LAKESIDE PARK,
SOUTH NORFOLK

One article I've found on the history of Lakeside Park (from the Chesapeake Post in 1968) says the park was created around the turn of the 20th century. Another article (from the Virginian-Pilot, July 2, 1995) expands on that. Paraphrasing Nancy Schucker of the city of Chesapeake's Public Works department, "The park began in the early 1900s when mill workers and residents cleared away a marshy area to construct a dance pavilion, which would later be augmented with a merry-go-round, swings, slides, picnic shelter and concession booth." It was also home to South Norfolk's first library, established in the early 1950s. Unfortunately, the one-room building that housed it no longer exists.

The original bridge in Lakeside Park was built by the WPA in the 1930s. The aforementioned Chesapeake Post article said that bridge was in quite a state of disrepair by 1968. The bridge we have today was constructed in the mid-1990s.

The bridge from farther away.

A sculpture that was placed in the park in the early 1970s. To this eye, it's a bit out of sync with the much older neighborhood.

Lakeside Park's surrounding neighborhood.

Another home adjacent to the park.

Photographed March, 2005.