The history of Virginia Beach, Virginia 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, area known today as Virginia Beach has been part of the same unit of local government, except for 11 years. In 1952, when 2 square mile resort Town of Virginia Beach became an independent city, followed by the rest of Princess Anne County which whom it was reunited and politically consolidated by mutual approval of residents to form a new independent city in 1963. Selecting the better-known name of the oceanfront strip area, Virginia Beach has since grown to become the most populated of the Seven Cities of Hampton Roads, which are each linked by the Hampton Roads Beltway which crosses the harbor of Hampton Roads through two large bridge-tunnels.
Native Americans
Chesepians were the Native American (American Indian) inhabitants of the area now known as South Hampton Roads in Virginia during the Woodland Period and later prior to the arrival of the English settlers in 1607. They occupied an area which is now the Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach areas. To their west were the members of the Nansemond tribe.
The main village of the Chesepians was called Skicoak, located in the present independent city of Norfolk. The Chesepians also had two other towns (or villages), Apasus and Chesepioc, both near the Chesapeake Bay in what is now Virginia Beach. Of these, it is known that Chesepioc was located in the present Great Neck area. Archaeologists and other persons have found numerous Native American artifacts, such as arrowheads, stone axes, pottery, beads, and skeletons in Great Neck Point.
Although they were eastern-Algonquian speaking as were members of the Powhatan Confederacy across Hampton Roads, the archaeological evidence suggests that the original Chesepians belonged to another group, the Carolina Algonquian. According to William Strachey's The Historie of Travaile into Virginia Britanica (1612), the Chesepians were wiped out by Chief Wahunsunacock, the head of the Virginia Peninsula-based Powhatan Confederacy, some time before the arrival of the English at Jamestown in 1607. The Chesepians were eliminated because Powhatan's priests had warned him that from the Chesapeake Bay a nation should arise, which should dissolve and give end to his empire. After eliminating the original Chesepians, loyal Powhatans occupied their lands and villages and assumed their tribal name as well.
Cape Henry: first landing
In December, 1606, 105 men and boys sponsored by the proprietary London Company section of the Virginia Company set sail on three ships commanded by Captain Christopher Newport to establish a settlement in what is now Virginia. They had an unusually long voyage of 144 days. On April 26 , 1607 , they made their first landfall at Cape Henry, in the northeastern part of today's independent city of Virginia Beach, a point where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. It was named in honor of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James I of England. However the settlers left the area under orders from England to seek a site further inland which would be more sheltered from ships of competing European countries.
Today, the site of their "First Landing" is within the boundaries of Fort Story, a U.S. Army installation used for training by the Army, Navy, and Marines. A memorial cross near the landing site and the historic Cape Henry Light are accessible to the general public. First Landing State Park (formerly Seashore State Park) nearby was named to commemorate this event.
Adam Thoroughgood
Adam Thoroughgood (1604-1640) of King's Lynn, Norfolk, England is one of the earliest Englishmen to become enamored with the area which became Virginia Beach. At the age of 18, he became an indentured servant to pay for passage to the Virginia Colony. Around 1622, he settled in an area south of the Chesapeake Bay a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. This area had been passed by when the earlier settlements such as Jamestown were established beginning in 1607 in favor of locations further inland which would be less susceptible to attacks by other European forces, such as the Spanish.
Serving his period of indenture, he earned his freedom and became a leading citizen of the area. He was elected to the House of Burgesses for Elizabeth City (or "citiie" as it was then called) in 1629. He also served on the (Royal) Governor's Council, and as a Justice of the Court. He also became a Captain in the local militia.
The London Company lost its franchise and Virginia became a royal colony in 1624. In 1634, the Colony was divided into shires, soon renamed counties, a term still in use in Virginia 350 years later. He is credited using the name of his home in England when helping name New Norfolk County when it was formed from Elizabeth City County in 1637. The following year, New Norfolk County was split into Upper Norfolk County (soon renamed Nansemond County) and Lower Norfolk County, which was still quite large, encompassing the entire area now within the modern cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, Chesapeake, and Virginia Beach.
His choice of residence after 1634 was along the Lynnhaven River, also named for his home in England. Thoroughgood appears to have had the foresight to realizing earlier than many other leaders that Lower Norfolk County was too large for a single site for convenient worship and court affairs. He led the effort to establish a second parish church, court, and glebe house at what was then known as Churches Point on the Lynnhaven River. Adam Thoroughgood suddenly became ill and died at the age of only 36 in 1640. He was buried at Churches Point in a location now believed to be submerged.
Today, some of the evidence of early English 17th century settlement in the city survives, including the Adam Thoroughgood House museum and the Adam Keeling House, a private home also on the Lynnhaven River.
1638-1691 Lower Norfolk County grows, splits
Lower Norfolk County was quite large, and stretched all the way from the Atlantic Ocean west past the Elizabeth River and, as Thoroughgood had earlier envisioned, soon required two courthouses to service the citizenry. Finally, in 1691, Lower Norfolk County was in turn divided to form Norfolk County and Princess Anne County. Princess Anne, the easternmost county in South Hampton Roads, extended northward from the North Carolina border to Cape Henry at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and included all of the area fronting the Atlantic Ocean. Princess Anne County was to last from 1691 to 1963, over 250 years.
Kempsville
Originally named Kemp's Landing, in November 1775, Kempsville was the location where John Ackiss was killed by Royal Governor Lord Dunmore's militia during an incident later called the "Skirmish of Kempsville". Ackiss became the first Virginian casualty of the American Revolutionary War. The Daughters of the American Revolution later erected a plaque near the site.
Extant homes from colonial period
Structures from the Virginia colony in Virginia Beach which are still extant as of 2007 include the Adam Thoroughgood House, Hermitage, Broad Bay Manor, Green Hill Plantation, Wolfsnare Plantation (also referred to as "Pallets"), John Biddle House, Pleasant Hall, Carraway House, Old Donation Church, Adam Keeling House, Pembroke Manor, Upper Wolfsnare House, Wishart House (Lynnhaven House) and Francis Land House.
Incorporated town in 1906, independent city in 1952
Beginning in the late 19th century, the small resort area of Virginia Beach grew in Princess Anne County, particularly after 1888 with the arrival of rail service and electricity. Developers built the original Princess Anne Hotel which opened in 1890 at the oceanfront near the tiny community of Seatack, named for a British "attack by sea" during the War of 1812. In 1891, guests at the new hotel watched the wreck and rescue efforts of the United States Life-Saving Service for the Norwegian bark Dictator . The ship's figurehead, which washed up on the beach several days later, was erected as a modest monument to the victims and rescue along the oceanfront for more than 50 years, and then became the inspiration for the current Norwegian Lady Monuments which were dedicated in 1962 in Virginia Beach, and Moss, Norway.
The "Gay Nineties" and the turn of the century saw a boom in construction of hotels and guest cottages to accommodate increasing numbers of summer vacationers flocking to the seashore. Over time, the grand old hotels and cottages succumbed to fire and the wrecking ball, to be replaced by the modern high-rise hotels and motels that line the shore today. Only one of the old Victorian cottages of that period still exists and continues to welcome guests - Barclay Cottage Bed and Breakfast.
Although the resort was initially dependent upon railroad and electric trolley service, completion of the concrete Virginia Beach Boulevard extending from Norfolk in 1922 opened access for automobiles, buses, and trucks, and passenger rail service was eventually discontinued.
A railroad passenger station at Cape Henry built in 1902 and served by the original Norfolk Southern Railway was restored lat
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