On the steps of the Portsmouth Public Library you will see the First Amendment Sculpture. This unusual sculpture celebrates our most valuables rights, religion, speech, press, and assembly. Using the desk of our beloved journalist Ida Kay Jordan as a model, Sue Landerman, who designed and built the...
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum has a mural on the side painted by Sam Welty. It depicts the history of shipbuilding. The panels show a woodworker in the age of sail, a blacksmith in the Civil War era with the CSS Virginia in the background, the iconic hammerhead...
The Baron's Pub Mural was painted by local artist and member of the Coast Guard, Adam Stanton in 2018. This is the only example of street art in Olde Towne. Baron's is one of the longstanding locals's favorite hangouts. It is named for Commodore Barron, a famous naval...
The mural of Commodore James Barron (1768 - 1851) was sponsored by the non-profit group Support Portsmouth Public Art with a matching grant from the Portsmouth Museum and Fine Arts Commission. It was painted by local artist Sam Welty in 2015. Commodore Barron commanded a number of famous...
When you visit the Children's Museum of Virginia you will see a bronze statue entitled "I've Been Kissed" created by artist Pokey Park set on a boulder donated by Superior Marble and Stone. This handsome toad was installed in 2011 by the local non-profit group, Support Portsmouth Public Art...
The mural "Speckled Trout" was painted by Sam Welty and commissioned by the local non-profit Support Portsmouth Public Art with a matching grant from the Portsmouth Museum and Fine Arts Commission. This trout is a member of the drum family that thrives in the warm water and numerous shallow...
Richard Dale was the premier Commandant of one of the nation's first shipyards, now known as the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. Dale was captured five times by the British during the Revolutionary War and escaped all five times. He also served as John Paul Jones' Second in...
The Spanish American War Monument commemorates the Portsmouth men who served in Cuba and the Philippines during the Spanish-American War from 1898-1902.
The First Order Fresnel Lens is from the Hog Island Lighthouse off the Eastern Shore. It is one of the largest and brightest of its kind, standing 10 feet high, weighing 2,500 pounds, with more than 250 prisms of optical glass, and valued at nearly $1,000,000. This design was...
In front of the Towne Bank building you will see the statue of Portsmouth's founder, Colonel William Crawford In 2006 Towne Bank commissioned Portsmouth sculptor, Sue Landerman to create a likeness of Crawford which faces the location of his old plantation house. He was most likely born in Norfolk County...
