THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610230111
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IDA KAY'S PORTSMOUTH
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: 78 lines
Sunday before last - a beautiful day - I stopped on Dinwiddie Street to speak to Charles Greenhood, who was serving up some Southern hospitality to a couple sitting at one of the outside tables at Brutti's.
Greenhood, the restaurant's genial proprietor, explained that the older couple ``found'' Portsmouth quite by accident. En route south from New York, they stopped in Norfolk.
``We went looking for some activity in Norfolk and couldn't find anything open on Sunday morning,'' the man told me. ``So we came over here to see what was in Portsmouth. And here we are!''
The visitors were avoiding the interstates and visiting the communities along U.S. 17. That's the old north-south highway my grandfather and others used to say passed through more history than any other road in America. It passes through Portsmouth.
The couple at Brutti's said that they usually take a trip to Europe each year. They decided that 1996 was the year to see the East Coast. They planned stops in Yorktown, Edenton, New Bern, Wilmington, Beaufort, Charleston and Savannah and other historic places along the way.
Coming back, the man told me, he will take an alternate route to stop in Atlanta, the Research Triangle area of North Carolina and in other ``new South'' places they've been reading about.
Portsmouth was not on their list. Only by accident did they find the city.
They were fascinated by Olde Towne, by the city's long history, especially the naval history.
They are typical of the visitors we can attract if we put our minds to work solving the problem of visibility we seem to have. For years I've been writing about the thousands of out-of-state vehicles passing Portsmouth without stopping as they travel toward the Great Dismal Swamp heading to North Carolina.
If they're interested in the towns down the road, they certainly would be interested in Portsmouth - a city with every bit the past drama and past glory they will find in all the places on their travel maps.
How can we lure them?
Obviously, we have to advertise.
Mostly, we need to work on getting us written up accurately in travel guides and magazines.
We need to study the methods of Edenton, Charleston and Savannah - all towns that make a lot of hay with their history.
They all have wonderfully restored properties. So do we. They have a long history that encompasses the Revolutionary and Civil wars. And so do we.
Not a single one of them is home to the first naval shipyard and the oldest drydock or the first naval hospital. In no place but Portsmouth did the residents build the first iron warship to forever change history. Portsmouth residents also created the first battleship and the first aircraft carrier.
Like Portsmouth, those cities are on the water, but none of them has a working harbor like ours. You can easily see the activity here.
Even across the river in Norfolk, the view of the harbor is more restricted than in Portsmouth.
People who live in Portsmouth take that harbor for granted. Many seldom notice the river. It's hard for them to believe a visitor might find it all very fascinating.
For some reason, Portsmouth always has lagged behind others in promoting all of its assets. We never have touted our history like the other historic cities along U.S. 17. Apparently, we think we can't compare to Williamsburg, so we say ``why bother'' to the mirror.
Little mention of Portsmouth is printed in the new issues of magazines with travel ads. We seldom get mentioned on a travel page or in a travel story.
Only a small percentage of tourists find Portsmouth. Most literally pass right by us.
We simply must get the word out, as former Mayor Gloria Webb used to say. Whether we buy billboards or entertain travel writers, we must show people what makes Portsmouth different from all the other cities up and down the coast.
Travelers like the couple I met at Brutti's need to have Portsmouth on their lists of stops. We need to be their destination, not just a place they find accidentally or not at all.
Anybody with ideas about how to accomplish this should call the mayor or city manager. In addition, they should write to Currents to help generate more ideas from others. by CNB