Jamestown, Virginia: The Townsite and Its StoryHatch, Charles E., Jr.
History
Jamestown, Virginia: The Townsite and Its Story
Hatch, Charles E., Jr.
Jamestown (Va.)
The footpath leads to the concrete walkway on the edge of the seawall.
This seawall (built in 1900-1901) along the shoreline of the Association
grounds and the later riprap extension of it now protect the site from
further erosion. Walk to the right (upriver) along the concrete walkway.
It passes near, but outside, the _Confederate_ earthwork thrown up in
1861 when the James River approach to Richmond was being fortified. At
one point a bit of history can be read from the ground in a _Site Use
Exhibit_ (7). The earth in the side of the embankment has been carefully
sliced and various levels are identified—undisturbed ground, the level
of Indian use, the zone with evidences of 17th-century use, and, topping
all, the earthwork built by Confederate troops in 1861.
Just beyond, but at a point now in the river, due to the erosion of the
last three centuries, is the site of “_James Fort_” (8), which was built
in May and June 1607, and constituted the Jamestown settlement in the
first few years. There is a large model of “James Fort” in the Visitor
Center and a full scale reconstruction of it has been built in Festival
Park above Glasshouse Point and adjacent to the Jamestown terminus of
the Colonial Parkway.
In the words of William Strachey, recorder for the colony, the fort, as
built in 1607, and standing in 1610, was “cast almost into the forme of
a Triangle, and so Pallizadoed. The South side next the River ... by
reason the advantage of the ground doth so require, contains one hundred
and forty yards: the West and East sides a hundred onely. At every Angle
or corner, where the lines meete, a Bulwarke or Watchtower is raised,
and in each Bulwarke a peece of Ordnance or two well mounted. To every
side, a proportioned distance from the Pallisado, is a setled streete of
houses, that run along, so as each line of the Angle hath his streete.
In the middest is a market place, a Store house, and a Corps du guard,
as likewise a pretty Chappel ... [all] inclosed ... round with a
Pallizado of Planckes and strong Posts, foure foote deepe in the ground,
of yong Oakes, Walnuts, &c ... the principall Gate from the Towne,
through the Pallizado, opens to the River ... at each Bulwarke there is
a Gate likewise to goe forth, and at every Gate a Demi-Culverin and so
in the Market Place....”
Just beyond the fort site, approximately 125 feet from the present
seawall, at a point where it makes a pronounced turn to the right, is
the _First Landing Site_ (9) which the colonists reached on May 13,
1607. Here the next day, all came ashore and landed supplies. This spot,
like the fort site, is now in the river. The _Old Cypress_ (10),
standing several hundred feet from the shore above the landing site, is
said to have stood at one time on the edge of the island. This is
visible evidence of the erosion that has taken at least 25 acres of the
western part of the townsite.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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