THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606180137
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 164 lines
WHEN 26 NEW historical markers and public interest graphics are installed downtown this summer, Norfolk's 300-year-old legacy will get more than a much-needed face lift.
City officials and members of the business community are banking that the signs also will spark tourism downtown.
``There's a lot of history here . . . and we have an interesting story to tell,'' explained Mason Andrews, a city councilman and former Norfolk mayor who has pushed to revamp the city's historical markers for more than a decade. ``We wanted to make the history of Norfolk exciting to visitors as well as local people. And we wanted to locate these markers in such a way that visitors downtown will get drawn into our history.''
Most prominent among the new markings will be a pedestrian pathway, called ``The Heritage Trail.'' The trail will begin at St. Paul's Church and move directly past the front door of Nordstrom, the anchor department store of downtown's new upscale mall, MacArthur Center. Project planners hope the signs will entice shoppers into strolling through downtown and making stops at the city's historic sites and retail shops.
Along the path, they'll be able to read about familiar milestones in the city's history: its bombardment during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War battle of the ironclads, the Victorian passenger ferries to Portsmouth and Berkley, and the city's settlement at Half Moon Fort. Signs also will be erected at Fort Norfolk, the Moses Myers House, the Customs House, the MacArthur Memorial and the site of the Monticello Hotel.
Also, for the first time, many historical landmarks and events associated with the city's African-American population will receive official recognition.
Markers will single out two Church Street landmarks: the historic Attucks Theater and the Eureka Lodge, the world's first organization of African-American Elks. A Granby Street marker at the corner of Main Street will tell the story of Margaret Douglass, a woman who was jailed for teaching free black children during the mid-1800s. The Hunton Branch of the YMCA and the United Order of Tents - an African-American women's organization formed as an underground railway for slaves - also will be noted.
Although the markers primarily focus on the historical, some signs will point out current city landmarks. Markers will cite Norfolk baseball (at Harbor Park), the Intracoastal Waterway (at the Town Point Park esplanade), the Skipjack Norfolk (at Nauticus pier) and the Elizabeth River (at the Omni Hotel).
``At first, we focused on the area in and around Main Street that comprised the city's first 50 acres,'' explained Mary Miller, a city planner involved in the project. ``That's where they'll have the best exposure to visitors. But then we decided to revise the list to include areas where we knew other significant activities were going on.''
The text currently is being finalized on the markers, and historical illustrations are being gathered from the Virginia State Library in Richmond. City planners expect to solicit bids by contractors interested in making the signs.
They will be constructed of a silver-colored metal in one of two types: either a free-standing sign or a plaque mounted on a building.
Paid for with $40,000 from the downtown business community and matching funds from the city, the new markers are just the first phase in a planned revision that will update, elaborate and often correct the prevailing version of the city's history as told through its historic markings.
``These markers have been an insufficiently explored opportunity,'' Andrews said. ``Many of the existing ones have been hard to find or they don't tell the whole story. Some have disappeared or are in disarray or disrepair.''
``There's so much we haven't done with our history to capitalize on it,'' said Amy Yarsinske, the author of ``Norfolk, Va.: The Sunrise City by the Sea.'' ``We've got four centuries worth of history, and nothing says that to anyone coming into town.''
Andrews initially realized the untapped tourism potential in the historical markings after visiting New Orleans years ago. Impressed by the way that city made its history easily accessible to tourists through self-guided walking tours, Andrews took pictures of markers and plaques and brought them home to show to his fellow councilmen.
A committee of Norfolk Historical Society members, city planners and community volunteers was formed three years ago to look into the matter, but no city funds were designated for the project until several downtown business groups agreed to fund part of it. Last fall, the Downtown Development Committee, The Greater Norfolk Corp. and the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce contributed $20,000 for the first set of markers. The city agreed to provide matching funds. The Norfolk Historical Society also kicked in $1,500.
In November, after months of research and design help from a Boston consulting firm, the committee put together a proposed program of public interest graphics. Among its recommendations, the report outlined the locations and text for the first set of markers, and called for a second set of 24 to be placed in downtown when funding becomes available. The committee also suggested phasing in more markers for other parts of the city as funding permits.
``When you're telling a story, you want to make it as good as you can,'' Andrews said. ``This is just the first group, but it's a good one.''
Andrews concedes, however, that there is no concrete timetable - or funding available - for subsequent phases. Miller said that city planners had submitted a proposal for more marker funding in the 1997 capital improvement budget but don't know yet whether they'll get the money.
``This is the type of program that could grow tremendously,'' Miller said. ``We've only come up with things we know about. But there are other things out there markers could be made for.''
Very few signs currently exist. Only 11 historic markers and 14 other informational signs, memorials or plaques are erected in downtown. A few more are in storage, and a handful of pre-existing ones are ``missing.'' Beyond downtown, 33 signs, markers and plaques cite people, events or landmarks.
Most were erected during the 1930s and '60s. A few more were added during the city's tricentennial celebration in 1982. Some were paid for by the city, and others were funded by the Virginia Society of Antiquities.
The version of the city's three centuries of history perpetuated by the markers is, in some cases, completely wrong and leaves out many important historical events, Yarsinske notes. She, in fact, is blunt about the inaccuracies and omissions.
``Throughout its existence, Norfolk has not been very accurate about the presentation of its history,'' she said. ``In some cases, a pop version of history has been passed along, and in other cases, just plain bad history. There are a lot of old wives' tales out there, and some very significant events have been omitted. You're talking about some of the politicians of the past who have passed along these inaccuracies for decades. A lot of times, they just didn't know any better or they were just trying to create a certain image and be politically correct for their time.''
As a result, ``There are really some doozies out there,'' she said.
Events never cited include the founding of the first African-American newspaper, America's oldest African-American church, several milestones in women's history, and the 1922 explosion of an army hydrogen air ship that killed 39 people and still reigns as one of the country's worst air disasters.
But to Yarsinske, the most ``appalling'' historical inaccuracy is found on the city seal.
``The date on the seal for Norfolk's founding is two years off,'' she said. ``The city was first surveyed in 1680 and funds were allocated by the Virginia assembly to establish a town. People were already living here at Half Moon Fort and Lower Norfolk County. The date of 1682 stuck because that's when a major land purchase took place. It should be an act of assembly, an order of law, not the transfer of land that establishes a town. The legal boundaries of the town were established by 1680. That's the act of creation.''
However, it would take a city ordinance to correct the seal. At this point, Andrews said he is just taking one step at a time. After waiting for more than 15 years to establish a marker program, he is glad to finally see the first 26 about to go up downtown.
``Norfolk is really where the nation began,'' he said. ``I think people are interested in what happened here. Our history is just another embellishment of the city and what it means to all of us.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
MAKING THE SIGNS OF TIME
File photo, circa 1910
Marker No. 5 on the Heritage Trail will be placed in front of the
Customs House.
File sketch, circa 1870s
Marker No. 25 will be placed where the Stone Bridge once crossed
Town Back Creek. Twenty-six historical signs will be installed
downtown this summer.
A prototype drawing illustrates a free-standing marker.
A Granby Street marker will tell the story of Margaret Douglass, who
was jailed for teaching free black children in the mid-1800s.
THE HERITAGE
JOHN CORBITT
The Virginian-Pilot
Map by CNB