A Brief History of the City of Virginia Beach

Sign at City Hall, Building 1 at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. Image by PumpkinSky from Wikimedia

A Brief History of the City of Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach as we know it today was a vision of Railroad investors. By the mid-1800s they had already built the infrastructure that enabled the transportation of goods to the port in Norfolk. They looked at the strip of beach and saw the potential of tourism and in 1883 the railroad built the first Hotel on the strip; the Virginia Beach Hotel which had 90 rooms and electricity – a modern hotel at the time. It was renovated in 1887 and the name was changed to Princess Anne Hotel Virginia Beach. The railroad company also built the Boardwalk and parcelled and sublet land on the oceanfront. The railway was by then ferrying in/out approximately 150,000 tourists. However, the history of Virginia Beach goes back to the Native Americans who lived in the area for thousands of years before the English colonists landed at Cape Henry in April 1607 and established their first permanent settlement at Jamestown a few weeks later. The Colonial Virginia period extended until 1776 and the American Revolution and the area has been part of the Commonwealth of Virginia ever since.

Since 1634, the area known today as Virginia Beach, has been part of the same unit of local government, except for 11 years.  In 1952 the 2 mile² resort Town of Virginia Beach became an independent city, followed by the rest of Princess Anne County which it was reunited to and politically consolidated by mutual approval of residents to form a new independent city in 1963. Virginia Beach has since grown to become the most populated city in Hampton Roads, which is each linked by the Hampton Roads Beltway which crosses the harbour of Hampton Roads through two large bridge tunnels. After World War I it became an important base in the national coastal-defence system. This article delves into a brief history of the City of Virginia Beach.

Native Americans

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

400 years before the landing of European colonists countless Native American tribes lived off the land from Virginia to New York. Today, the Chesapeake Bay region is home to 18 million people, but the landscape of the Bay region was vastly different before the coming of the European as the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, has 30 separate Algonquian-speaking tribes calling the area home.  They also variedly referred to as Chesepians were the Native American (American Indian) people living in the area by 1607. They occupied an area that is now the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. Archaeologists and other people have found many Native American artefacts, for example, arrowheads, stone axes, pottery, beads, and skeletons in the area. Despite their connection to the lands and waters of the Bay region of these Indigenous peoples, their population fell dramatically after European settlers arrived. Many were killed, others died of disease, and those who were left were forced off their ancestral homeland and relocated. Also according to The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britannia (1618) by William Strachey, the Chesepians were wiped out by the Powhatan, sometime before the arrival of the English at Jamestown in 1607. The Chesepian were eliminated because Powhatan’s priests had warned him that “from the Chesapeake Bay a nation should arise, which should dissolve and give an end to his empire” Presently, people who identify as Native Americans still live and are thriving in the Chesapeake region. Multiple states around the region recognise native tribes, among them some of the first to be federally recognized.

Landing of the Settlers

Image by Dorothe from Pixabay

Another significant phase of the history of Virginia began in the 1500s when visited by Spanish Explorers. The occupants at that time were as mentioned earlier the tribes of Algonquian, Iroquoian and Siouan peoples. In the late 16th century, Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth 1st named the area – Virginia in honour of the Virgin Queen. A settler’s expedition set sail from Blackwall, England on three ships commanded by Captain Christopher Newport on December 19, 1606. It was sponsored by the proprietary London Company section of the Virginia Company and consisted of 105 men and boys. In 1607, after a voyage of 144 days, the expedition headed by Captain Christopher Newport made their first landfall in the New World on the mainland, where the southern mouth of the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The place was christened Cape Henry, after the eldest son of King James I of England, Henry Frederick Prince of Wales. Under orders from the Virginia Company of London to seek a site further inland, they moved on from this area and created their first permanent settlement on the north side of the James River at Jamestown. The purpose of the push inland was to find a place farther inland where ships from other competing European countries would not find them.

It should be noted that the main reason for establishing a colony so far from the English homeland was purely economic. The colonists set out to find gold and spices and land to grow crops. However, they found a hostile environment, erratic weather, swamps, poisonous snakes and poor soil that could not support farming. Furthermore, the expedition was mostly made up of English gentlemen with knowledge of farming. Nevertheless, a friendly relationship with the local natives helped them survive and they finally found success with Spanish tobacco. Since Virginia was the site of the first permanent English settlement, the state is known as “the birthplace of a nation.” As well as the “Mother of Presidents” Eight Virginia-born gentlemen succeeded to the highest office in the land, including four of the first five presidents.

First Landing State Park.

