A BRIEF HISTORY OF PARK VIEW

By Edie Carmichael, Portsmouth Wilson Memorial History Room.

Park View became the first suburb of Portsmouth with the development of the Hatton Family Truck Farm. The name commemorates the Naval Hospital Park which abuts the area.

The Hatton family sold a parcel of land in 1888 to Viriginius Butts, Commissioner of Revenue for Portsmouth) and C. S. Sherwood, a prominent jeweler in Portsmouth, Town lots, averaging 29  x 105 , in an area about one block wide along Hatton Street, from North to B Street. The first buyer in 1888, Edgar O. Young, manager of a furniture polish manufacturer – E. O. Chemical Company, was so pleased that he became a builder in the area. Another early buyer was Lewis Morris, a grocer.

Advantages of the area were city water, city street car line,"healthy air," high, drained land, and the promenades and drives of the Naval Park which surrounded the hospital. The area boasted large, attractive homes with prosperous, affluent resident owners. Many of the homes were built between 1890 and 1907, fifty owner-occupied homes valued at $1,000 to $15,000 were built by 1892. Prices for lots rapidly increased. The great success of this first section encouraged further development by (E. A.) Hatton & (Thomas A.) Owen families, major owners of the larger tract - now Glasgow Street on south, Scott’s Creek on the west, and Fort Lane and the Naval Hospital on the east and north. Park View was annexed to Portsmouth in 1894.

Local churches were not long in sending out missions, Trinity was first, buying land on Holladay Street, and by 1898 bought property at the NE corner of Hatton and B Street. The Methodists built in 1892, and a Baptist Church on Hatton Street was in the planning stage.

Other amenities followed. There were several grocers in the area by 1910, While the area was still sparsely populated in the 1920s, by the late 1940s, the area was a fairly self-contained, with a number of grocers (Rileys, Penders, Sykes, Hudgins, Cartys…), barbers (Gibbs, ...) and beauty shops, pharmacies (Clarks and Park View), an oyster and crab house (Ayers/Russell), and a "confectionary" (Bowens). Most residents continued their regular visits downtown.

By 1960, there was a move to save the older, more architecturally interesting homes. In the 1970s, a number of homes were demolished, and single story home built. Of the buildings remaining in 1986, 15 were less than 50 years old.

The neighborhood was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Since that time, many homes have and are being revived and upgraded. Architectural styles include Victorian, Queen Anne, and Greek Revival with such features as second story porches, lead glass windows, Queen Anne gables, and Romanesque towers.

Several Notables: Superintendent of Norfolk County Schools J. Leon Codd, Superintendent of Portsmouth Schools Harry A. Hunt, philanthropist Fred Beasley; banker Maywood Lawrence; Dr. Hatton, businessman T. A. Willett.

Several homes of note: Cleaton House on Hatton Street, Parker House, later Portsmouth General Hospital Nurses Home.