out & about BEYOND THE GATES FOLLOWING THE PATH OF HISTORY Story and Photos By Anna Taylor • Public Affairs Specialist Editor's Note: Thank you to Marcus W. Robbins, NNSY Historian and Archivist, for his contributions to this article. Gosport Park is a one-acre slice of land where the 249-year history of Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) is frozen in time. The park is part of Portsmouth’s Path of History, a self-guided walking tour featuring a string of historic sites tracing the routes of Old Towne back to 1752, from the home of the Union Army’s Provost Marshal to the house where President Andrew Jackson once visited. I visited the Path of History and Gosport Park during a quick lunchtime adventure, which I began at the Portsmouth Visitor Center on Crawford Parkway. The Path of History links Gosport Park, off the north end of NNSY, with the three-acre Fort Nelson Park at the entrance to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, the nation’s first Navy Hospital. The entire Path of History is a lot to see in one lunch break, and after picking up a map and plotting my route, I decided to focus my 12 • SERVICE TO THE FLEET • NOVEMBER 2016
trip on landmarks between the Visitor Center and Water Street Ferry Landing. The Path of History’s pictorial signs, which provide important details about the many significant locations and centuries-old structures, preserve more than 250 years of American history. The Path of History is punctuated with shade trees, public green space, and brick sidewalks, and the cool air of a mid-October morning made for perfect walking weather. After leaving the Visitor Center, I stopped at the Lightship Portsmouth, a National Historic Landmark. Like lighthouses and buoys, lightships were navigational aids. The Lightship Portsmouth is now a museum and the quarters are fitted out realistically and filled with fascinating artifacts, uniforms, photographs, and models. From there I walked down London Street and around the block to Glasgow Street, taking in the varied styles of 18th and 19th century architecture. I continued down Water Street to the Portsmouth Naval