Historic Sites

Hampton Roads' place is history is unique - with so much to offer, spanning so many critical points in our nation's existence -

Adam Thoroughgood House
1636 Parish Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23455
Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday 9am-5pm; Sunday 11am-5pm
757-460-7588
The Adam Thoroughgood House was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and is one of the oldest surviving colonial homes in Virginia.

Bacon's Castle
465 Bacon's Castle Trail, Surry, VA 23883
Hours: Wednesday thru Sunday Noon-5pm (closed July 4th)
757-357-5976
Built in 1665, Bacon's Castle, with its cruciform shape, triple chimneys and curvilinear gables, is a rare surviving example of Jacobean architecture in America.

Boykin's Tavern Museum
17130 Monument Circle, Isle of Wight, VA 23397
Hours: Thursday thru Saturday 11am-4pm; Sunday 1pm-5pm
757-365-9771
Free Admission
Boykin’s Tavern is named for Francis Boykin, who served as a lieutenant with Patrick Henry and later camped with George Washington at Valley Forge. Is the only surviving structure associated with the Isle of Wight Courthouse of 1800.

Casemate Museum
On the grounds of Fort Monroe (Hampton), VA 23651
Hours: Open daily fom 10:30am-4:30pm
757-788-3391
Free Admission
Fort Monroe, an active military installation, was famed during the Civil War as the "Freedom Fort" by blacks escaping from slavery. General Benjamin Butler refusing to return runaway slaves, kept them as "Contrabands" of war, assuring their freedom. Confederate President Jefferson Davis' prison cell is located in the Casemate Museum.

Chippokes Farm and Forestry Museum
Route 634 just off Route 10, Surry, VA 23883 (at Chippokes Plantation State Park)
Hours: Monday, Wednesday thru Friday 10am-3pm; Saturday 10am-5pm; Sunday 1pm- 5pm
Free Admission (State Park parking fees extra)
294-3439
Chippokes Farm and Forestry Museum offers a view of farm life in rural Virginia in 1850. Chippokes, one of the oldest continually farmed plantations in the country, is endowed with thousands of artifacts.

Colonial Parkway
Entry points vary between Yorktown and Jamestown
The Colonial Parkway is a twenty-three mile scenic roadway stretching from the York River at Yorktown to the James River at Jamestown. It connects Virginia's historic triangle: Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.

Colonial Williamsburg
101A Visitor Center Drive, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Hours:  Open daily, hours vary by season
800-HISTORY (800-447-8679)
The largest living history museum in the United States, Colonial Williamsburg up to 40 historic area buildings and exhibits, three museums, and countless programs and tours.

Corolla Wild Horse Museum in the Corolla School House
1126 School House Lane, Corolla, NC 27927
Hours: Monday thru Friday 10am-4pm
252-453-8002
Built in the early 1900's, this historic landmark was the first unified Corolla school created by the Currituck County School system and was open through the late 1950's.

Currituck Beach Lighthouse
1101 Corolla Village Rd., Corolla NC 27927
Hours: open daily in season (April-Nov) 9am-5pm, during the summer open on Thursdays until 8pm.
252-453-8152
First lit on December 1, 1875, the beacon filled the remaining "dark spot" on the North Carolina coast between Cape Henry and Bodie Island lighthouses. It is one of the only lighthouses in America that still houses its' original first-order Fresnel lens.

Eastville Courthouse Buildings
16404 Courthouse Road, Eastville, VA 23347
Hours: Monday thru Friday 9am-5pm
757-648-1889
Three buildings in Eastville's town square form a a remarkable assemblage of early Virginia Court buildings. The old Courthouse and Clerk's Office were built in 1731, the Prison in 1814. The Clerk's Office contains local records dating from 1632.

Endview Plantation
362 Yorktown Road, Newport News, VA 23603
Hours: Monday, Wednesday thru Saturday 10am-4pm; Sunday 1pm-5pm
757-887-1862
Built in 1769 by William Harwood, the T-frame Georgian-style house renamed Endview in the 1850s, served as a Confederate hospital during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign.

