$2M state grant pushes Chesapeake plans ahead
Historic Village project could be completed as early as 2024
CHESAPEAKE — An additional $2 million earmarked in the state’s biennial budget could mean Chesapeake’s Historic Village project at Dismal Swamp can be completed earlier than anticipated.
The City Council on Tuesday appropriated the grant into its 2022-23 budget. The project will amount to a total of $9 million, with $1 million coming from the city. In March, U.S. Reps. Donald McEachin and Bobby Scott, whose districts include parts of Chesapeake, along with Rep. Elaine Luria, whose 2nd District includes Virginia Beach, visited Chesapeake to award the city a $3 million federal grant for the project.
Bounded by U.S. 17, the Dismal Swamp Canal and Glencoe Street, the village will showcase pieces of Chesapeake’s history, highlighting the Cornland School, constructed in 1903 for African American students; the Indigenous communities who once occupied the area; and the Superintendent’s House on the canal.
Other landmarks will include an underground railroad exhibit, an outdoor classroom, a trade and commerce exhibit with a steamboat replica, a visitor center, and a tribute to the maroon communities. Visitors will be guided with interpretative signage and markers along the way.
Mike Barber, Chesapeake Parks Recreation and Tourism director, said had funding been delayed, the project likely would have been completed in 2026. But he said he was pleasantly surprised that all $9 million had been secured, so the project could be completed as early as 2024.
The project was separated into four phases, with the first completed last year. That entailed moving the Cornland School about 5 miles from its former location to the new site, with the city covering the cost.
Barber said future phases will be worked on concurrently. He hopes to see shovels in the ground next year, with the Cornland School and Superintendent’s House renovations completed by early 2024 and the new structures completed later that year.
Barber said Norfolkbased architectural firm Hanbury received a contract last month to begin work alongside Riggs Ward Design, which will take the lead on the exhibits. To date, the property has been surveyed and a topographic study has been completed. Once the design phase is complete, the project’s construction can be put up for bid.
Efforts to restore the historic African American Cornland School date to at least 2012, when Councilwoman Ella Ward began working with Randy and Wanza Snead, who owned the property on Benefit Road where the school once sat. Randy Snead, who died last year, was an alumnus of the school.
Ward, who chairs the Cornland School Foundation, said she’s excited it’s happening sooner than expected so that school alums can see the project to fruition. A decade ago, Ward worked with the Sneads and the foundation to identify 21 other alums, who have since shared testimonies of their time at the school. Those interviews will be part of an interactive display.
Of those alums, about 12 are alive, Ward said, along with two others that have since been identified.
“It’s been a long ordeal,” Ward said. “It’s been a labor of love.”
The foundation has also been raising funds to help with elements of the project, like removing the asbestos and rotten floors before its relocation. The remaining $80,000 of donations will allow the foundation to purchase artifacts for exhibits and any last-minute final touches.
The foundation hopes to see programs and events that will further educate visitors about the area’s history.
“To know what it was like for African Americans to go to school in Chesapeake because it’s not in the textbooks,” Ward said. “It’s Chesapeake history, it’s Virginia’s history, it’s American history.”