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Portsmouth city, Virginia

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
24historic places
—earliest paper
1902formed
97,915pop. 2020
9cemeteries
2CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 24 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1970; 2 are also National Historic Landmarks. Most listings are in or near Portsmouth (Independent City), Portsmouth, Portsmouth (Independent city).

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Virginia is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Portsmouth city titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

11 of 24 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

24 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
AbigarlosPortsmouthBuilding2019
Cedar Grove CemeteryPortsmouth (Independent City)Site1992
Commodore TheatrePortsmouth (Independent City)Building1997
Confederate MonumentPortsmouth (Independent City)Object1997
Craddock Historic DistrictPortsmouth (Independent City)District1974
Downtown Portsmouth Historic DistrictPortsmouth (Independent City)District2004
Drydock No. 1 NHLPortsmouth (Independent City)Structure1970
Fort Nelson Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter HousePortsmouth (Independent City)Building2007
LIGHTSHIP No. 101, PORTSMOUTH NHLPortsmouth (Independent City)Structure1989
Monumental Methodist ChurchPortsmouth (Independent City)Building2004
Park View Historic DistrictPortsmouth (Independent City)District1984
Port Norfolk Historic DistrictPortsmouth (Independent City)District1983
Portsmouth Community LibraryPortsmouthBuilding2010
Portsmouth CourthousePortsmouth (Independent City)Building1970
Portsmouth Naval HospitalPortsmouth (Independent City)Building1972
Portsmouth Olde Towne Historic DistrictPortsmouth (Independent City)District1970
Portsmouth Olde Towne Historic District (Boundary Increase)Portsmouth (Independent City)District1983
Pythian CastlePortsmouth (Independent City)Building1980
Quarters A, B, and C, Norfolk Naval ShipyardPortsmouth (Independent City)Building1974
Seaboard Coastline BuildingPortsmouth (Independent city)Building1985
Shea Terrace Elementary SchoolPortsmouth (Independent City)Building2002
St. Paul's Catholic ChurchPortsmouth (Independent City)Building2002
Trinity Episcopal ChurchPortsmouth (Independent City)Building1973
Truxtun Historic DistrictPortsmouth (Independent City)District1982

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Portsmouth (Ic) was formed in 1902 (1902-07-10) from unknown / original county.

Portsmouth made an independent city from NORFOLK (extinct).

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Portsmouth city population from 1900 to 2020 (Census historical series).

115k66k17k19001920196020002020
19001920194019501960198020002020
17,42754,38750,74580,039114,773104,577100,56597,915

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

9 cemeteries and 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 9 of 9 listed
NameLatLon
Cedar Grove Cemetery36.83876-76.30772
Evergreen Memorial Park36.83515-76.34272
Gomley Chesed Cemetery36.80959-76.31577
Lincoln Memorial Cemetery36.80848-76.32772
Mount Calvary Cemetery36.8264-76.32252
Oak Grove Cemetery36.83848-76.31661
Olive Branch Cemetery36.82737-76.3705
Saint Pauls Cemetery36.8185-76.31088
Trinity Cemetery36.83458-76.30105

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Civil War battlefields nearby

ABPP

American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) Civil War study areas near this county.

BattlefieldStudy acresDist.Site ID
Suffolk / Hill'S Point62520.7 kmVA031
Suffolk /Norfleet House40321.7 kmVA030

Source: NPS American Battlefield Protection Program Civil War Study Areas (public ArcGIS feature service).

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Portsmouth city County, Virginia

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.