Truckin' on the Western Branch

When Carolyn Honeycutt and her husband, Charles Sherril Honeycutt, bought a house on West Norfolk Road, their daughter, Cathy, went to the Churchland schools and then to Nansemond Suffolk Academy. She is now Deputy Chief, Suffolk/Isle of Wight Probation and Parole. I didn’t want to leave Churchland but my parents were worried about a rough element from downtown Portsmouth coming in to the schools under the integration laws. I didn’t know what racism was until I left West Norfolk. I knew the black children didn’t go to school with me, but I thought it was their choice. I had a pony growing up and I rode a Honda motorcycle. We just roamed, crabbing by Virginia Chemicals and going to Shep’s on the pier to buy French fries. If we had beer left over we’d tie a rope around it and cool it in the river. A yacht tied up there one day—it was Jackie Gleason’s and I got his autograph. My grandfather talked about taking supplies out to big boats that got frozen in the river in the winter. There was a big old house overlooking the West Norfolk Bridge, and it was said that the owners had watched the battle of the Ironclads in the Civil War from the widow’s walk. The bridge tender had a house next to the bridge and when the siren sounded for a bridge opening, my father would grab me up and we would run to jump on the swing span and ride it as it opened. The W. F. Magann Corporation The W. F. Magann Corporation has been a fixture in West Norfolk since 1945 when Wilfred F. Magann, a World War II vet, decided to combine his knowledge of construction with his demolition experience as a Navy frogman. His timing was good—a postwar construction boom and a focus on concrete work demanded qualified, knowledgeable contractors. The company thrived in heavy concrete work, pile driving and other areas of heavy construction that soon expanded into marine construction—piers, bulkheads, dredging, demolition and more. The company, now into its third generation of Maganns, continues to thrive. Some Magann employees have a close connection to West Norfolk such as engineer Nicholas Scribner, grandson of A. K. Scribner¸ a key figure in the early Virginia Chemicals company. “My grandfather, Ken Scribner, retired when Virginia Chemicals was bought by Celanese,” Scribner said, sitting less than a few blocks from where his grandfather worked for years. He has other local roots as well. His maternal grandfather was Tony Pennello, a commercial fisherman who worked with Frank Kirby to bring the Lightship Portsmouth to Portsmouth. Charles Griffin, of the Griffin Brothers business, remembers motorcycle racing in West Norfolk and Craney Island and said, “Kids used to call West Norfolk “the Cabbage Patch—it was a big make-out spot.”

Nicholas Scribner. Images by Sheally

Sheila Grimsley Sheila Grimsley, who also works for W. F. Magann, and her husband Richard, the community league president, moved to West Norfolk in the early 1980s. She said, Back then West Norfolk had the wooden bridge, and there was a whole lot less traffic. There was no APM terminal, no Cogentrix, and Virginia Chemicals was still expanding. In 1999 there was a little bit of growth, mostly older people. We had two children and there were only two houses nearby with children. It was very quiet. We used to sit at the end of the street and watch the fireworks with all the neighbors on July 4 and New Year’s Eve.

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