THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603210503
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Main Street, Norfolk's oldest thoroughfare, has served as a backdrop for the comings and goings of any number of celebrities since it was laid out by John Ferebee, the Lower Norfolk County surveyor, in 1680. It also achieved notoriety in nautical circles during the early 19th century when it was featured as the locale for a sprightly sea ballad.
First, however, a few words concerning the early history of the street are in order:
Even though its east end has recently been truncated to make room for the city's municipal and judicial facilities, what is left of Main Street still makes its zigzag way westward to what was earlier known as Town Point. The dog leg in the street became necessary when Ferebee was faced with the problem of laying out the new town on the highest ground between the Elizabeth River and two then-existing creeks.
Once the street was marked off, its muddy stretches were soon lined with homes, taverns, shops, a courthouse and warehouses. All of these, saving a brick dovecote and the walls of the present St. Paul's Episcopal Church, were wiped out when Norfolk was destroyed by bombardment and fire on the eve of the American Revolution. Meanwhile, any number of celebrated visitors had begun to tread its mired length.
Among these was Benjamin Franklin, then deputy postmaster for the American colonies, who put up at a Main Street tavern in 1756 when he stopped over briefly to be made an honorary citizen of the borough. George Washington, then a relatively unknown Virginia planter, was also a guest of Main Street hostelers in 1751 and 1763.
In 1816, Commodore Stephen Decatur drank his famous toast: ``Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right, and always successful, right or wrong!'' at a banquet in his honor at the Main Street Exchange Hotel. A few years later, Lafayette, during his last triumphal tour of the United States in 1824, was lavishly entertained at Carr's Hotel, another Main Street hostelry.
Still later, in 1833, the famous Indian chief Black Hawk stayed at the Exchange at which time hundreds of gawkers craned their necks daily to get a glimpse of the celebrated Native American warrior when he sunned himself on the hotel balcony.
Four years after Black Hawk's visit, Prince Louis Napoleon, later the French Emperor Napoleon III, was the first guest to register at French's Hotel at main and Church streets in 1837. Prince Napoleon acquired a taste for Lynnhaven oysters while he was here, praising them as the most succulent bivalves he had ever eaten.
Space does not permit further listing of the many famous people for whom Main Street provided a temporary haven. But it should be mentioned that President Grover Cleveland always made the Onyx Bar on East Main Street his headquarters during the annual Back Bay duck hunting seasons.
In the meantime, Main Street had also acquired a gamey reputation among the officers and enlisted men of the U.S. Navy. In that way it became the milieu for the following early 19th century ballad, a down to earth reminder of the Main Street of yesteryear.
While cruising for pleasure down Norfolk's Main Street
A saucy young packet I chanced for to meet.
Her flag was three quarters, her masts they were low
She was round in the counter and bluff in the bow.
I dipped her my ensign, a signal she knew;
For she backed round her mooring and hove herself to.
I hailed her in English, she answered, ``Aye, aye!''
She was from Carolina and bound for the Bay.
I passed her my hawser and took her in tow
And yardarm to yardarm away we did go.
We walked along briskly, both freshly and fleet,
Till she dropped her sheet anchor in Wide Water Street. by CNB