Fort Boykin Historic Park
7410 Ft. Boykin Trail, Smithfield, VA 23430
Hours: Open Daily from 8am to dusk
357-0115
Free Admission
Fort Boykin Historic Park is situated high on the bluffs of the James River. Built in 1623 to protect the colonists from the Indians and raiding Spaniards., it was originally named "The Castle." After the revolution, it was named for Gen. Francis Boykin, a local merchant and one-time sheriff of Smithfield, who fought alongside George Washington. Also used by the Confederates during the Civil War, the fort, built in the shape of a seven pointed star, remains essentially intact.

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
1401 National Park Drive, Manteo, NC 27954
Hours: Visitor center is open daily from 9am-5pm; June thru August open until 6pm.
252-473-5772
Fort Raleigh National Historic Site protects and preserves known portions of England's first New World settlements from 1584 to 1590.

Francis Land House
3131 Virginia Beach Boulevard, Virginia Beach VA 23452
Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday 9am-5pm; Sunday 11am-5pm
757-431-4000
The Francis Land House is a two hundred year old plantation home, built circa 1805 - 1810, that is open to the public six days per week for guided tours.

Historic Fort Huger
15080 Talcott Terrace, Smithfield, VA 23430
Hours: Open daily from 8am until dusk
757-357-0115
Free Admission
Historic Fort Huger, called the "Gateway to the Confederate Capital," is located in the northern reaches of Isle of Wight County off route 10. View the ghost fleet on the James River, take the self-guided walking tour through trails and see the cannon mounted along the edges of the fort. Fort Huger is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Historic Jamestowne
1368 Colonial Parkway, Jamestown, Virginia 23081
Hours: Gate opens at 8:30am and closes at 4:30pm. Once admitted, visitors may remain at Historic Jamestowne until dusk.
757-229-1733
Come, walk in the steps of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas and explore America's beginnings. Historic Jamestowne is where the successful English colonization of North America began, where  the first English representative government met and where the first arrival of Africans to English North American was recorded in 1619.

Isle of Wight Courthouse
130 Main Street, Smithfield, VA 23430
Hours: Tuesday thru Thursday, and Sundays, 1pm-4pm; Friday thru Saturday 10am-4pm
357-5182
Free Admission
Built in 1750 and once typical of courthouses across Virginia, this is one of only four remaining arcaded colonial court buildings.

Isle of Wight Courthouse of 1800
Route 258, Courthouse Road, Isle of Wight, VA 23397
Hours: Monday thru Friday 9:00am-5pm
757-357-3191
Free Admission
Isle of Wight Courthouse (circa 1800) was originally built by Francis Boykin for the county so that the new courthouse would be conveniently located on his property, and right next door to Boykin's Tavern. The original courthouse is still in use today, though the building has expanded greatly.

James A. Fields House
617 27th Street, Newport News, VA 23607
Hours: Normally open Tuesday thru Saturday 11am-4pm
757-245-1991
Born a slave in Hanover County, Va., James A. Fields escaped during the Civil War and went on to become one of the first graduates of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) in 1871. The house on 27th Street was used as his law office and primary residence from 1897 to 1903. In 1908, the top floor was converted to the city's first African American hospital.

Lee Hall Depot
Corner of Elmhurst Street and Warwick Boulevard, Newport News, VA 23603
Hours: Visitors do not have access to the building's interior.
757-886-2715
Constructed in 1881, the Lee Hall Depot was part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad’s efforts to establish its Atlantic terminus at Newport News, thereby linking the Ohio River Valley with the sea. As the building sits between two sets of railroad tracks, visitors should take care in viewing the depot.

Lee Hall Mansion
163 Yorktown Road, Newport News, VA 23603
Hours: Monday, Wednesday thru Saturday 10am-4pm; Sunday 1pm-5pm
757-888-3371
Lee Hall Mansion is the only large antebellum plantation house remaining on the lower Virginia Peninsula. Completed in 1859, the house was used in 1862 as a Confederate headquarters where Major General John B. Magruder and General Joseph E. Johnston who directed the defense of the Peninsula against Major General George B. McClellan's advancing Union Army.

