Lost Attractions of Hampton Roads

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright © 2019 by Nancy E. Sheppard

All rights reserved

First published 2019

e-book edition 2019

ISBN 978.1.43966.706.4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019935348

print edition ISBN 978.1.46714.285.4

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is dedicated to my husband, Josh, and our two beautiful children, Emory and Ben. I love the three of you so much!

Contents

Acknowledgements

Opening Thoughts

1. Tidewater versus Hampton Roads: An Early History

2. Hotels, Railways and the Birth of a Resort: Hampton Roads, 1524–Present

3. Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition: Norfolk, 1907

4. Ocean View and Seaview Beach Parks: Norfolk and Virginia Beach, 1901–1978

5. Seaside Park: Virginia Beach, 1906–1981

6. Buckroe Beach Amusement Park: Hampton, 1895–1985

7. Bay Shore Beach and Resort: Hampton, 1897–1973

8. Peninsula Charity Fair and Automotive Show: Newport News, 1937–1938

9. Frontier City: Virginia Beach, 1961–1964

10. Coleman Nursery’s Winter Wonderland: Portsmouth, 1965–2003

11. Rice’s Fossil Pit: Hampton, 1967–1992

12. Presidents Park: Williamsburg, 2004–2010

13. Lost Honorable Mentions

Closing Thoughts

Notes

Resources

About the Author

Acknowledgements

There are many to thank for their help in the creation of this book. This is for both my uncle Wilton Davies and my cousin Bonnie Davies, both of whom my family lost in 2018. Uncle Wilton took me on a roller coaster when I was twelve years old, which spurred my lifelong love of them. Bonnie was a burst of sunshine in the world. Both were constant fixtures in my life, filling my memories with joy, happiness, love and fun. We love and miss them both very much.

FIRST, I WOULD LIKE to thank my husband, Josh, who is my constant champion, my rock and my everything. Thank you for sharing this life we have together and for all of your time, attention, diligence, dedication and love.

Thank you to my beautiful children, Emory and Ben. There is no possible way I could thank the two of you more for tagging along to most of my work functions and being advocates for my work, my cheerleaders and the best two kids any parent could ever ask for. I am so incredibly proud of you and honored to be your mother!

Thank you to my parents, Jim and Robin Miller, and my sister, Jennifer Miller. You have always been there for me, supporting me in my pursuit of writing and history throughout my life. I love you all very much.

Thank you to my extended family. I was inspired to write this book thinking of the wonderful times we all had together throughout my life.

Special thanks to my team at The History Press, including Kate Jenkins, Jonny Foster, Hilary Parrish and Crystal Murray. Thank you for all of your hard work, dedication, passion and helping us continue to advocate for the importance of understanding and embracing regional history.

I would also like to thank Mr. John Mitchell, former curator of Hampton’s former Syms-Eaton Museum. Without Mr. Mitchell’s work and advocacy for the story of the dirigible ROMA, much of the social history behind this forgotten disaster could have been forever lost to time. Mr. Mitchell served as my mentor while I was working on my first book, The Airship ROMA Disaster in Hampton Roads (The History Press, 2016), and I am thankful for all of his life’s work regarding the legacy of Hampton Roads’ history.

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE following people and agencies (in no particular order):

Troy Valos (Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Public Library), Mary Lovell Swetnam (Archives, Virginia Beach Public Library), Séamus McGrann, Allen Hoilman, Bethany Austin (Hampton History Museum), Frank Green (York County Historical Society), Peggy Haile-McPhillips (Norfolk Historical Society), Peter J. Schleck (Portsmouth Museums Foundation), Kaelyn Owens, Colin Boyd, John Hamilton (Yorktown Crier– Poquoson Post), York County (Virginia) Historical Committee, Naval History & Heritage Command, Air Combat Command History Office—Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Military Aviation Museum (Virginia Beach), Hampton Roads Naval Museum, Mariners’ Museum and Park (Newport News), York County Public Library (Virginia), Williamsburg Regional Library, American Military University, Dawn Midkiff, David Wilson, Delonte Jones, Marquita Latta, Tim Ballou, Leslie Mulhauser, Marie Gringas and the plethora of others whose ideas, memories and support helped create the foundation of this book.

Opening Thoughts

When I reminisce about my childhood in Hampton Roads, I remember picking strawberries in patches where subdivisions now sit, visiting a Christmas display every winter where a library was later built and taking day trips to various corners of the region that are now heavily populated. By the time I was born in the early 1980s, many of the kitschy and iconic places that drew tourists to our shores had already been removed from the landscape—replaced and lost as if they never existed.

Nothing taps into a sentimental vein quite like thinking back on the idyllic memories of our childhood. Picnics in the park, family vacations, that first amusement park ride, school field trips—these picture-perfect memories make us long for days of old when we were young and the rest of the world hadn’t yet jaded us.

When these landmarks are physically erased from the landscape, the only places they seem to remain are in family photographs, stories shared with one another as we grow older and in the far reaches of our memories. We cling to these moments as a security blanket—a place to escape to when our lives grow too challenging. They remain as way markers in our minds for when we need to think of times when we were young and happy and the world was so big and new. When our imaginations spread without limits and these places allowed them to run wild.

The loss of each of these landmarks leaves more than a stain on our memories; it also strips a little bit more from a community’s cultural identity. What does it all mean if we don’t have these distinctive amusement parks, resorts and roadside Americana that once drew so many people here? Who are we in Hampton Roads if nothing is uniquely Tidewater anymore?

Children playing at Buckroe Beach. Hampton History Museum 1991.6.6.

