Portsmouth’s know for having a tremendous about of history and amazing people who contributed to its success, and in honor of Women’s History Month: Here’s 5 Notable Women From Portsmouth’s Past
Ida Barbour
Ida Barbour was born around 1878 in Portsmouth, Virginia. She lived with her family in the first free Black section of the city, “Lincolnsville.” After attending the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, she returned home and worked as a teacher in the Portsmouth Public School system from 1898-1909. After initially taking in 5 orphans, Barbour and 20 other women (known as the Women’s League) established the Miller Day Nursery and Home for them and other neighborhood children in 1911. The Miller Day Nursery, the area’s first daycare to take in infants, continues today.
Eliza Bains
There were many people who would assist the slaves in their effort to board ships heading north out of Portsmouth. One such person was a women by the name Eliza Bains. A member of the African Methodist Society at Emanuel A.M.E., she also worked at the Crawford House Hotel, a luxury hotel on the Elizabeth River (The Crawford House apartments, a new building, sits on the same site at the corner of Crawford and London Streets). She used her proximity to the waterfront and secretly reported the arrivals and departures of ships so that travelers along the Underground Railroad could sneak aboard ships heading north to freedom. As you walk through Olde Towne today, notice the homes at 300 and 316 North Street. These houses were stops for slaves to hide before they boarded the ships. You can even take a virtual tour of Portsmouth’s Underground Railroad “Tracks of Our Tears” sponsored by the African American Historical Society of Portsmouth, Virginia.
Mary Ramsay Brown Channel – Pioneer Woman Architect
Mary Ramsay Brown (Channel) & Christine Helene Brunetti
Mary Ramsay Brown Channel (left above), was born December 8, 1907 in Portsmouth, VA. She was a prominent local female architect at a time when few women were able to become architects. Mary attended Cornell University School of Architecture, because women were not accepted at UVA’s program at that time. She was the first woman to win a six-day design competition held by Cornell for architecture students in their junior and senior years.
Channel returned to Portsmouth, VA after graduation and began her career with the Norfolk architecture firm Rudolph, Cooke and Van Leeuwen. She drew no salary for her two years there but gained valuable experience. During that time, she worked with the team that designed the main post office in Norfolk as well as several other civic and organizational buildings. In 1935, Channel was one of 3 candidates in a class of 5 to pass the Virginia Examining Board’s licensing exam, becoming Virginia’s first licensed female architect.
Channel designed structures throughout southeastern Virginia. Some of her projects include the Lafayette Square Arch housing the main entrance of the demolished American National Bank, the old Virginia Power Company Building on High Street (pictured right), Channel Furniture Store in Greenbrier, and numerous houses, church additions, and renovations. To see more, click here or here.
Zelma Goodman Rivin
Born in Portsmouth, Zelma Goodman Rivin was proud of her family business, The Famous of Portsmouth, a women’s ready-to-wear clothing store, and helped insure that women’s fashion was elevated to a fine art in the entire southeastern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia. She worked tirelessly throughout her life for the benefit of the City and its citizens. She taught her children through example the importance of giving back to the community. Many of her friends and relatives consider her a vibrant role-model and mentor extraordinaire. Her local service on behalf of Portsmouth’s growth and development is well-documented, and seemingly was capped in 1995, when she was honored as the 57th First Citizen of Portsmouth. Zelma was a founder of Help and Emergency Response (HER) Inc., an emergency shelter for battered women in the region. Elected in 1975 as the first female president of Temple Sinai, of which she was founding members, she served her local Jewish community. She also found time to obtain a master’s degree in urban studies during the 1970’s from Old Dominion University. A few years later, her Master’s thesis, “Homesteading in Urban America,” was published. However, at the end of the twentieth century, she was only getting her “second wind.” For the last 16 years, her primary interest has been the preservation of the historic Chevra T’helim synagogue in Olde Towne, Portsmouth, which has been reborn as The Jewish Museum and Cultural Center, an area-wide attraction.
Ruth Alston Brown (Weston)
Was born on January 12, 1928 in Portsmouth, Virginia, Brown was the eldest of seven siblings. She attended I. C. Norcom High School. Brown’s father was a dockhand and directed the local church choir at the Historic Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. She left home in 1945 at the age of 17 with a man she met (and later married- Jimmy Brown). Later, she went on to become on a the best female artists of her time. She was an American singer-songwriter and actress and is noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs in the 1950s, such as “So Long”, “Teardrops from My Eyes” and “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean”. Ruth left the fame spotlight for awhile, only to return at the request of another famed celebrity Redd Foxx.
She (know as the “Queen of R&B”) was nominated for a Tony Award and 5 Grammy Awards, she won one of each in 1989. Later on, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, and also received many honors such as Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Award in 1989; Inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1992; Ralph Gleason Award for Music Journalism 1996; Inducted into the Virginia Musical Museum’s Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2013; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016; and lastly, she was Inducted into National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2017. Ruth later passed away on November 17, 2006 after having an amazing career.
5 Notable Women From Portsmouth’s Past
March 8, 2024
Portsmouth’s know for having a tremendous about of history and amazing people who contributed to its success, and in honor of Women’s History Month: Here’s 5 Notable Women From Portsmouth’s Past
Ida Barbour
Eliza Bains
There were many people who would assist the slaves in their effort to board ships heading north out of Portsmouth. One such person was a women by the name Eliza Bains. A member of the African Methodist Society at Emanuel A.M.E., she also worked at the Crawford House Hotel, a luxury hotel on the Elizabeth River (The Crawford House apartments, a new building, sits on the same site at the corner of Crawford and London Streets). She used her proximity to the waterfront and secretly reported the arrivals and departures of ships so that travelers along the Underground Railroad could sneak aboard ships heading north to freedom. As you walk through Olde Towne today, notice the homes at 300 and 316 North Street. These houses were stops for slaves to hide before they boarded the ships. You can even take a virtual tour of Portsmouth’s Underground Railroad “Tracks of Our Tears” sponsored by the African American Historical Society of Portsmouth, Virginia.
Mary Ramsay Brown Channel – Pioneer Woman Architect
Mary Ramsay Brown (Channel) & Christine Helene Brunetti
Mary Ramsay Brown Channel (left above), was born December 8, 1907 in Portsmouth, VA. She was a prominent local female architect at a time when few women were able to become architects. Mary attended Cornell University School of Architecture, because women were not accepted at UVA’s program at that time. She was the first woman to win a six-day design competition held by Cornell for architecture students in their junior and senior years.
Channel returned to Portsmouth, VA after graduation and began her career with the Norfolk architecture firm Rudolph, Cooke and Van Leeuwen. She drew no salary for her two years there but gained valuable experience. During that time, she worked with the team that designed the main post office in Norfolk as well as several
other civic and organizational buildings. In 1935, Channel was one of 3 candidates in a class of 5 to pass the Virginia Examining Board’s licensing exam, becoming Virginia’s first licensed female architect.
Channel designed structures throughout southeastern Virginia. Some of her projects include the Lafayette Square Arch housing the main entrance of the demolished American National Bank, the old Virginia Power Company Building on High Street (pictured right), Channel Furniture Store in Greenbrier, and numerous houses, church additions, and renovations. To see more, click here or here.
Zelma Goodman Rivin
Ruth Alston Brown (Weston)
She (know as the “Queen of R&B”) was nominated for a Tony Award and 5 Grammy Awards, she won one of each in 1989. Later on, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, and also received many honors such as Rhythm & Blues Foundation Pioneer Award in 1989; Inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1992; Ralph Gleason Award for Music Journalism 1996; Inducted into the Virginia Musical Museum’s Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2013; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016; and lastly, she was Inducted into National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2017. Ruth later passed away on November 17, 2006 after having an amazing career.
This article was made possible thanks to contributions from the African American Historical Society of Portsmouth, History Alive, and the city of Portsmouth.