Downtown Portsmouth Historic District

Downtown Portsmouth Historic District covers the heart of the Virginia city's original town plan. Colonel William Crawford laid out about 65 acres along the Elizabeth River in 1752, following the colony's 1709 town-planning statute, with fifteen blocks and streets of three widths. Thomas Veale's land to the west was added in 1763. The street grid survives, though no buildings from the first decades remain. High Street is the commercial spine, lined with early twentieth-century stores, offices, hotels and warehouses, while dwellings and churches fill the surrounding blocks. Surviving older landmarks include a Federal house at 300 High Street, Trinity Church of 1828-1830, and the Greek Revival Norfolk County Courthouse designed by William R. Singleton in 1846. Second Empire City Hall of 1878 and the 1907 post office reflect civic growth. Most buildings date from around 1900, when the population tripled. The district also contains areas where African-American and Jewish residents lived, worshipped and worked.