Postcard of the Cavalier Beach and Cabana Club. Virginia Beach Public Library, Archives, Robert J. Gilson Collection.

As each generation elapses, the shadows left behind by these vanished places begin to fade further into obscurity. In the following pages, we will look at just a handful of these beloved attractions that no longer exist along our golden shores but remain vibrant in our memories. We will ask the question of whether these places are truly lost and gone forever or if some piece of them remains alive somewhere. Or is all that is left of them what remains in photo albums, family stories and the furthest reaches of our recollections?

CHAPTER 1

Tidewater versus Hampton Roads

An Early History

THE HISTORY

Natives of the communities encompassed by the Hampton Roads moniker tend to have strong feelings regarding the nominal identity of our region. Is it Hampton Roads or is it the Tidewater? And does the former strip away our regional, historical identity? In order to better understand the region as it is today, it is necessary to understand the history behind this contentious debate.

As many are aware, the first permanent English settlement in what would eventually become the United States occurred when settlers from England arrived in Jamestown in 1607. Despite many desperate and difficult years, what became the United States saw many firsts right in this southeastern corner of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In the mid-seventeenth century, the area started being referred to as the Tidewater. However, this isn’t the only region called Tidewater. As Virginian-Pilot reporter Joanne Kimberlin stated in an article referencing the name debate, The word [Tidewater] itself describes any place where ocean tides affect the water level in rivers and streams.¹ Specifically pertaining to Virginia, this marks any region up to the fall line along Interstate 95, including Fredericksburg, Richmond and even Washington, D.C. As anyone who is from this area will be quick to point out, these municipalities are not claimed as one of our own.

But where does the name Hampton Roads come from?

The city of Hampton received its name around 1610 from Henry Wriothesley, the Third Earl of Southampton² and one of the founders of the Virginia Company of London. Hampton Roads referenced a body of water that was the junction of the James, Elizabeth and Nansemond Rivers that separates the southside of the region (e.g., Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake) from the Peninsula (e.g., Hampton, Newport News and York County). The word Roads refers to the nautical term roadstead, which means a place less sheltered than a harbor where ships may ride at anchor.³

This is where the contention starts among locals, with many declaring that the Tidewater refers to the region while Hampton Roads refers to a body of water. Well, they both refer to bodies of water.

For decades, the phrase Hampton Roads was used only to refer to the body of water for the ship traffic that came in and out of this important port region. Like many things in our world, this changed with advances in technology during, primarily, the Gilded Age (the period following Reconstruction at the end of the nineteenth century that saw the country converting from primarily agrarian-based to more of an industrial- and market-based economy). Railways were used to transport goods from factories and farms to port cities, like those surrounding the body of water Hampton Roads. Additionally, the military presence in the region grew exponentially in the early decades of the twentieth century. The world grew proverbially smaller, and the cities and counties within the Tidewater were growing co-dependent for continued growth and economic prosperity.

Slowly, newspapers and other public reports began referencing not only the body of water but also the coastal communities directly adjacent to Hampton Roads using the same name.⁴ Finally, a meeting was held in October 1922 with representatives from the local military bases, railroads, shipyards and ports and other important business officials. They jointly declared that the best way to reference the area was to simply call it all Hampton Roads. A front-page article from the Daily Press dated October 13, 1922, stated, Communities in this neck-o’-the-woods are not Norfolk and Portsmouth and Newport News and Hampton and Old Point; but Hampton Roads.⁵

At that same meeting, H.L. Ferguson, president of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, said, It is time to quit calling names across saltwater.⁶ This unifying, regional name would show the spirit of cooperation between the military, railway and ports while also demonstrating the collaborative effort between the municipalities instead of them existing as separate, competing entities. The point was to impress upon not only the rest of the Commonwealth of Virginia but the world that this region was a premier port city, no matter at which dock a ship laid anchor or a steam engine made its stop.

Buckroe Beach roller coaster. Hampton History Museum 1997.3.102.

Despite this push, the legal postmark for the area continued to remain Tidewater for several more decades. In the 1950s, there was a legal push to recognize the area as Hampton Roads instead of the Tidewater. The latter term was seen as far too broad of a generalization in respect to the communities in Hampton Roads. However, the act died on the floor of the Virginia General Assembly due to old hands gripping tightly onto the Tidewater name.

Aerial view of the Cavalier Beach and Cabana Club. Virginia Beach Public Library, Archives, Francis C. Pogue Collection.

It wasn’t until the late 1970s and into the early 1980s that the legal push for the name change resurged. This time, it was met with great success. Local business leaders felt that the name Tidewater was too swampy-sounding and too broad to attract new business, as well as land and economic development for the area. That is when the aggressive rebranding began. Starting in 1983, local business and government leaders successfully petitioned the United States Postal Service to legally change the postmark from the Tidewater to Hampton Roads.⁷ The Virginian-Pilot changed its stylebook so that the region would no longer be referred by the former name and advised journalists to only use Hampton Roads moving forward.⁸ Today, Hampton Roads refers to the independent cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg, as well as the counties of Currituck (North Carolina), Gates (North Carolina), Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, Mathews, Southampton and York.⁹

The problem resurfaced in the mid-2010s when a new push came for yet another new regional identity: Coastal Virginia. The issue faced by Hampton Roads is that no one understands the etymology behind the Roads portion of the name. When speaking to someone who has never visited this corner of Virginia, they assume that Hampton Roads refers to some sort of elaborate highway system instead of an actual physical location. It doesn’t brand itself well for drawing tourism and thus furthering economic development. In short, as