THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9512290297
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: LOOKING BACK
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
IT WAS A NEW YEAR'S Day headline citizens would love to see today.
``Nothing ahead for the city but continued good times,'' the headline proclaimed on the front page of The Portsmouth Star in 1917.
The story also gave a description of the jubilation the night before.
``Howling factory whistles, fireworks, tooting steamer sirens and the honk of automobile horns greeted the birth of 1917 in Portsmouth. Until some little time after midnight the downtown section was lively with people and noise, and the coming 12 months should feel satisfied with the reception they received.''
Other residents flocked to local churches, including Calvary Baptist Church and Monumental United Methodist Church, where midnight was met with prayers for peace, the newspaper reported.
While Portsmouth and other cities in the United States celebrated a new year, World War I was still raging in Europe.
An editorial writer that week described the horror of that global battle:
``More millions of men have gone down in battle than in all the years of whole previous centuries, while greater and more armies have engaged in mortal strife than the total of all the armed hosts arrayed throughout the wars of the universe since the inception of mutual carnage among men.''
But the same writer also noted the irony of that human misery - that for the United States the war had brought an ``unparalleled'' economic boon.
According to the New Year's Day story, that was true for Portsmouth as well:
``It is a year that will prove well worth greeting. At no time has the city begun a year with such bright prospects ahead.
``Tremendous activities at the Navy Yard, with a resulting increase in the city's population; a new form of municipal government; the construction here of an immense dry dock; the prospect of building capital ships here - there are a dozen reasons why Portsmouth should view 1917 with an untroubled and confident gaze.''
A previous story had promised readers the year ending would ``go down in history as one of the most prosperous financial years that Portsmouth has ever enjoyed.
``. . . The main feature was good crops and good prices for the products of the truckers, who had previously had three lean years. The second was largely increased employment of labor and skilled mechanics in the Navy Yard; the third was a greater increase in the manufacturing development along the Belt Line and in West Norfolk than had taken place in the previous five years. Railroads and shipping, by being pushed to capacity, helped business generally.
``We now start 1917 with evidence on all sides of even greater prosperity. Demand for labor, both skilled and unskilled, is greater than the supply.''
The story reported new lumber plants along the Belt Line, a new building for the Parker Hosiery Mill and a new Portsmouth Canning Co.
Other signs of economic development included the construction of a new dry dock, shipfitters shop, Marine Barracks and officer's school at the shipyard.
The newspaper reported that the shipyard could grow to as many as 9,000 men that year, with a subsequent ``demand for more houses and more stores.''
``. . . Business men in all lines report good trade and the Christmas season just passed has exceeded the expectations of the most sanguine. Prohibition has proven a most beneficial factor in the progress of the city. Labor has been found more steady and reliable. Landlords and merchants report more prompt payments of their bills and the sessions of the police court witness a very marked falling off in criminal cases to be tried.''
``. . . The banks and building associates . . . are now carrying larger balances than ever before in their history. Money was never more plentiful for legitimate investment in the channels of trade and industry.''
It's hard to know 79 years later if every aspect of life was really that rosy or if newspaper reporters were a cheerleading lot.
Certainly the newspaper gave plenty of space to city leaders and business folks to share similar exuberance.
The newspaper ran a New Year's greeting from the mayor of that time, J.T. Hanvey, and the Park View resident took the opportunity to deliver his slogan and desire for the new year:
``. . . a `Prosperous, progressive Portsmouth' with continuous improvement in moral, sanitary and financial conditions.''
But Hanvey also indicated that the city needed to work on harmony, a message that's still applies today.
In his words:
``The reason we do not accomplish more and get better results is not believed to be due as much to a variety of desires for final results on the part of our best citizens as it is to a variety of efforts which are spasmodically taken or from the large number of viewpoints which are taken and which cause the same object to appear different.''
Just last week - almost eight decades later - Hanvey's daughter, Doris Hanvey Lindauer, was among longtime poll workers honored for their years of service.
She recalled to Currents writer Ida Kay Jordan that her father back in those days was among a group of mayors invited to the White House by President Woodrow Wilson.
``He had a tuxedo and a dinner jacket, but he didn't have a swallow-tailed coat, so he had to go out and buy one to wear to the White House,'' his daughter said. ``I think that's the only time he ever wore it.''
But Hanvey was more concerned about meeting Portsmouth's first city manager than the president that week.
According to one story, the day after New Year's Hanvey and other city officials planned to be down at the wharf to meet the steamer carrying new city manager, T.B. Shertzer.
And with that arrival, Portsmouth would usher in a new way of running the city. ILLUSTRATION: Pedestrians cross the bridge at the foot of Dinwiddie Street in
1917.
Employees of the Virginian Railway work in the traffic department,
back in 1917.
by CNB