What's in a name? | Columbia Street, Portsmouth

Columbia Street may have what was once considered an uncultured history.

The street received its current name sometime after 1893, according to "Place Names of Early Portsmouth " by Marshall W. Butt. That was the year Hampton Roads hosted an "International Naval Rendezvous" as part of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Before that, the road was known as Crab Street, named for nearby Crab Creek.

The waterway was a busy thoroughfare at the turn of the 18th century, carrying supplies to Portsmouth's farms, according to "History of Portsmouth, Virginia" by Mildred Holladay and Dean Burgess.

"Although descriptive of the delectable soft-shelled crabs that were probably abundant in the area, the name must have been considered inelegant and the spelling was changed to Crabb and then to Crabbe," then to Columbia Street, Butt's book says.

The street, which now runs west from Crawford Street downtown, was renamed as part of the celebration, according to Butt's book.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 446-2627, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com