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Norfolk Highlights 1584 - 1881
By George Holbert Tucker
Chapter 52
Other Distinguished Visitors
Although Norfolk put out the welcome mat for Lafayette in 1824-25 and
General Robert E. Lee in 1870, they were not the only famous visitors
to the borough and city in its early history.
Leading the list was Benjamin Franklin, who as deputy postmaster of
the colonies, visited Williamsburg on official business in 1756. Returning
to Philadelphia by the way of Norfolk, he was made an honorary citizen
of the borough on April 10, 1756.
George Washington was next. He visited Norfolk briefly in May 1763
while he was on an inspection trip to his lands in the Dismal Swamp.
Thirteen years later, John Marshall, later chief justice of the United
States, was in Norfolk for a short time after having taken part in the
Battle of Great Bridge on December 9, 1775.
Thomas Jefferson arrived next, by ship, on November 29, 1789. He and
his two daughters, Martha and Mary, were returning from France, where
he had been United States minister since 1785. Mary, at least, did not
like Norfolk, for the French-educated young lady burst into tears upon
catching sight of the borough, sobbing, "Mais c'est bien different
de Paris (But this is very different from Paris)."
Jefferson was followed by Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, in 1803-04.
Moore didn't like Norfolk either, calling it a "disagreeable place,"
adding, "It abounds in dogs, in Negroes, and in Democrats."
James Monroe was Norfolk's next distinguished guest, paying the borough
two visits during his two-term administration. The first was in 1818
during the celebration of the opening of the Dismal Swamp Canal. The
second was a year later for the laying of the cornerstone of the United
States Customs House at Wide Water and Church Street.
The eccentric John Randolph of Roanoke came next. He came to Norfolk
to meet the USS Concord, which took him across the Atlantic as United
States ambassador to Russia. While he was in Norfolk he was entertained
at an elaborate banquet at the Exchange Hotel on Main Street on June
26, 1830.
The famous Indian chief, Black Hawk, and several of his warriors came
next and created great excitement. They arrived in Norfolk on June 2,
1833, and were quartered in the Exchange Hotel. They were taken to visit
the Gosport Navy Yard, where they were delighted with the 74-gun USS
Delaware, which they dubbed a "great canoe."
Prince Louis Napoleon, later the Emperor Napoleon III, arrived in April
1837, on board the French frigate L'Andromede. He was the first guest
to register at French's Hotel at Main and Church streets and was described
as "a fine looking man, erect, dignified and masculine in person,
but not resembling in features his late, great uncle."
Henry Clay next electrified Norfolk with his oratory in a two-day visit
on April 24-25, 1844. He was followed by Edgar Allan Poe, who delivered
his lecture, "The Poetic Principle," on September 16, 1849,
in the Old Norfolk Academy on Bank Street. It was to be Poe's last public
appearance before his tragic death in Baltimore one month later. Earlier
in the century, Poe visited Norfolk in the company of his mother, Mrs.
Elizabeth Arnold Poe, an actress.
On April 24, 1850, General Winfield Scott (Old Fuss and Feathers),
the hero of the Mexican War, was entertained in Norfolk. Scott had also
served earlier in Norfolk as a captain of a military company from Petersburg
during the War of 1812.
President Millard Filmore came for a visit in 1851 and was followed
on August 25, 1860, by Stephen A. Douglas (The Little Giant), who spoke
to a crowd of more than five thousand from the portico of the Norfolk
Court House (now the MacArthur Memorial). In recalling the event, John
S. Wise, in "The End of an Era" (1899), said: "I drove
into Norfolk, and seeing a great crowd assembled, paused and heard part
of a speech by Stephen A. Douglas. I was greatly impressed by his tremendous
voice, every tone of which reached me more than a block away."
 Chapter
53
Education in Old Norfolk
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