Reproduction Bird's Eye View of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, drawn and published by Augustus Koch in 1891. An area with a long colonial history, the newly formed Norfolk County, which includes present day Norfolk, Chesapeake and parts of Portsmouth, was named for Norfolk, England, the birthplace of Adam Thoroughgood, an indentured servant who arrived in the colonies in 1622. Once Thoroughgood had earned his freedom, he became a leading citizen of the colony and was granted a large land holding along the Lynnhaven River in 1636, where he convinced more than a hundred people to settle. The city was granted a royal charter as a borough by King George II in 1736.
Norfolk became what was considered the most prosperous city in Virginia and served as a strong Loyalist support base during the American Revolution. Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia was forced to flee Norfolk in 1775 under pressure from the revolutionary forces. In 1776, on New Year's Day, Lord Dunmore returned with a fleet of three ships that bombarded the city for over eight hours. Over 800 buildings were destroyed and the patriots destroyed the remaining buildings to prevent them from being retaken by the British.
During the Civil War, Norfolk was witness to the first battle between ironclad naval boats in the spring of 1862, when the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia fought the Battle of Hampton Roads off the northwest shore of the city's Sewell Point Peninsula. The city was surrendered to the Union forces in May, 1862 and remained under martial law for the duration of the war. This map captures the city as it appeared twenty-six years after the Civil War ended. Features numbered references to the following locations: NORFOLK 1. Norfolk City Hall 2. Norfolk County Ferries to Portsmouth and Berkley. 3. Norfolk Space and Power Company. 4. Norfolk and Western Railroad Depot. 4A. Union Depot (Proposed). 5. City Market House. 6. Clyde Line's Docks. 7. Grave's Ship Yards. 8. Old Dominion Steamship Company. 9. Mahoney's Dock and Ice Factory. 10. Baltimore Steam Packet Company. 11. Consolidated Compress Company. 12. Merchants and Miners Transportation Company. 13. Imperial Guano Company (Boston Wharf). 14. N. Y. P. & N. R. R. - Cape Charles Route (McCullough's Dock). 15. C. & O. R. R. Landing. 16. Strudwick & Co.'s (missing text). 17. Old Dominion Guano?(missing text). 18. Bergner & Engel (missing text). 19. North Carolina Stea (missing text). 20. St. Vincent DePaul (missing text). 21. Norfolk Retreat for the Sick. 22. Hare Building. 23. Cotton Exchange. 24. Post Office. 25. Young Men's Christian Association Building. 26. Steven's Block. 27. Loewenberg's Block. 28. Van Wick's Academy of Music. 29. Oberndorfer & Co., Wholesale Confectioners. 30. Odd Fellows' Hall. 31. Masonic Temple. 32. Nottingham & Wren's Ice Houses and Coal Docks. 33. Geo. W. Taylor's Ice House and Coal Dock. 34. Norfolk Academy. 35. Norfolk College for Young Ladies. 36. E. A. Watkins & Brother's Office and Planing Mill. 37. E. W. Face & Son's Brick Works. 38. Geo. Rettig & Son's Ice Factory.
PORTSMOUTH. 39. Court House. 40. Union Depot - Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad, and Atlantic and Danville Railroad. 41. City Market House and Armory (Proposed). 42. Atlantic and Danville Railroad Shops. 43. Seaboard Air Line Warehouses and Docks. 44. Sunny South Kindling Wood Factory. 45. E. C. Brooks & Co.'s Coal Yard. 46. J. C. Emmerson's Lumber Yard and Planing Mill. 47. Seaboard & Roanoke and Seaboard Air Line Railroad's General Offices. 48. Confederate Monument. 49. City Hall. 50. John R. Neely, Doors, Sash and Blinds.
BERKLEY 51. Stran Brothers' Lumber Dock. 52. Property of O. F. Smith. 53. Property of J. A. Woodard. 54. Property of Williamson and Billups. 55. Norfolk Southern Railroad Depot. 56. L. C. Jones' Ship Yard. 57. Thomas' Ship Yard. 58. Berkley Town Hall. 59. Greenleaf & Johnson's Lumber Company's Saw Mill (Sandy Point). 60. Greenleaf & Johnson's Butt Mill. 61. J. H. Jacock's Coal and Wood Yard. 62. Leckies & Collins' Mill and Dry Kilns. 63. G. H. Frey's Box Factory. 64. Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal Co.'s Steam Yacht. 65. Portsmouth Basket Works. 66. Cooke, Clarke & Co., Sash, Blind and Door Warehouse. 67. G. Armstrong & Son's Saw and Planing Mill. |