Lafayette River


The Lafayette River, earlier known as Tanner's Creek, is a tidal estuary which empties into the Elizabeth River just south of Sewell's Point near its mouth at Hampton Roads, which in turn empties into the southern end of Chesapeake Bay in southeast Virginia in the United States. It is entirely located in the city of Norfolk, Virginia.

History

The small river was initially known as Tanner's Creek. At the time of the arrival of the English colonists in 1607, the area around the creek was inhabited by the Chesepians, a group of eastern-Algonquian speaking Native Americans affiliated with the Powhatan Confederacy. The main village of the Chesepians was called Skicoak, believed to have been located along Tanner's Creek.
As the British Colony of Virginia expanded, the Native Americans were overwhelmed, initially moving further inland. In 1634, the original eight shires of Virginia were formed, and the area of Tanner's Creek was designated as within Elizabeth River Shire.. The naming of Tanner's Creek and Tanner's Point at its confluence with the Elizabeth River each derived from one of the early settler's and adjacent landowners, Daniel Tanner.
The areas drained by Tanner's Creek became part of a subdivided area of the original shire in 1691 known as Norfolk County. Eventually, after a series of annexations by the growing and expanding commerce center of the independent city of Norfolk to the south, all of the waterway became located within the corporate limits..
In 1892, the City of Norfolk purchased the of land near Tanner's Creek for a park. It was named Lafayette Park in 1899. Soon after, Tanner's Creek was renamed the Lafayette River in honor of the Marquis de La Fayette, a French Army officer who became a popular American Revolutionary War hero as French forces aided with vital assistance in the achievement of United States' freedom from British rule.