The Adam Thoroughgood Footprint on VB History

Image by Johnston, Frances Benjamin from Wikimedia

Adam Thoroughgood (1604–1640) was a colonist and community leader in the Virginia Colony who helped settle the Virginia counties of Elizabeth City, Lower Norfolk and Princess Anne, the latter, known today as the independent city of Virginia Beach. At the age of 17, he became an indentured servant in order to pay for passage to the Virginia Colony, a project of the Virginia Company of London at the time. Around 1622, he settled in an area south of the Chesapeake Bay and a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. This area had been ignored when the earlier settlements of the London Colony such as Jamestown were established beginning in 1607 in favour of locations further inland which would be less susceptible to attacks by other European forces. Having served his period of indenture, Adam returned to England, only to return to Virginia with a wife and 105 men. Because he had paid passage for all the men he was granted a large landholding and became a leading citizen of the area. He was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1629, to the Governor’s Council and as a Justice of the Court. He also became a captain in the local militia and started the first ferry service in Hampton Roads.

The Royal Colony

  The seal of the London Company,Image uploaded by VirginiaProp from Wikimedia

The London Company lost its charter in 1624 and Virginia became a royal colony. In 1634, the colony was divided into shires, a term still in use in Virginia and they were renamed counties. It is said that Thoroughgood used the name of his home in England when helping name New Norfolk County in 1637. The following year, New Norfolk County was split into Upper Norfolk County (soon renamed Nansemond County) and Lower Norfolk County. From New Norfolk County, there were several additional smaller entities formed including, most notably Norfolk County, which existed from 1691 to 1963 and is now the City of Chesapeake, and most famously, Lower Norfolk County which became the modern City of Norfolk. When Lower Norfolk County was first organized in 1648, it was largely from the Atlantic Ocean west past the Elizabeth River, encompassing the entire area now within the modern cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. In 1691 Lower Norfolk County was divided to form Norfolk and Princess Anne counties. Princess Anne, the easternmost county in South Hampton Roads, extended from Cape Henry at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, south to what became the border of the North Carolina colony. It included all of the area fronting the Atlantic Ocean. Princess Anne County was known as a jurisdiction for over 250 years from 1691 to 1963.

Click here for tips on where to play golf in Virginia Beach.

The Revolutionary War in Virginia Beach

Cape Henry Memorial from Wikimedia

Even though no major land battles took place on the soil of Virginia Beach, many historians are of the opinion that Washington’s victory over Cornwallis at Yorktown was strategically won in a sea battle off Cape Henry. From the beginning of the war and up to August 1781, the British controlled the waterways of Virginia. However, the French fleet under Admiral De Grasse defeated the British fleet in a hard-fought two-day sea battle off the coast of Cape Henry. The mouth of the Chesapeake was no longer controlled by the British, and Cornwallis was cut off from needed supplies and reinforcements from England. The British Army was therefore left helpless in a hostile land and was forced to surrender on October 19, 1781.

The Norwegian barque Dictator

The Norwegian lady in Moss. Image by Shafa00 from Wikimedia

The Norwegian barque Dictator was wrecked off Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA. She was on a voyage from Pensacola to West Hartlepool with a cargo of lumber. Nine people drowned. She was grounded and sank in a storm off Virginia Beach in March 1891. The ship had been battered for days by severe weather as it journeyed up the East Coast from Florida to Hartlepool, England. As the waves tore his ship apart, Captain Jorgen Jorgensen and the crew made desperate efforts to save themselves using life preservers, a makeshift raft, and the one surviving lifeboat. Several men even tried to swim to safety. At the same time Onshore, the Keeper of the Seatack Life-Saving Station on assessing the situation ordered his men to shoot rope lines to the stricken ship from a Lyle gun, a small cannon. He hoped to set up a breeches buoy rescue, a lifebuoy ring pulled on a kind of a zip line, allowing crew members to be carried off one at a time but was unsuccessful. The raging sea pounded the ship and finally crushed the vessel. Ten people were saved that day and seven lost their lives. The next day, the Dictator’s wooden figurehead, a dignified lady, was fished out of the water and placed standing on the shore as a memorial to the tragedy. The city of Moss presented the Norwegian Lady statue to Virginia Beach as a gift for its citizen’s effort to rescue the shipwrecked Norwegians. The statue stands at the Virginia Beach oceanfront, near the scene of the Dictator shipwreck.

Virginia Beach: Growth of a Resort Town

Image by Unknown author from Wikimedia

In the early 19^th century VB area was rural and developed for plantation agriculture. In the late 19th century, the small resort area of Virginia Beach developed in Princess Anne County after the 1883 arrival of rail service to the coast. The Virginia Beach Hotel was opened and operated by the Norfolk and Virginia Beach Railroad and Improvement Company at the oceanfront, near the tiny community of Seatack. The hotel was foreclosed and the railroad was reorganized in 1887. The hotel was upgraded and reopened in 1888 as the Princess Anne Hotel. The resort was dependent upon railroad and electric trolley service at first. The concrete Virginia Beach Boulevard from Norfolk to the Oceanfront was completed in 1922. It allowed people to get to the oceanfront by motorized transport. In 1906, the resort of Virginia Beach became an incorporated town and over the next 45 years, Virginia Beach became more popular as a summer vacation spot. Virginia Beach became a small independent city in 1952. It was politically independent of Princess Anne County. In 1963, Virginia Beach and Princess Anne county merged into a new much larger independent city keeping the name of the Virginia Beach resort.

