Portsmouth Virginia History

The area was first discovered by Captain John Smith in 1608. In 1620, the settlement by a deepwater port made it a good site for ship building and King James awarded a land grant to John Wood, a ship building. Other land grants and expanded settlements followed. In 1716, a wealthy merchant, ship owner, and Norfolk County court judge, William Crawford, founded the town of Portsmouth which was part of his 65-acre plantation. It was named after an English naval port. Its central location was the main reason the city saw consistent economic development. In 1767 Gosport Shipyard was established. The British invaded in 1769, burning 137 vessels and the shipyard. Several years later, the British surrendered to American and French forces, and the ship building industry resumed. In the early 1800s, a newspaper, public schools, a hospital and the Seaboard Airline Railway were established. In 1862, the world’s first ironclad ship, the CSS Virginia, engaged in a two-day battle with the U.S.S. Monitor. On May 10th of the same year, the Navy Yard burned and Portsmouth was evacuated by Confederate forces. In 1919 the Navy shipyard built the first aircraft carrier, and by 1940 the shipyard had doubled in size, employing over 43,000 men and women. In 2001, Portsmouth opened the nTelos Pavilion at Harbor Center, one of the largest outdoor cultural arts amphitheatre in the Southeast United States. The city has continued to expand in industry and cultural arts and is a visitor destination for thousands each year.