Virginian-Pilot


DATE: Monday, June 30, 1997                 TAG: 9706300033

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   47 lines




HISTORIC WALLS UNEARTHED AT PORTSMOUTH FERRY SITE

The construction of a new ferry slip at the foot of High Street continues to be a history lesson in Portsmouth.

Last September, it was brick walls and artifacts dating back to the 18th century.

In February, the river bottom gave up the hulk of a 200-year-old ship.

Now a landscaping project across the street from the future ferry stop has yielded the brick walls of what could be a more recent landmark.

Actually, Portsmouth residents have to be pretty young not to remember the old Portsmouth Star building.

It was torn down in 1973, when there was talk of building the new city hall there - but not much talk about its history.

Before the Portsmouth Star newspaper was housed there, the building was used by J. & E. Mahoney, a liquor and wine distillery and rectifier.

It was built after the Civil War, according to Barnabas W. Baker, a local historian.

Earlier the corner had been home to a blacksmith shop, said Baker, who works in the Portsmouth Public Library's local history room.

David Hazzard, an archaeologist with the Portsmouth regional office of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, asked for about 20 minutes last Tuesday morning to document the brick walls.

He says he believes the site has the foundations of at least two buildings.

``I did see some 19th-century nails,'' he said.

He also saw brick impressions where a sidewalk once curved, he said.

He found five walls, an indication of various building episodes during the 19th century, he said.

Now the vacant property is owned by Portsmouth Parkside Development Associates, which has given the city permission to beautify the area - one of the first things people will see when they get off at the new ferry stop.

Hazzard said that, with the owner's permission, the site could be a great place to have a one- to two-week exhibition dig, possibly in October for Archaeology Month. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MARK MITCHELL/The Virginian-Pilot

Bricks from the 19th century surfaced during landscaping work for

the new Portsmouth ferry slip at High Street and Water Street.

Before it was the Portsmouth Star, the building housed a liquor and

wine distillery.



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