Virginia Beach Boardwalk Restaurants. 

Fire Station 12

Image from Official Navy Page from Wikimedia

It is a story of African Americans coming together in Virginia beach in 1948 in the Seatack community a time when segregation divided post-war America black weren’t allowed to walk the oceanfront. Miles from the beachfront Seatack served as a thriving African American community and it was here that 19 men changed the world around them. African Americans decided that they needed a fire station of their own as they were being charged $50 by ‘White Fire stations’ to put out fires.  Out of the need for protection sprung Station12 Seatack Fire Department is believed to be the oldest Black-owned fire station in the US. Seatack neighbourhood raised a then princely sum of $2,500 towards buying the requisite equipment. Station 12 Seatack’s achievements stood out because Norfolk County had a fire station manned by African Americans but the City owned it. Today the names of the first firefighters are immortalized on a metal plaque outside the station. Decades later the station still stands and no matter how much the buildings and equipment may change, its history remains the same.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

Approaching Chesapeake Channel Tunnel, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Image by Ken Lund from Wikimedia

When the Virginia Company of London expedition reached the New World at the southern edge of the mouth of what is now known as the Chesapeake Bay they named the two flanking Virginia points of land /capes like gateposts at the entrance to the long extensive estuary after the sons of their king Cape Henry and Cape Charles. For the first 350 years, ships and ferry systems provided primary transportation. However, from the early 1930s to 1954, the Virginia Ferry Corporation (VFC), a privately owned public service company managed a scheduled vehicular (car, bus, truck) and passenger ferry service between the Virginia Eastern Shore and Princess Anne County (now part of the City of Virginia Beach) on the mainland Western Shore in the South Hampton Roads area. Despite an expanded fleet of large and modern ships by the VFC in the 1940s and early 1950s which were eventually capable of as many as 90 one-way trips each day, however, the lengthy crossing suffered delays due to heavy traffic and bad weather at times. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT, officially the Lucius J. Kellam Jr. Bridge–Tunnel) is a 17.6-mile (28.3 km) bridge-tunnel that crosses the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay between Delmarva and Hampton Roads in the U.S. state of Virginia. It opened in 1964, replacing ferries that had operated since the 1930s. A major project to dualize its bridges was completed in 1999, and a similar project to dualize one of its tunnels is currently underway. With 12 miles (19 km) of bridges and two one-mile-long (1.6 km) tunnels, the CBBT is one of only 14 bridge-tunnel systems in the world and one of three in Hampton Roads. It carries US 13, which saves motorists roughly 95 miles (153 km) and one and half hours on trips between Hampton Roads and the Delaware Valley.

Best things to do in the Chesapeake Bay.

Election of Mayor Meyera Oberndorf

Image by Rlevse from Wikimedia

Meyera E. Oberndorf (1941 –2015) was the 23rd Mayor of Virginia Beach, Virginia. She was Virginia Beach’s longest-serving mayor, and she previously served as the city’s vice mayor. She was the city’s first female mayor and was the first woman elected to public office in the more than 300-year history of Virginia Beach or its predecessor, Princess Anne County. Though she was Virginia Beach’s first directly elected mayor, her role was primarily to serve as the chair during City Council meetings, of which she had been a member since 1976, and to officiate at a wide array of ceremonial functions. This is because Virginia Beach has a council-manager form of government. On November 5, 2008, Oberndorf was defeated by Will Sessoms, ending her two-decade run as mayor. Before her term expired, the city council unanimously voted to rename the city’s Central Library the Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library. On March 4, 2013, the Diocese of Richmond and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia presented Oberndorf with the Bishop’s Humanitarian Award for her public service. She was posthumously named one of the Virginia Women in History for 2016.

More on famous people from Virginia.

Economy

Image by Virginia State Parks Staff from Wikimedia

The city’s economy is based on tourism, military installations (Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, Oceana Naval Air Station, the Fleet Combat Training Center Atlantic at Dam Neck, and Fort Story), agriculture (grains, vegetables, and dairy products), and diversified manufactures. The median income for a household in the city was $48,705, and the median income for a family was $53,242. Virginia Beach had the 5th highest median family income among large cities in 2003. The per capita income for the city was $22,365. About 5.1% of families and 8.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.6% of those under age 18 and 4.7% of those aged 65 or over. Six miles north of Virginia Beach is Cape Henry, situated at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. A memorial there, which is part of Colonial National Historical Park, marks the first landing (1607) of the Jamestown colonists. Nearby is the Cape Henry Lights, the old (1791–92) and new (1879–81) lighthouses, situated northeast of the site of Fort Story.

Things to know before moving to Virginia Beach.

Virginia for Lovers Is award-winning tourism and travel slogan that was developed in 1969. In 2012, it was named by Advertising Age as “one of the most iconic ad campaigns in the past 50 years.” Virginia has many sights, sounds and flavours for every age and every interest that inspire such passion!  There is much to see in Virginia and Virginia Beach is in Virginia.