84 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



The southerly boundary of the property was a wide road, a part of a former plan 

 for the subdivision of this whole region including the exposition grounds. Later, the 

 Tidewater Railroad purchased 500 acres, including the whole length of the southern 

 boundary, thus giving absolute protection, together with the water frontages on three 

 sides referred to. 



On the westerly side a considerable section of shore frontage and the only grove 

 of old-growth, short-leaved pine in this immediate vicinity was turned over to the expo- 

 sition company by a company owning all the land between the western boundary and the 

 shore of Elizabeth River, the arm of Hampton Roads leading to Norfolk and Portsmouth. 



The land to the west was subdivided into small lots that were sold without restriction, 

 and upon which a mushroom growth of saloons, shops, and the flimsiest kind of boarding- 

 house and hotel structures were erected by the purchasers or lessees, there being only 

 one large and creditably designed hotel erected some years before. This occupied a con- 

 siderable territory along the shores of the Elizabeth River and Hampton Roads. There 

 was also a street railway amusement resort of a rather low grade. These menaces to the 

 exposition were early recognized and influenced the plan. This settlement was mostly 

 unsightly, and lack of restrictions on buildings to be erected made it certain that undesirable 

 conditions would prevail and fire-traps be erected. We were able so to arrange the expo- 

 sition plan as to avoid the fire-risk, take advantage of existing foliage, and screen this 

 whole section almost completely from the frequented portions of the grounds. 



It will thus be seen, with three sides absolutely protected, and the fourth side well 

 screened, that the surroundings of this exposition were more favorable than those of 

 almost any other. 



The site was made accessible, but not fufly until after its opening, by two double 

 electric track lines from Norfolk, the Tidewater Railroad to Norfolk, Berkley and Ports- 

 mouth, all lines of travel from the South, and by ferries from Newport News to connect 

 with western trains, from Old Point Comfort to near-by Wifloughby Spit and to the expo- 

 sition grounds. Travel from the North would come by the way of Cape Charles route 

 from New York and Philadelphia, or by the way of Richmond to Newport News, or by 

 boats from Boston, New York, Baltimore and Washington, with landings for these boats 

 at all the points around Hampton Roads referred to, and on the Elizabeth River exposition 

 entrance. 



The region about the exposition is of very great historic interest, as the names Rich- 

 mond, Yorktown, the Dismal Swamp, the James River, and Pocahontas, would indicate. 



The exposition company entered into a contract with the Board of Design, composed 

 of Messrs. Parker & Thomas, of Boston and Baltimore, Mr. John Kevan Peebles, of 

 Norfolk, architects, with Mr. Robert S. Peabody, of Boston, advisory architect, and 

 with Manning Brothers of Boston, landscape designers, whose practice was later assumed 

 by Warren H. Manning. This contract provided for the design of all buildings to be erected 

 by the exposition company, for the examination and criticism of all buildings erected 

 by concessionaires upon the grounds, for the design of roads, plantations, underground 

 pipes, etc. 



It being assumed that a town would ultimately be here, a town plan was first devised, 

 and the whole territory subdivided into roads and lots. Upon some roads of a previous plan 

 of a part of the area, so much work had been done as to compel their acceptance. Others 

 could not be used, for while suitable for a town, they could not be utilized for an exposition 



