What's in a name? | Battlefield Boulevard, Chesapeake

Think Battlefield Boulevard is congested now?

In the 1940s, before Battlefield was even called Battlefield, the road was jammed with cars headed to and from a dog track in Moyock, N.C.

"It was unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable," said Durwood Curling, a former Chesapeake city manager. "The road was always busy."

Battlefield Boulevard has been the city's most prominent road for at least the last 60 or so years.

Which is why the city's leaders wanted to give it an important name.

A 1939 map shows its name as New Green Sea Road, because it ran alongside a large field of green reeds that would ripple in the wind, said Stuart B. Smith of the Norfolk County Historical Society.

In the 1960s, when Chesapeake became a city and officials set out to name the streets, some talked about naming the road after the well-known Hall or Williamson families, said Curling, who was planning director at the time.

In the end, Curling put forward a suggestion that was gaining popularity in the community: to name the road in honor of the Battle of Great Bridge, an important fight in the American Revolution. It happened in December 1775, right along the road, near what is now the Great Bridge Bridge.

"Generally, most people felt that Battlefield was a good name that most everyone could accept," said E. Preston Grissom, a retired Chesapeake judge.

Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com