I 
44 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
LANDSCAPE PLANS FOR JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION 
The idea of commemorating by an ex- 
position the first permanent settlement 
ment in America made at Jamestown 
Island in the James River in Virginia, 
May 13, 1607, was first suggested in 
Richmond. It was taken up in earnest 
at Norfolk, where a body of citizens suc- 
cessfully petitioned the legislature to 
authorize a corporation and appropriate 
money to aid in establishing a commem- 
orative Exposition on or near Hampton 
Roads for this purpose. The James- 
town Exposition Company was incorpor- 
ated and an appropriation of $1,500,000 
was made contingent upon the com- 
pany’s securing paid subscriptions of a 
certain part of its $1,500,000, autbor- 
ized capital. The committee at once 
looked about for a suitable site on 
Hampton Roads that was or could be 
made accessible to the tidewater towns 
thereon, from which steamers or rail- 
roads passed to all parts of the coun- 
try. 
The organizers of the company, hav- 
ing had this project in mind for some 
time, made examination of several ex- 
positions and were much impressed 
with the vast waste which grew out of 
their being located on land not owned 
by the exposition company and subject 
to requirements that compelled tbe re- 
moval of buildings very soon after the 
exposition closed. They therefore de- 
termined to arrange for an exposition 
more permanent in character than any 
that have preceded it, and with this in 
view they purchased about 300 acres 
of land on the present site, to which 
they later added fifty more acres, up- 
on the advice of their landscape design- 
er. in order to secure control of a very 
picturesque point of land and Bousch’s 
Creek, a channel giving access to the 
easterly end of their first purchase. 
This purchase also controlled consider- 
able areas of marsh land. On this land 
last acquired, it was possible for out- 
side parties to establish competing at- 
tractions in such a way as to be very 
detrimental to the exposition company. 
All these purchases were on the south 
shore of Hampton Roads opposite Old 
Point Comfort. 
This gave a water frontage of near- 
ly a mile on this great harbor on the 
By Warren H. Manning, Landscape 
Designer for the Exposition 
north : on the east was Bousch’s Creek, 
a tidal estuary, with the many ramifica- 
tions peculiar to such estuaries in this 
region. Of these ramifications two 
arms extended into the grounds for sev- 
eral hundred feet, and another extend- 
ed far back of the grounds, then re- 
turns to near its southerly boundary. 
The southerly boundary of the prop- 
erty was a wide road, a part of a for- 
mer plan for the subdivision of this 
whole region including the exposition 
grounds. Later the Tidewater Rail- 
road purchased 500 acres including the 
whole length of the southern boundary 
thus giving absolute protection, to- 
gether with the water frontages referred 
to on three sides. 
A SECLUDED PATHWAY. 
Jamestown Exposition Grounds. 
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 exposition company by a 
company owning, all land between the 
western boundary and the shore of 
Elizabeth River, a broad arm of Hamp- 
ton Roads that leads to Norfolk and 
Portsmouth. 
It being assumed that a town would 
ultimately be established on the prop- 
erty, the first thing in order was a 
town plan. As already stated, the 
whole territory had been subdivided in- 
to roads and lots. Upon some of these 
roads so much work had been done as 
to make it necessary to accept them. 
Others could not be used, as while they 
may have been suitable for a town, 
they could not be utilized at the same 
time for an exposition in which it was 
necessary to provide open courts and 
parade grounds of a considerable ex- 
tent to accommodate crowds and group 
the larger buildings. About this will ul- 
timately be the civic center of the 
town, for which no provision was made 
in the original plan. 
The vegetation was unusually varied, 
interesting and attractive. I have al- 
ready referred to the grove of tall, 
straight old short leaved pine, extend- 
ing along the shore from the western 
boundary. Inside of the grounds prop- 
er along this boundary was a varied 
growth ; a portion five or six year old 
coppice where pine, oak and hickory had 
been cut. A portion grown up and 
cultivated pasture land, with crowded 
thickets of oak, dogwood, holly, hick- 
ory, sourwood, tulip poplar, sweet gum. 
sour gum, ash, cherry, bayberr}^, French 
mulberry, wild rose, several Ericaceae, 
smilax in yariety, and many character- 
istic herbs of the South. The average 
of this growth was perhaps from 15 to 
30 feet, with now and then trees a foot 
or more in diameter and 60 to 80 feet 
high. Some of the most notable trees 
were scattered big pines, some over 2 
feet in diameter, and hollies over a foot 
in diameter and 40 to 50 feet high, up- 
on which were carved the names of 
North Carolina soldiers, forming a part 
of the defence during the Civil War 
