| Virginia, Norfolk — Armed Forces Memorial |
| | 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 confilict is represented.
Revolutionary War . . . — Map (db m3475) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway |
| | Off this point in the Elizabeth River is the zero mile buoy marking the beginning of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. In colonial times water transportation was the principal mode for moving cargo. The idea of a canal connecting the Elizabeth River in Virginia with the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina originated with Colonel William Byrd II of Virginia in 1728 when he was surveying the Virginia-North Carolina border. The Dismal Swamp Canal was authorized by Virginia in 1787 and by North . . . — Map (db m3478) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — KN-3 — Bank Street Baptist Church |
| | The Bank Street Baptist Church was built on this site in 1802 as a Presbyterian church. In 1840 it was purchased by a group of free blacks to serve them as a Baptist church. Because it had one of the first church bells in Norfolk, the building was known as the Bell Church. The church continued to serve the black community until its demolition in 1967 when the congregation moved to its new location on Chesapeake Boulevard. — Map (db m3323) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Battle, Monitor and Merrimack |
| | On March 9, 1862, the first battle between ironclad ships occurred in Hampton Roads when the U.S.S. Monitor and the C.S.S. Virginia (Merrimack) met in a naval engagement which opened the era of the armored warship. — Map (db m21215) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Battleship Wisconsin: BB-9 and BB-64 — in the Homeport of Naval History |
| | 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 Sousa and the United States Marine Corps Band once performed patriotic marches from the wooden decks of the first Wisconsin. In 1906, President Theodore “Teddy” . . . — Map (db m3376) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Battleship Wisconsin: Berthed in Norfolk — the Homeport of Naval History |
| | Redefining the skyline of downtown Norfolk, battleship Wisconsin stands stoically with dominating presence. After months of dredging and construction, Wisconsin majestically slipped into the seemingly tailored berth without a hitch on 7 December 2000—fifty-seven years after the warship was originally launched. Berthing the 45,000 ton, 887.3 foot long, and 108 foot wide battleship was a major feat of engineering. The waters of the Elizabeth River around Nauticus are extremely . . . — Map (db m3407) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Battleship Wisconsin: A Floating Fortress |
| | 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 . . . — Map (db m3378) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Commercial Place |
| | 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 water side.” 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 . . . — Map (db m21041) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Downtown Waterfront Revitalization |
| | In the 1950s the downtown waterfront contained an assortment of aging facilities-wharves, warehouses, rail lines, ship chandlers, tugboat operations, and ferry docks. The city of Norfolk made a significant decision. An area of downtown along the Elizabeth River should be transformed from a working waterfront into a public waterfront. As the old was cleared, the new appeared, beginning with the public esplanade and hotel in 1974. The first Harborfest celebration in 1977 demonstrated that public . . . — Map (db m3480) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Epworth United Methodist Church, 1894 |
| | This 1894 Richardsonian Romanesque granite and sandstone church was designed by Norfolk architects James E. R. Carpenter and John V. Peebles. It was built to accommodate the growing congregation of the 1850 Granby Street Methodist Church at the northeast corner of Granby and Freemason Streets. Both churches originated from the 1802 Cumberland Street Methodist Church, the first Methodist congregation in Norfolk.
