THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509080229
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 21 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines
THIS WEEK 80 YEARS ago, Portsmouth residents checked the Portsmouth Star's Social and Personal Notes to see who was back in town and back in the city's humidity from summer excursions.
Mr. and Mrs. J. Ridgely Porter and Mrs. John Maupin had returned home from Lake George, the column told readers.
Arthur Emmerson and other members of his family - one of Portsmouth's oldest - had ``closed their cottage at Cape Henry and returned to their home on High Street'' where the Commodore now sits.
Other local residents were returning from Niagara Falls and Canada. Some stayed closer to home at Clifton Springs, Warm Springs and Gloucester County.
But while they returned, the same social columns reported, young people were leaving for college.
Cadet Harvey Lindsay had returned to Blacksburg to continue his studies at VPI, the newspaper reported. Other young men had gone to the University of Virginia or William and Mary.
Fifteen young women, including Doris Porter, had headed for the State Normal School at Farmville, now Longwood College.
Advertisements that week encouraged readers to head downtown for ``schoolgirl middy blouses'' on sale for 69 cents. While there, they could take a look at the new fall millinery at Mrs. L.A. Spencer's shop on High Street.
If residents wanted to make sure they were buying the right fashion, they checked the ``Fads and Fancies column'' under the social notes on the women's page.
There they learned that blue serge was the rage, that the Russian and military influence would ``be strongly evident'' in fall styles and that ``short bright-colored velvet jackets (with) ostrich feather collars'' would be popular.
And of course no fashion forecast would be complete without a note about hemlines.
In September of 1915, fashion writers predicted they would ``drop to three inches from the ground.''
While shoppers were downtown, they could stop in Hutchins & Talbot, a sporting goods store on High and Middle streets, which had advertised that ``the September records for your Victrola are here.''
And the Virginia Railway and Power Co., located at 102 High St., was advertising ``a boon to women'' - an electric iron to replace their ``old-fashioned trouble-making flat iron.''
In other parts of the business world, James Mulvey, manager of the Central Improvement Association, told readers that business in and around Portsmouth was doing well.
He wrote ``there is now an increasing demand for men in the building trades and material men are cheerful as to the outlook this fall and predictions are now made by well-informed men that every man out of a job can secure employment within the next 30 days.''
The Virginia and Norfolk smelting companies in West Norfolk were busy constructing new buildings and tanks and were also busy with what Mulvey referred to as ``greatest pier construction in the South.''
Although Mulvey's report indicated the ``real estate market inactive,'' he sounded a hopeful note over money the smelting companies were investing into housing for ``the many new men employed. . . ''
About 50 homes would be needed and Mulvey wrote those new houses would be located in neighborhoods such as Prentis Park, Port Norfolk, Park View, Brighton, Cottage Place and Westhaven.
Westhaven was about to ``boom,'' with 40 lots expected to be sold to one company and 400 to another, he reported.
Employment also looked good for 14 young men whose names, along with the trades they were learning, was listed in a story about new apprentices at the Naval Shipyard.
Other shipyard news that week included the announcement that bids would open for construction of new Marine barracks at the facility, a project which would cost from $150,000 to $200,000.
Local progress also brought the news that Portsmouth and Norfolk were about to get a branch office of the Highway Commission.
``It is said that there has been such a demand for road improvement from this section and that the automobile owners here have been paying such a large tax that it was decided that they are entitled to better highways.''
The growing number of automobile owners also spurred the city to look at the possibility of a traffic officer for the corner of High and Court streets.
Elsewhere in the nation, readers learned:
``Several thousand suffragists'' were attending a convention in San Francisco with the ``main object. . . formulate a solid representation of the voting women in endorsement of the Susan B. Anthony Suffrage Amendment for passage by Congress at the coming session.''
``Sara Bernhardt, the world's greatest actress,'' readers were told, would ``probably never appear on the stage again. After a single performance for the movies she has discovered she was unable to use her new artificial leg well enough to walk.''
Unfortunately readers were also hearing about a new drug that might not have meant much to residents then, but that would become a great problem for some of their grandchildren.
``A new drug to replace opium, the cost of which has soared out of reach of the users by the enforcement of the Harrison Anti-Drug Act, has gained an alarming foothold in (California),'' the wire story reported. ``The new `dope' is marihuana or Indian Hemp and it is secured from a plant common to Northern Mexico.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos courtesy of the PORTSMOUTH PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Emmerson family owned these homes in the 400 block of High
Street: the Victorian style, left, built in 1893; and the other,
with a Dutch roof, in 1785.
Traffic was picking up on High Street at the time this photo was
taken, in 1915. The view is between Crawford and Middle streets.
FOR HISTORY BUFFS
Barnabas Baker is available as a consultant on local and state
history from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at
the Portsmouth Public Library, 601 Court St. For more information,
call 393-8501.
The Portsmouth Genealogical Society meets at 3 p.m. the fourth
saturday of each month, also at the Portsmouth Public Library. For
more information, call 393-1205.
by CNB