A Sense of Place

Who knows how long this will last

Now we’ve come so far so fast

Somewhere back in the dust

That same small town in each of us

(The End of the Innocence lyrics by Don Henley)

On a snowy Christmas Eve in 1945, a young man stood on board the train slowly pulling into the South Norfolk train station. Two long years had passed since he had seen his home and family.

He was just seventeen when he signed up for six years in the new naval aviation program. His father went with him to notarize the papers at the confectionary on Poindexter Street. Mr. White, the shop owner and local notary, wisely observed, “I can help get you in, but I can’t help get you out.”

The young man thought of that statement later when he was stationed in the Pacific Theater, where a series of small tropical islands was ravaged by some of the most savage fighting the world has ever known. However, he did survive the war, and the rest of the century that followed.

Raymond Harper was born in South Norfolk, a city of the first class, in March 1928. Born into a world where streetcar lines ran from South Norfolk to downtown Norfolk, where the Jordan Bridge was a symbol of modern progress, and most of the cataclysmic events that would define the twentieth century still lay on the horizon; far beyond the realm of anyone’s imagination.

In 2010, there is more to South Norfolk than meets the eye.

The old independent city of South Norfolk still lives on in the memory of many Chesapeake residents. People who vividly recall being raised in the tree lined streets running between Bainbridge Street and Chesapeake Avenue, in frame houses with generous front porches designed for summer socializing in those pre-air conditioned scorching Southern summers.

The natives of old South Norfolk recall a tightly knit community. A place where the front doors were never locked. A place where you knew and greeted everyone you passed on the street. A place where you walked down to Preston’s Drugstore at the corner of Poindexter Street, B Street, and Chesapeake Avenue for a milkshake and a visit with friends.

One of my co-workers, who grew up on Jackson Street in South Norfolk, says simply, “It was really something special back then.” And I believe her, because I have met so many people who still carry around that powerful sense of place and belonging about the old city.

Raymond Harper was one of a group of bright, high spirited South Norfolk sons and daughters who kicked up their heels, and then settled down to become many of the citizens who would shape the future of the new City of Chesapeake. Sheriff Newhart, Judge Preston Grissom, Judge Forehand, Bobby Clifton, Raymond Jones, Maury Brickhouse, and many others hailed from South Norfolk and Portlock.

Most of the old gang moved to other neighborhoods during the decades following the establishment of the new City of Chesapeake in 1963. South Norfolk, like so many other traditional American cities and towns, was ravaged in the late twentieth century by the urban migration to the suburbs and the accompanying movement of commerce to new shopping centers.

However, the old city is on the rise once again. The neighborhoods still retain many of the characteristics urban planners now know make a community livable. A walkable grid of sidewalks and tree lined streets, churches, and fine old homes, where young families still push strollers on warm summer evenings. There are green spaces such as the lovely old Lakeside Park. There is a local Historic District and a National Historic District.

There is still that unmistakable sense of place.

In recent years a new vision has emerged for South Norfolk. The City, working with local residents and business people, has created a South Norfolk TIF (Tax Increment Funding) District. The TIF is providing funding for the South Norfolk Strategic Plan, which is now underway. The Council, led by Mayor Krasnoff, and the Department of Economic Development, has approved the construction of a new public library on Poindexter Street. The library will be South Norfolk’s first TIF funded public building.

The investment in the library will play a key role in the revitalization of the Poindexter streetscape. The business world has realized that public libraries make great economic anchors for town centers and shopping areas. Open seven days a week, and most evenings, a busy public library can easily draw almost a thousand people a day, and help create a vibrant town center. Many people combine trips to the library with other errands like shopping or eating. That means library users visit surrounding businesses.

The library provides a civic presence, a source of entertainment and education, and acts as a commercial driver. Libraries also help anchor communities by providing a neutral public setting for people to meet, learn, and connect with ideas, information, and each other.

Design work is scheduled to begin next month for the library project. Seeking community input will be one of the first steps in the process. Remember that young soldier Raymond Harper? He now serves on the Library Advisory Board, and is planning on donating his extensive South Norfolk history collection to the new library. Soon people will be able to walk down Poindexter Street to go shopping, go out to lunch, get a cup of coffee, read the paper, greet their neighbors, and visit a beautiful new library. And Raymond Harper? He will be there too.

Betsy Fowler

(All photos courtesy of Raymond Harper)