battle tra­di­tion, the Wisconsin sil­hou­ette fea­tures vis­i­ble ele­ments of armored big-gun fire­power and ele­gant lines.

Formally placed into U.S. Navy com­mis­sion on 16 April 1944, the blue­jack­ets and offi­cers of Wisconsin shared a com­mon and unique bond as bat­tle­ship sailors-serving aboard a ves­sel that was dis­tinc­tively impor­tant to the fleet. Following cen­turies of naval tra­di­tion and sur­face war­ship devel­op­ment, Wisconsin is for­mi­da­bly armed with a main bat­tery of three 16″/50 gun tur­rets and a sec­ondary bat­tery of five duo-purpose 5″/38 gun mounts. Accommodating var­i­ous types of air­craft, the decks of the Wisconsin once bris­tled with numer­ous anti­air­craft gun mounts in World War II, the Korean War, and through­out the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, the Wisconsin crew coor­di­nated the first Tomahawk mis­sile strikes against Iraq using con­tem­po­rary com­mu­ni­ca­tions and intel­li­gence gath­er­ing equipment.

My impres­sions: This marker does a good job of plac­ing the Wisconsin in con­text for peo­ple, like me, who don’t know all that much about war­ships and their his­tory or design. That said, I won­der if this is “too much of a good thing,” hav­ing three mark­ers of the same series beside the USS Wisconsin. I guess it helps keep one walk­ing along the Cannonball Trail, but three mark­ers so close to each other on one ship…some of this felt rep­e­ti­tious after the marker I posted last night…and we still haven’t got­ten to the third marker; that will come later tonight.

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.

This is the first of three mark­ers related to the Battleship Wisconsin all found along­side the ship beside Nauticus on the Norfolk water­front. The remain­ing two Wisconsin mark­ers will appear on the blog tomorrow.

Cannonball Trail
Battleship Wisconsin: BB-9 and BB-64 in the Homeport of Naval History

Location: Alongside the USS Wisconsin, at the foot of Plume St, next to Nauticus, Norfolk, VA 23510

Visited: July 3, 2009, 2:15pm

Transcription of marker:

Battleships bear­ing the name Wisconsin have graced the waters off Norfolk and Hampton Roads since the begin­ning of the twen­ti­eth cen­tury. Ornately designed to show-off the “Stars and Stripes” of the United States, the first bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-9) was com­mis­sioned in 1901. John Philip Souza and the United States Marine Corps Band once per­formed patri­otic marches from the wooden decks of the first Wisconsin. In 1906, President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt trav­eled to Norfolk with many other Americans to bid farewell to the first Wisconsin sail­ing on a two year voy­age around the world with the famed “Great White Fleet.” Serving pri­mar­ily as a Midshipman train­ing ship dur­ing World War I, the first Wisconsin was scrapped in 1922.

During World War II, the sec­ond bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-64) was com­mis­sioned under the com­mand of U.S. Navy Captain Earl E. Stone. Born in the “Badger State” of Wisconsin, Stone ear­lier served as a Naval Academy Midshipman aboard the first bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-9). Surviving the Imperial Japanese strikes at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Stone had a key role in orga­niz­ing the war-winning com­mu­ni­ca­tions intel­li­gence efforts of the U.S. Navy. For a job well done, he received the highly cov­eted appoint­ment to com­mand the sec­ond bat­tle­ship Wisconsin (BB-64) in the spring 1944.

Sailing into the embat­tled waters of the Pacific, the crew of the sec­ond bat­tle­ship Wisconsin earned five bat­tle stars dur­ing World War II. Home-ported at Pier 7 on Norfolk Naval Base, the sec­ond Wisconsin earned another bat­tle star in the Korean War and, sim­i­lar to the first Wisconsin (BB-9), served pri­mar­ily as a Midshipman train­ing ship dur­ing the Cold War. During the Persian Gulf War, the crew of Wisconsin (BB-64) coor­di­nated the first Tomahawk mis­sile strikes against Iraq.

My impres­sions: One of my first trips around the area after I moved down here was to go to see USS Wisconsin. It is cer­tainly an impres­sive sight to walk down the street and all of a sud­den see it once you’ve walked through the gates in front of it. And it is inter­est­ing how they wove together the his­tory of the two Wisconsins on this marker (though the repeated spec­i­fi­ca­tions of BB-9 and BB-64 through the text grew tire­some, espe­cially since the descrip­tions of first or sec­ond Wisconsin were quite clear already).

Markeroni sta­tus: Direct-logged.

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.

Markers of History is going to take a hol­i­day week­end off from post­ing, but I didn’t want to leave you high and dry, so we’ll close today with a bumper load of his­tor­i­cal markers.

Path of History
Fort Nelson Park

Location: Fort Nelson Park, cor­ner of Crawford Pkwy & Effingham St, Portsmouth, VA 23704.

Visited: June 23, 2009, 1:55pm

On my last trip to Portsmouth, I came across Fort Nelson Park which con­tained roughly a dozen Path of History mark­ers about Portsmouth Naval Hospital. I’m cross­ing my fin­gers, hop­ing that I man­aged to get all of them. (I’ll have to double-check next time I’m in Portsmouth.)

Given the large num­ber of images and mark­ers included in this post, I will spare the front page of this site and ask you to click the link to see the mark­ers and their texts, but I’ll break with my tra­di­tional order and open this post with:

My impres­sions: I was impressed with the pleas­ant set­ting for these mark­ers. That said, I was dis­ap­pointed (on a hot June day) not to find more shade. Thinking back, I’m won­der­ing what may have stood on that site before the park, which only opened three years ago.

Related to this: See Monday’s post for a state his­tor­i­cal marker about Fort Nelson.

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