The Mariners' Lake | |
---|---|
Location | Mariners' Museum and Park, Newport News, Virginia |
Coordinates | 37°02′31″N76°29′14″W / 37.04194°N 76.48722°W |
Type | reservoir |
Basin countries | United States |
Surface area | 167 acres (68 ha) |
The Mariners' Lake is a reservoir which was created as part of the natural park on the grounds of the Mariners' Museum and Park located in the independent city of Newport News in the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia. The area was previously known as Water's Creek before it was dammed around 1930, and Lake Maury from 1930-2020.
The area was originally appears in colonial Virginia history as a 100-acre land grant from governor Sir Francis Wyatt to Edward Waters in 1624, located between a creek and Blunt Poynt. The creek would carry Water's name until it was dammed to create a reservoir in 1930. [1] William Whitby obtained a 1300 acre tract of land around the creek in 1652. [1] The creek supported a series of gristmill operations from as early as the seventeenth century, including Causey's Mill built in 1866). [1] in 1675, the Langhorne family would acquire the land, build a home called 'Gambell', and grow their holdings in the area over several generations. [2] On March 8 1781, the area near the mouth of the creek would be the site of a revolutionary war skirmish between American and British troops. In 1815 John Mallicote would acquire the property. In 1845, John Gambol would purchase the property. [1] The Langhorne, Mallicote, and Gambol surname is associated with the history of Warwick County, Virginia. [2]
In 1930, the land would be purchased by Archer Milton Huntington and his wife Anna Hyatt Huntington. Archer was son of Collis P. Huntington, a railroad builder who brought the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway to Warwick County, Virginia, and who founded the City of Newport News, its coal export facilities, and Newport News Shipbuilding in the late 19th century.
After the Huntington acquisition took place, the first two years were devoted to creating and improving a natural park and constructing a dam to create a lake that the Board of Trustees named "Lake Maury", after the nineteenth-century Virginian Commodore Matthew Fontaine Maury, who was nicknamed the "Father of Modern Oceanography". Archer and his wife, would use the acquired 800 acres (3.2 km2) to develop a museum and park that would come to hold 61,000 square feet (5,700 m2) of exhibition galleries, a research library, a 167-acre (676,000 m2) lake, a five-mile (8 km) shoreline trail with fourteen bridges, and over 35,000 maritime artifacts from around the globe.
On June 19, 2020, during the George Floyd protests, as references to Confederate figures were being removed from names, The Mariners' Museum's board of trustees voted to rename the lake from "Lake Maury" to The Mariners' Lake. [3] [4]
Newport News is an independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the fifth-most populous city in Virginia and 140th-most populous city in the United States. The city is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the northern shore of the James River to the river's mouth on the harbor of Hampton Roads.
The Battle of Yorktown or siege of Yorktown was fought from April 5 to May 4, 1862, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. Marching from Fort Monroe, Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac encountered Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder's small Confederate force at Yorktown behind the Warwick Line. McClellan suspended his march up the Peninsula toward Richmond and settled in for siege operations.
The Virginia Peninsula is located in southeast Virginia, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the Lower Peninsula to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the north, the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck.
Collis Potter Huntington was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading who invested in Theodore Judah's idea to build the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. Huntington helped lead and develop other major interstate lines, such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulfilled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link from the James River at Richmond to the Ohio River Valley. The new railroad facilities adjacent to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte, West Virginia into part of a new city which was named Huntington in his honor.
Warwick County was a county in Southeast Virginia that was created from Warwick River Shire, one of eight created in the Virginia Colony in 1634. It became the City of Newport News on July 16, 1952. Located on the Virginia Peninsula on the northern bank of the James River between Hampton Roads and Jamestown, the area consisted primarily of farms and small unincorporated villages until the arrival of the Peninsula Extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1881 and development led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington.
The Mariners' Museum and Park is located in Newport News, Virginia, United States. Designated as America’s National Maritime Museum by Congress, it is one of the largest maritime museums in North America. The Mariners' Museum Library contains the largest maritime history collection in the Western Hemisphere.
The Newport News Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism is the government agency responsible for maintaining city parks and other sites of interest to tourists and the general population within the city of Newport News, Virginia. It is under the authority of Assistant City Manager Alan Archer. The Director of Newport News Parks is Michael Poplawski.
Archer Milton Huntington was an American philanthropist and scholar, primarily known for his contributions to the field of Hispanic studies. He founded the Hispanic Society of America in New York City, and made numerous contributions to the American Geographical Society.
Kingsmill is a geographic area in James City County, Virginia, that includes a large planned residential community, a resort complex, a theme park, a brewery, and a commercial park.
Hilton Village is a planned English-village-style neighborhood in Newport News, Virginia. Recognized as a pioneering development in urban planning, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood was built between 1918 and 1921 in response to the need for housing during World War I for employees of Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company. It is recognized as the United States' first Federal war-housing project.
Little Buffalo State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on 923 acres (3.7 km2) in Centre and Juniata Townships, Perry County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is a historical destination as well as a recreational destination. Visitors to the park can cross a covered bridge and observe a restored and operating grist mill. The park is also home to Holman Lake a popular fishing lake in Perry County and several hundred acres are open to hunting. Little Buffalo State Park is a mile southwest of Newport just off Pennsylvania Route 34.
Newport News has a long history dating back to the days of Jamestown, Virginia. The area which is now the city of Newport News has existed under different names and forms including Elizabeth Cittie, Warwick River Shire, Warwick County, Virginia, Warwick City, and the current independent city of Newport News.
Huntington is the surname of three prominent families from the United States of America. The first was active in the eastern region; the second played an important role in the early Latter Day Saint movement, and pioneered and founded the State of Utah with Brigham Young; the third was active on both coasts and the regions linking them. All three lines descend from Simon Huntington and his wife, Margaret Baret Huntington, who immigrated to America from Norwich, England, in 1633.
The Peninsula Extension which created the Peninsula Subdivision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was the new railroad line on the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to southeastern Warwick County. Its principal purpose was to provide an important new pathway for coal mined in West Virginia to reach the harbor of Hampton Roads for coastal and export shipping on collier ships.
Captain Thomas Harwood emigrated from Britain and became a soldier, landowner and politician in the Colony of Virginia. He founded a family which like him for generations often represented the area now known as Newport News, but which in his day was known as Mulberry Island, and later Warwick River and still later Warwick County. Despite coming into conflict with royal governor Sir John Harvey in 1635, and a gap in legislative service, Harwood became the 5th speaker of the House of Burgesses.
Causey's Mill is a historic grist mill located in Causey's Mill Park at Newport News, Virginia. It was built in 1866, and is a small two-story wood-frame building originally supported by a brick and concrete foundation. It retains its original machinery and is one of the two last surviving grist mills on the Peninsula. The mill operated until nearly the 20th century. In 2011, the mill was moved about 75 feet from its original location away from the shore of the Mariners' Lake and set on a new foundation.
Henry Scarsbrook "Harry" Langhorne was an American landowner and farmer.
The Warwick Beauregards was a volunteer infantry company of 80 members in the Confederate States Army organized by Dr. (Capt.) Humphrey Harwood Curtis Jr. of Endview Plantation in May 1861.