The congregation named their new house of worship “Epworth,” after . . . — Map (db m3372) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Ferries to Portsmouth and Berkley |
| | According to tradition, ferry service across the Elizabeth River was first established near this location in 1636 by Captain Adam Thoroughgood and operated by Lower Norfolk County. The earliest ferries were simply skiffs rowed by men. Later larger paddle wheel vessels were propelled by horses or mules on treadmills. In 1715, Major Samuel Boush was running two ferries for an annual fee of three thousand pounds of tobacco. The first steam ferry to serve Norfolk and Portsmouth was the . . . — Map (db m20363) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — First Baptist Church |
| | First Baptist Church Norfolk Virginia has been registered as a Virginia Historic Landmark pursuant to the authority vested in the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission act of 1966. This property has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior 1983 — Map (db m3327) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Flood Protection for Downtown Norfolk |
| | Tidal flooding from hurricanes and northeasters has always been a part of Norfolk’s relationship with the sea. In 1693, the Royal Society of London reported that “there happened a most violent storm in Virginia, which stopped the course of ancient channels and made some where there never were any.” Hurricanes in 1749 and 1806 formed the Willoughby Spit section of Ocean View, and a hurricane in August 1933 killed 18 people. In March 1962, the City was struck bye the “Ash . . . — Map (db m3374) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Fort Tar |
| | This is the site of Fort Tar, built to guard the approach to the city from the west, situated on the outskirts of Norfolk, near Armistead’s Bridge, which spanned Glebe Creek nearby. It served with Forts Barbour, Norfolk, and Nelson to protect Norfolk and Portsmouth from invasion by the British in the War of 1812. — Map (db m21186) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Four Farthing or Town Point |
| | Here at a cedar tree was the western limit of the fifty acres constituting the original town of Norfolk. The land was bought in 1682 as a port for lower Norfolk County from Nicholas Wise, Jr. for “tenn thousand pounds of tobacco and caske.” It was deeded to Capt. Wm. Robinson and Lt. Col. Anthony Lawson as Feoffees in Trust for the county. — Map (db m21183) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Granby Street |
| | Granby Street was named in 1769 to honor Englishman John Manners (1721 – 1770), Marquess of Granby. The original street ran three blocks from Bute Street south to Town Back Creek, a semi-navigable stretch of marshland running the length of today’s City Hall Avenue. Town Back Creek was a barrier to development in the northern portion of the Borough until a bridge was built in 1818 to span the creek at Granby. As it became more accessible, Granby Street was . . . — Map (db m21185) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Half Moone Fort, 1673 |
| | Hostilities between the British and the Dutch continued for a number of years after the British took New Amsterdam in 1664 and established the colony of New York. The effects were felt in Hampton Roads where Dutch ships destroyed a fleet of tobacco ships at the mouth of the James River in 1667 and another fleet in Lynnhaven Bay in 1673. Following the 1673 attack the Virginia Assembly authorized construction of a fort in Lower Norfolk County to protect British settlements from possible future . . . — Map (db m21212) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — KN-1 — Hospital of St. Vincent dePaul |
| | Founded in 1855, the Hospital of St. Vincent dePaul was Norfolk’s first civilian hospital. Located two blocks south at the corner of Church and Wood strees, the hospital was opened in the home of Ann Plume Behan Herron by eight Daughters of Charity during a yellow fever epidemic. It was incorporated March 3, 1856, and later named DePaul Hopital when moved to its present site at Kinglsey Lane and Granby Street. — Map (db m3324) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — KV5 — Landing of Wool and Surrender of Norfolk |
| | Near here Major-General John E. Wool, on May 10, 1862, Landed with 6000 Union troops. President Lincoln, Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, and Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, watched the movement from a ship in Hampton Roads. As the Confederate troops had withdrawn, Wool marched to Norfolk, which was surrendered to him by Mayor W.W. Lamb that afternoon. — Map (db m2629) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Navy Escort Carriers Based in Norfolk |
| | Navy Escort Carriers based in Norfolk helped win the Battle of the Atlantic. They were the smallest, slowest, and most vulnerable of the Navy's aircraft carriers, but as noted World War II historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, "These escort carrier groups were probably the greatest single contribution of the United States Navy to victory over the enemy submarines."
