When a survey was done in 1680 to lay out the town of Norfolk, one of the few streets shown was "the street that leadeth to the water side." The original location was just to the west of this site. It fanned out from Front (now Main) Street south to the Elizabeth River. As the new town devel?oped, this area became its commercial hub. When a mar?ket was built here near Front Street in the early 1700's the area became known as Market Square. At the river's edge a ferry dock and commercial wharves developed. About 1900 the name changed again, to Commercial Place. This illustration "Old Norfolk Evening" by artist John Morton Barber, recreates the southern end of Market Square/Commercial Place in 1887. Double-edged steam ferries shuttle back and forth across the Elizabeth River to Berkley and Portsmouth. The English ship Carnarvonshire is being towed into the harbor to load goods for her voyage across the Atlantic, and the side-wheel steamer Luray is carrying passengers downstream toward Town Point.

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Show me all markers in:  Norfolk, VA  |  23510  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

Col. Samuel Leroy Slover (1873-1959)
East Main Street
Old City Hall and Courthouse, 1850
Main Street
Town Back Creek and Stone Bridge
Margaret Douglass
The Underground Railroad
Ferries to Portsmouth and Berkley
The Customhouse, 1859
Granby Street

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