The Virginian-Pilot
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For many, it's not easy to say, much less spell. Chautauqua Avenue.
It runs through Port Norfolk, a charming residential neighborhood with a tiny business district, which once was a place to get away for some fun.
The area was annexed by the city in 1919 and known as "Portsmouth's playground." Port Norfolk featured "cabaret style entertainment," according to "History of Portsmouth, Virginia" by Mildred Holladay and Dean Burgess.
"It was sort of a resort," said Burgess, a historian who lives in Portsmouth. "There was a pier there, and of course a major railroad that ran into that area."
Chautauqua Avenue was named after events held in Port Norfolk.
The road runs the length of the neighborhood, from the waterfront at Bayview Boulevard on the north to an industrial area of small businesses on the south.
Chautauqua takes its name - it's pronounced shuh-TAW-kwuh - from an adult education movement that began in 1874 at Lake Chautauqua, N.Y. Circuit or "tent chautauquas" sprung out of the movement, featuring something for everyone - lectures by preachers and politicians, bands, drama groups, readings in costume by authors, and sometimes magic shows and fireworks, according to The Encyclopedia of Southern History.
The tent circuit started in the early 1900s and hit about 40 Southern towns.
Streetcars carried people from downtown Portsmouth to chautauquas in Port Norfolk that featured musicians and lecturers, according to "Portsmouth: A Pictorial History" by Alf J. and Ramona H. Mapp.
They write that the intersection of Chautauqua and Bayview became an entertainment hub, and was visited by orator and politician William Jennings Bryan.
Bryan Longwood, owner of Sonny & Bryan's Auto Repair at 549 Chautauqua Ave., has worked on the street for years. He hadn't heard the origin of the street name, but said it can be a challenge.
"People never know how to spell it," he said. Many can't pronounce it, either.
"No matter how many times you say it, it ends up 'Chicago.' "
Patrick Wilson, (757) 222-3893, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com
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NEVER
I have lived here all my life and never had anyone come up with chicago.
A wee bit too much fluff.
My favorite story about this street
About twenty years ago I worked with a gentleman who had been a Portmouth Police officer in the late 60s and early 70s. He swears that one night an officer made a radio call to the police dispatcher reporting the discovery of a dead body in a yard on Chautauqua Ave. After a few moments the dispatcher was reported to have radioed back to the officer to "drag it over to Mt. Vernon, I can't spell Chautauqua." True or not I don't know. I just report the gossip, I don't create it.
Favorate story
I always heard about the same story, except it was a dead dog and a officer by the name of W. Williams drug it over to Broad street because Every one knew how to spell BROAD. This was told to be the real truth. I once lived on Chautauqua.