THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610090136
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Janie Bryant
LENGTH: 142 lines
THIS WEEK IN 1923, baseball legends like Babe Ruth, Casey Stengel and Wally Pipp were drawing thousands of fans to the World Series.
Amid those hordes of baseball enthusiasts headed for New York were a ``number'' of Portsmouth residents, according to the city briefs of The Portsmouth Star.
Those who didn't leave town joined the throng gathered around an electric scoreboard set up outside the newspaper office.
It was ``expected to prove even more popular than the board last year, when thousands daily witnessed the big, fall diamond classic,'' the newspaper promised in a promotional brief. ``The board will reproduce a few seconds later every move made on the playing field in New York.''
Evidently, it was a repeat success for The Star.
The day after the first game, a reporter wrote:
``Those of Portsmouth who had grandmothers dangerously ill and other convenient excuses which permitted them to cease work assembled in High Street yesterday afternoon and watched the opening game for the world's championship in baseball between the Yankees and Giants of New York.
``Although they did not see the actual game, they witnessed something as nearly like the pleasant clash between the Yanks and McGrawmen as it could be - the player board of The Portsmouth Star . . . operated by an efficient corps of gentleman wise in baseball and such . . .''
Possibly some of those baseball fans had taken the ferry over from Norfolk.
More than 500,000 pedestrians had taken the ferry between Norfolk and Portsmouth the month before, according to a news story.
But the man piloting the ferry also reached an important milestone that week.
Capt. I.H. Gregory was marking his golden year on the job, according to a reporter, who also pointed out that the captain had ``seen the evolution of the automobile as it came on and off his boat. He has watched the styles change from his cabin as the lady passengers flitted on and off. He has witnessed the freezing of the Elizabeth River, which made it impossible for him to move his boat . . .''
``. . . When Capt. Gregory took his first boats across the Elizabeth it was lighted by lamps, passengers were riding in carriages and the flapper was unknown. When he pilots his boat across the river this evening, the boat will be well-lighted by electric lights, passengers will be riding in the latest model automobiles and the flapper will be exchanging jokes with her male companion on the aft deck.''
But the ferry captain wasn't the only person in town marveling at the modern world.
In Cradock, the Boy Scouts were rushing to the rescue of a Wright biplane that came down in the schoolyard.
Actually, most of the neighborhood had flocked to the area when word spread that the ``ship had fallen.''
As it turned out, the pilot was just landing for gas.
Obviously, 73 years ago, the relatively new town of Cradock was surrounded by a patchwork of rural fields more inviting to airplane pilots than today's tree-lined neighborhoods and busy commercial area.
The Cradock scouts ``not only secured fuel, but water also for the pilot of the air ship,'' the writer reported. ``In less than half an hour after he landed, he took to the air again and soon became a dark speck in the sky as she sped toward the Naval Base.''
That close encounter with an airplane wasn't the only action in town for Scouts that week.
The Boy Scouts of America had been started 13 years earlier and it was their heyday in Portsmouth, with the newspaper running a regular page of Scout news.
One of the highlights for the uniformed youth that week was the announcement that the city's firehouses were throwing out the welcome mat for those interested in a close-up of fire equipment.
Of course, it was the least the firemen could do given the fact that the Scouts were doing a rigorous citywide inspection of businesses - looking for fire hazards.
It was all part of the city's participation in the annual National Fire Prevention Week.
The newspaper carried an article written by Portsmouth Fire Chief Richard A. Alexander that week, as well as a proclamation issued by President Calvin Coolidge.
The presidential message pointed out that in the year before about 15,000 lives and more than $500 million had been lost due to fires.
It was the largest fire loss, he said, ``since 1906, when the fearful San Francisco conflagration brought the total to above $500 million.''
In Portsmouth, the Chamber of Commerce announced Portsmouth's fire losses for the previous nine months at nearly $200,000. The Chamber pointed out that a fire at the Southern Railway Terminals at Pinners Point had driven up the figure by $114,000.
The Star that week was filled with almost daily reminders of the national awareness campaign and what it meant for Portsmouth.
What it would mean was plenty. As usual in those days, if it was worth doing, everyone got in on the act.
The local observance was launched from the pulpits of the churches that Sunday and throughout the week ``placards containing a list of the fire alarm boxes of the city'' and other fire prevention tips were distributed to residents, businesses and schools.
The week also included a citywide cleanup, and even the Navy Yard fire equipment was rolled out for a drill on Court Street. The Boy Scouts were called in to direct traffic.
Of course, nothing could be observed in Portsmouth without a parade.
The Fire Prevention Week parade was led by the Navy Yard Band and traveled down High Street, from Chestnut to Crawford streets.
Unfortunately, the week's newspapers had some bad news to help drive home the message.
One fire damaged the Southern Brass Works on Brighton Street, and a second fire hit the State Package Co. on the Belt Line Railroad.
The latter blaze ``wiped out three warehouses'' but was ``prevented from spreading to the main plant of the company by the Portsmouth Fire Department and engines from the Navy Yard and Cradock departments. Eight streams were in play soon after the first alarm was turned in . . .''
While firefighters battled blazes and pushed for citizen awareness, Dr. E. Alexander Hatton, a physician to the city schools, launched a program of nutrition classes for the city's students.
He announced to the school board that a large percentage of the children in Port Norfolk schools were underweight and also criticized schools that were selling candy to the children at lunch.
Other news around the city that week:
John T. Fisher, a prominent black citizen, was busy planning the Emancipation Parade held each year on Jan. 1 in Portsmouth.
Landscape artist Alfred B. Robinson was headed for Boston to buy spruce and other types of trees for the new city park on the Western Branch of the river.
A road engineer reported ``that Virginia Avenue, connecting Deep Creek Boulevard and the shell road at Cradock, would cost $1,500 more to pave if materials were bought on the market than it would cost if stone . . . were obtained from the state quarries.''
Port Norfolk was also in for some road improvement. The city manager recommended that week that Chautauqua Avenue be improved to help ``relieve Broad Street of the heavy traffic which is wearing out that thoroughfare . . ILLUSTRATION: Photos courtesy of Portsmouth Public Library
AT RIGHT: Seventy-three years ago, Fire Prevention Week activities
were planned from fire headquarters on Court Street, in the middle
of the block. According to Marshall W. Butt's ``Portsmouth Under
Four Flags,'' the building was constructed in 1839 and once served
as quarters for City Hall and two veterans' organizations, as well
as fire headquarters.
ABOVE: The building is now law offices for Bangel, Bangel & Bangel -
as well as home to the New York Deli. by CNB