City of Portsmouth history

The first steamboat was operational in 1807 and revolutionized river travel.

In 1809 a new suburb began to grow.

In 1811 Portsmouth gained its first piped water supply, but you had to pay to be connected and only the rich and middle class could afford it.

Construction of the Delaware begin in 1817 at the Gosport yard.

In 1818-22 a canal was built across Portsea Island.

In 1820 the Portsea Improvement Commissioners installed gas street lighting.

But the new suburb remained small until 1835.

In 1836 Portsmouth gained its first modern police force.

In 1840 the first horse-drawn buses began running in Portsmouth.

Clarence Esplanade was built by convict labour in 1848.

In June of 1855, the worst Yellow Fever epidemic to hit this country arrived in Portsmouth and Norfolk with the arrival of the steamer Benjamin Franklin.

In 1857 Southsea gained its own Improvement Commissioners responsible for paving, cleaning, and lighting the streets.

He was followed by two more one year mayors. It was in 1858 that Portsmouth separated from Norfolk County and incorporated.

Born Edward Hamlin Adams to Joseph and Olive Adams on October 22, 1860, Adams was influenced by his artist mother and began carving as a child.

Clarence Pier opened in 1861.

In 1862-68 a chain of forts was built along Portsdown Hill, which overlooks the town.

In 1865-70 the council built sewers.

In 1867 a Marine Barracks was built in the hamlet of Eastney.

The millpond between Old Portsmouth and Portsea was filled in the year 1876.

In 1878 the first public park, Victoria Park, opened.

In late 1881 Miss Alice Ledger was appointed as the first Headmistress, and the school began to take shape.

It was not quite ready by the beginning of the Spring Term, but opened at half-term, on 21st February 1882.

In 1883 Portsmouth gained its first public library.

In 1884 an infectious diseases hospital opened near the village.

The school moved to its present premises on Kent Road in Southsea in 1885, when the building was opened by Princess Louise.

St Mary’s hospital opened at Milton in 1898.

After 1900 Portsmouth continued to grow.

Queen Alexandra hospital opened on the slopes of Portsdown Hill in 1908.

By 1910 the area was built up.

The first council houses were built in 1911 in Portsea in Curzon Howe Road.

In the 1920’s more council houses were built at Wymering, west of Cosham.

In 1922 the council purchased Southsea Common, a stretch of land by the sea, and laid it out with gardens, bowling greens, and tennis courts.

No new ships were being built. in 1925, the Navy decided to revitalize and retrofit its battleships.

A golf course opened at Great Salterns on the northeast of Portsea Island in 1926.

Dovercourt, the house built and lived in by the Southsea architect Thomas Ellis Owen, was acquired for the Junior School in 1927.

In 1928, Cumberland House, Eastney was opened as a museum and art gallery.

In the 1930’s many more council houses were built at Wymering.

By 1933, the Great Depression was in full swing and the community feared layoffs.

More than 700 prefab houses were built in 1945-47.

In February 1946 the council began to build more permanent houses, most of them off Portsea Island.

WAVY-TV, the Hampton Roads area's third-oldest television station, began operations on September 1, 1957.

Skate was the first submarine to finish this major conversion program which was instituted after the loss of Thresher (SSN-593) in 1963.

Historic materials from the 350th anniversary of the City of Portsmouth, celebrated in 1973.

The Portsmouth Service League opened the original Children's Museum in the basement of the Portsmouth Public Library in January 1980.

It was not until 1983 that the pedestrian ferry returned to the Elizabeth River and began to once again connect the cities of Portsmouth and Norfolk.

The original tunnel was two lanes and now serves as the westbound tube (the eastbound tube opened in 1987). The original tunnel is 3,350 ft in length from entrance to exit and reaches a depth of 92 ft below lowest expected water level based on tide.

Meanwhile, The Cascades shopping mall opened in 1989.

In 1993, Ray Brighton called Helen Pearson "one of the best artists Portsmouth ever produced whose talent has been largely forgotten.” Born in Portsmouth on Nov.

Completion of the center is scheduled for the first quarter of 2002.

The Spinnaker Tower opened in 2005.