The first Escort Carriers (CVEs) were converted oilers or built on merchant ship hulls and were originally used to train . . . — Map (db m21213) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — K273 — New Town |
| | New Town once stood to the south along the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River. The community was laid out in 1697 and General Assembly established it as a town in 1740. New Town served as county seat of Princess Anne County from about 1752 to 1778 and was an important port of entry until shortly after the Revolutionary War. During the siege and burning of Norfolk by colonial governor Lord Dunmore's troops begun on 1 Jan. 1776, many Norfolk residents fled to New Town for temporary shelter. By . . . — Map (db m3326) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Northern Limit of Old Norfolk |
| | This marks the Northern limit of the fifty acres constituting the original town of Norfolk. It was bounded on the North by Town Back Creek and Dun-In-The-Mire Creek. The land was purchased as a port for lower Norfolk county for “tenn thousand pounds of tobacco and caske,” being deeded to feoffees in trust for the County in 1682. It was divided into streets and sold in half-acre lots. — Map (db m3367) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — KV-7 — Operation Torch, 1942 |
| | The first major amphibious action of World War II was planned near here in the Nansemond Hotel, HDQ. of Amphibious Force U.S. Atlantic fleet. An Army-Navy staff under Adm. H.K. Hewitt met with Gen. G.S. Patton to plan the movement of Task Force “A” from Hampton Roads to North Africa. — Map (db m21195) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal Church |
| | St. John’s African Methodist Episcopal Church has been registered as a Virginia Historic Landmark pursuant to the authority vested in the Virginia Historic Landmarks Board Act 1966. This property has been entered in the national Register of Historical Places by the United States Department of Interior 1986 — Map (db m3329) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — St. Paul’s Church, 1739 |
| | In 1641 a “chapel of ease” was built here where St. Paul’s Church is now. The 1680 survey of the new town designated this site for a church and burying ground. Many of the founders of Norfolk are buried here. When Norfolk became a borough by royal charter in 1736, it was decided to erect a more substantial church. The new Borough Church was completed in 1739 and became a center of community activities. Along with the rest of Norfolk the church was burned during the British . . . — Map (db m3371) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — The Cedar |
| | A cedar tree near this location, then known as Foure Farthing Pointe, was described in the original patent defining the western boundary of the 50 acres that comprised Norfolk Town. In August 1680 John Ferebee, surveyor for Lower Norfolk County, was instructed to survey a town site on the Elizabeth River. This was completed in October 1680, but it was not until August 1682 that the county, through its agents Anthony Lawson and William Robinson, bought the town site from Nicholas Wise, a . . . — Map (db m3409) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — The Customhouse, 1859 |
| | Construction of theis customhouse began in 1852 and was completed in 1859, replacing an 1819 customhouse located at Water and Church Streets (now Waterside Drive and St. Paul’s Boulevard). This building was designed by Ammi B. Young (1798–1874), the first supervising architect for the United States Treasury Department, who established high architectural standards for federal buildings. During his career Young designed some 70 government buildings around the country, including the . . . — Map (db m21184) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — The First Battle of Ironclad Ships, 1862 |
| | On March 8, 1862 CSS Virginia steamed past this point (1) to a battle which would forever change naval warfare. This ship had previously been a Union steam frigate, USS Merrimack, which had been destroyed near the Gosport Navy Yard (2). Confederate forces found its hull to be sound and constructed a superstructure with iron plates to create a new kind of warship. The Virginia proceeded out into Hampton Roads where she sank USS Cumberland and severely damaged USS . . . — Map (db m3476) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — The Underground Railroad |
| | After northern states began abolishing slavery during the Revolutionary era, fugitives from throughout southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina started to escape by ship from the Norfolk waterfront. With luck and determination, many succeeded in enlisting the aid of black crewmen working aboard northward-bound vessels. Two of the South’s most famous Underground Railroad fugitives, George Latimer and Shadrach Minkins, escaped from Norfolk, most likely by sea. A few ship captains . . . — Map (db m5602) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Town Back Creek and Stone Bridge |
| | Town Back Creek, extending eastwardly from the Elizabeth River almost to St. Paul’s Church, was the northern end of the original town of Norfolk. By the early 1800’s new residential development had occurred north of the creek. Two early footbridges connected this newer area to the old town, one at Catherine (now Bank) Street in 1798 and one at Granby Street in 1801. In 1818 – 1819 the one at Granby Street was replaced by Stone Bridge. It was built by William H. . . . — Map (db m21225) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — Tripoli Street |
| | Monticello Avenue, South of Market Street, was formerly Tripoli Street. It was named in honour of Commodore Stephen Decatur's victory over the Barbary Pirates, after he had requested that his own name should not be used. — Map (db m3370) |
| Virginia, Norfolk — West Point Monument at Elmwood Cemetery — In the Memory of Our Heroes, 1861 - 1865 |
| | Erected by the Norfolk Memorial Association in the memory of our heroes, 1861 - 1865 — Map (db m9829) |
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