Moses Myers House
Bank and E. Freemason Streets, Norfolk, VA 23510
Hours: Wednesday thru Saturday 10am-4pm; Sunday Noon-4pm
757-441-1526
Free Admission
Built around 1797, the home - one of the first brick homes built in Norfolk after the Revolutionary War - contains a remarkable number of furnishings original to the family who built the house, Moses Myers and his wife, Eliza.

The Newsome House Museum & Cultural Center
2803 Oak Avenue, Newport News, VA 23607
Hours: Monday, Wednesday thru Saturday 10am- 4pm; Sunday 1pm-5pm
757-247-2360
The restored 1899 home of the African-American attorney J. Thomas Newsome and his wife Mary Winfield Newsome. Newsome was a respected attorney, journalist, churchman and civic leader.

Norfolk Naval Station
9079 Hampton Blvd. Norfolk, Virginia 23505
Hours: Daily bus tours leave at various times, final bus leaves at 2:00pm.
757-444-7955
The 45-minute tour is conducted by Naval personnel. Visitors will have an opportunity to see aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates, amphibious assault ships and one of the busiest airfields in the country. The tour also features historic homes from the 1907 Jamestown Exposition.

Old Cape Henry Lighthouse
583 Atlantic Avenue, Fort Story (Virginia Beach), 23459
757-422-9421
Hours: 10am-5pm
Built in 1792, the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse guards the entry way into the Chesapeake Bay and stands near the spot where in 1607 Captain Newport raised a cross to offer thanks for the Jamestown settlers safe crossing of the Atlantic. Proper ID required to access Fort Story.

Old Coast Guard Station
24th Street & Boardwalk, Virginia Beach, Virginia 23451
Hours: Monday thru Saturday 10am-5pm; Sunday Noon-5pm. Closed Mondays October 1 thru Memorial Day
757-422-1587
The Old Coast Guard Station honors and preserves the history of Virginia’s coastal communities and maritime heritage. It houses a collection of 1,800 artifacts and over 1,000 photographic images of the United States Life-Saving and Coast Guard Services, and the resort community of Virginia Beach.

Riddick's Folly Museum
510 N. Main Street, Suffolk, VA 23434
Hours: Wednesday thru Friday, 10am-5pm; Saturday
10am-4pm; Sunday 1pm-5pm. Closed on major holidays.
757-934-0822
While Mills Riddick's contemporaries may have mocked his Greek Revival home when it was built in 1837, the house now stands as a beautiful reminder of the past.

The Schoolhouse Museum
516 Main St., Smithfield, VA 23431
Hours: Wednesday thru Saturday Noon-4pm; Sunday 1pm-5pm
757-365-4789
Built in 1932 as an addition to an original Rosenwald School, one of 5,000 built across the south to educate black children. The building was originally located in Chuckatuck, but was moved to its present location in 2008.

Smith's Fort Plantation
217 Smith Fort Lane, Surry, VA 23883
Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday 10am-4pm; Sunday Noon-4pm
757-294-3872
Built sometime between 1751 and 1765, the story-and-a-half brick house is laid in Flemish bond and was home to Jacob Faulcon and his family. Its architectural significance lies in the interior where much of the original woodwork still exists.

St. Luke's Church
14477 Benn's Church Boulevard, Smithfield, VA 23430
Hours: Tuesday thru Saturday 9:30am-5pm; Sunday 1pm-5pm
757-357-3367
Free Admission
Built around 1632, St. Luke's Church is the oldest existing church of English foundation in America and the nation's only surviving Gothic building. It also houses the nation's oldest, intact organ.

Wright Brothers National Memorial
Route 158, between mileposts 7 and 8, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948
Hours: Visitor center and Centennial Pavilion are open daily 9am-6pm during summer months and daily from 9am-5pm September through May.
252-473-2111
Wind, sand, and a dream of flight brought Wilbur and Orville Wright to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where, after four years of experimentation, they achieved the first successful airplane flights in 1903.

Yorktown Battlefield
Colonial Parkway & Ballard Street, Yorktown, VA 23690
Hours: Visitor center oepn daily 9am-5pm
757-898-2410
On October 19, 1781, a British army under General Charles Lord Cornwallis was forced to surrender to General Washington’s combined American and French army. The victory secured independence for the United States and significantly changed the course of world history.