GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Campostella Heights is located in the very southeastern part of Norfolk, on the south side of the Elizabeth River. It is bordered by the residential neighborhoods of Campostella to the west, Oakleaf Park to the south, and Newton Park to the east. The neighborhood has very distinct physical boundaries, which include the main thoroughfares of Campostella Road to the west and Indian River Road to the south, and the shorelines of Steamboat Creek to the east and the Elizabeth River to the north.
Campostella Heights is a residential neighborhood, with scattered commercial and industrial development along Campostella Road to the west. The blocks are platted lengthwise in an east-west direction, to take advantage of the waterfront site. There are generally few street trees, although a couple of blocks are landscaped with Crepe Myrtles. All streets were platted with a 60 foot right-of way, including Campostella and Indian River Roads, which have recently been widened. Lots are 40 by 120 feet, although some houses are built on two lots.
The residential architecture of Campostella Heights is typical of Norfolk neighborhoods of the same era, containing many variations of a few basic building types, particularly the American Foursquare and Bungalow. Campostella Heights has a mixture of many types and sizes of houses, from the large, Queen Anne style house with its corner turret to the tiny cottage with Craftsman details. Most of the larger and grander houses are located along the streets closest to the water: Arlington, Montclair, and Springfield Avenues. The smaller houses tend to be located on the streets to the south: Princeton and Canton Avenues. Most of these houses were built in the decade following the end of the First World War (Among the 19 houses surveyed in Campostella Heights, the date of construction ranged from 1907 to 1927, with an average date of 1920). Several notable examples of houses found in the neighborhood are the American Foursquare, the Bungalow, the Dutch Colonial, and the Colonial Revival. Most of these houses are frame construction, although a few of the larger ones have a brick first story.
The houses in the neighborhood are in fair to good condition, with some integrity of material lost due most typically to replacement of original windows, roofing materials, and siding. Unfortunately, the northern waterfront in Campostella Heights has lost its integrity due to infill.
HISTORY
The origin of the Campostella name is an interesting one. At the time of the Civil War, the land from Steamboat Creek to the southern branch of the Elizabeth River was owned by Confederate Captain Fred Wilson (1805-1876), who equipped a company of soldiers during the war and built a camp on this site, which he named "Camp Stella" after his daughter. When the area was platted at the beginning of the century, it was renamed by the Campostella Heights Company, who added the 'CY' and told people that it was named after a place in Italy meaning 'Bright Star." A historic marker explaining the origin of the name was erected at the intersection of Arlington and Campostella Road by the Campostella Garden Club in 1979.
The 1889 Hopkins Atlas shows that the land west of Campostella Road extending to the railroad tracks (currently Campostella neighborhood) had been planted but not developed. There was no development on the tract east of Campostella Road and north of Indian River Turnpike, west of Steamboat Creek. This tract of land was owned by Clarence A. Woodard, and had about eight frame buildings along the water. Woodard was president of a wholesale grocery and distribution business with offices downtown, and was a director of the Norfolk Bank for Savings and Trust. According to an undated letter of personal recollections by E.S. Smith, his plantation was once the largest in Norfolk County and the first to raise produce for New York markets. A bridge to Norfolk appears on an earlier 1881 map.
The 1900 Bowman Atlas Shows that Campostella Heights had been platted (but not yet developed). While it is noted on the map as still belonging to C.A. Woodard, a 1904 article recounts its purchase by the Berkley real estate agents Tavenner & Keister, who organized the Campostella Heights Company, with Dr. E.F. Truit as President. The article promotes the elevated, waterfront location of the land endnotes that streets, sidewalks, water, and trees were in place, and that electricity, gas and sewers were expected shortly. The article also mentions that several houses have been erected and advertises the sale of corner lots for $800 and regular lots for $600. The neighborhood was connected to surrounding areas by a line of the Berkley Street Railway Company along Campostella Road. The article also envisioned an electric streetcar line to Kempsville, running along Springfield Avenue, which never materialized.
The early part of this century was a period of enormous expansion and development for Norfolk. The evolution of Norfolk as a major naval port during the First World War caused a huge population growth both then, and again during the Second World War. Housing was in short supply and, consequently, there was an almost continuous building boom between the wars. Curiously, the residential construction took place in neighborhoods that had been platted a decade or two earlier. Starting with the successful development of Ghent in the 1890s, development companies formed and promoted neighborhoods such as Park Place, North Ghent, Riverview, Lafayette, Winona, Campostella Heights, Chesterfield Heights, and Ballentine Place (in roughly chronological order). Few of these developments were immediate successes, and only in the years following the First World War was their density and residential character established.
The neighborhood developed from the waterfront south, with the oldest houses along Arlington Avenue, most of which was developed before the First World War. For the most part, the rest of the neighborhood developed after the war, primarily in the 1920s. South of Canton Avenue was entirely undeveloped until well after the Second World War.
The 1928 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows almost complete development in the area bordered by Campostella Road to the west, Waltham Street to the east (with scattered development along Sycamore Street), Arlington Avenue along the waterfront to the north, and Canton Avenue to the south. The area between Mt. Vernon Avenue and Indian River Turnpike (now Road) was largely undeveloped.
Campostella Road had scattered commercial development along both sides, but most of these commercial buildings were gone by the 1950s. There was a 1922 public school (now demolished) across Steamboat Creek between the east extensions of Princeton and Springfield Avenues. Much of the creek was meant to be filled and the neighborhood meant to extend to the east into Newton Park, which was platted as Ford Park in 1925 for workers at the nearby Ford plant. The Campostella Bridge was rebuilt in the early 1930s, and again in the last decade. A bus route along Campostella, Indian River Roads and Springfield Avenue connected the neighborhood to the city.
A sample survey of property owners and their professions (based on several addresses selected at random along each major street) in 1927 and 1947 reveals a middle-class neighborhood of professional and working-class residents. In 1927, these included a bank secretary, a shipyard vice president, foremen and clerks. In 1947, there were an iceman, car carrier driver, hardware store owner, and clerk. One notable trend was the 80% turnover of ownership during this 20-year period.
As was the case with many of the city neighborhoods, demolition of areas downtown and the post-war exodus of white families to the suburbs prompted Campostella Heights to integrate starting in the 1960s.
The neighborhood today is primarily African-American. In the late 1960s, Campostella Heights was the scene of a controversy involving the neighborhood and William R. Forbes, the private owner of the strip of land along the Elizabeth River waterfront, who wanted to fill it in order to develop a motel and marina. At the time, this land was zoned as industrial, and Forbes began to fill it with debris from construction sites across the river. The neighborhood objected and in1969 the zoning was changed to single-family residential, stopping the proposed project. The land has since been untouched.
In summary, the Campostella Heights neighborhood represents one of a number of Norfolk neighborhoods whose character illustrates the rapid growth during the first decades of the century. While it may have hoped to become an upper-class neighborhood, it evolved into a neighborhood of mixed professional and working class residents, who constructed houses of all types and sizes. Campostella Heights is also noteworthy for its association with Fred Wilson and Clarence Woodard.
Information obtained from: The City of Norfolk, http://www.norfolk.gov/planning/comehome/Campotella_Heights_History.asp