Hampton’s downtown waterfront district encompasses the site of the original 17th-century seaport that served as a port-of-entry for commercial vessels from Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. It is now dotted with restaurants, pubs, art galleries, shops, marinas, and a waterfront park. Attractions such as the Virginia Air & Space Center, the restored 1920’s-era Hampton Carousel, the American headquarters of the world-renowned Coosteau Society, harbor tour vessels, historic churches, and the new Hampton History Museum lure visitors invitingly.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, cargo ships sailing to Virginia from England and other nations stopped first in Hampton, site of the colony’s Royal Customs House. Here vessels unloaded tea, spices, dressmaking material, tools, furnishings, and other items. Colonists from surrounding areas came to Hampton by horse and wagon, as well as by water down the rivers feeding into the Chesapeake Bay, to purchase the latest imports and hear news of the world from the ships’ crews.
Nearly 300 years later, Downtown Hampton is enhanced with cobblestone streets lined with red brick sidewalks, crepe myrtle trees and the sculptures and mosaics of The Art Market, an outdoor gallery intermingled among the district’s eclectic shops and eateries. