One of my favorite old Smithfield photographs features the Betts house, now known as Mansion on Main, in about 1930. 

The photograph is of the Betts family in front of their home, but it’s historically interesting because of a signpost in the lefthand corner of the picture.

The photograph was shot when Church Street ended where the photographer was standing. The extension that is now North Church Street had not yet been built and all traffic going west from that point was directed down Wharf Hill and westward along Commerce Street, which now ends at Smithfield Foods’ corporate headquarters.

Motorists then crossed a small, privately-owned wooden bridge (complete with toll, I suspect) and exited in the edge of the marsh on the other side, next to a sawmill that was built in the wetlands.

But back to the sign at Main and Church. It was a top-heavy signpost with a dozen wooden directional arrows that pointed the way to distant locations from this early transportation hub. 

The signs directed motorists, complete with mileage notations, east to Cape Henry, Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk.

Motorists heading west out of town (through the marsh) were pointed toward Lynchburg, Richmond Petersburg, Surry and, for the less adventuresome, Morgart’s Beach.

Those leaving town via Main Street were given the mileage to Isle of Wight Courthouse and Franklin.

This was, in fact, a key transportation hub within Virginia. There was no U.S. 460 or U.S. 58. If you wanted to go westward through the commonwealth, your primary option was Route 10. And that’s how it had been since the Virginia State Highway Commission in 1918 created a state route system.

Today, Route 10 is just over 93 miles long, beginning in downtown Suffolk and ending in downtown Richmond. 

Back in those early days of the state highway system, however, Route 10 began at Virginia Beach and meandered all the way across Virginia. You could point your Model A Ford westward and eventually, if all went well, exit the state through the Cumberland Gap. It was a distance of more than 500 miles, but definitely not as the crow flies. It did a bit of meandering, as all early roads did. And a significant portion of the route at that time remained unpaved.

Route 10’s east-to-west role in Virginia has been replaced — and vastly improved — by U.S. 58, which begins where Route 10 once did, at the Atlantic Ocean, and can take you, also as Route 10 once did, out of the state through the Cumberland Gap.

Route 10’s connection to Petersburg and Richmond has been supplanted by U.S. 460 and the north-south portion by U.S. 1 and Interstate 95. 

Nevertheless, Route 10 survives as a picturesque alternative to more frenetic travel options and is one of only two routes that survive from the original Virginia state route system laid down in 1918. Beyond that, it is the only original route that retains part of its original routing together with the route number. When you drive from Suffolk west through Smithfield and on to Hopewell, you are driving, for the most part, the Route 10 laid down in 1918. 

It has changed, of course. The original road followed terrain contours quite faithfully — up, down and around — and today, vestiges of that original road can be seen off to the side of the current highway. It’s a blessing that the road we are traveling now no longer meanders so.

But it’s also pretty nice that we still have this lovely way to get to Richmond.

 

John Edwards is publisher emeritus of The Smithfield Times. His email address is j.branchedwards@gmail.com.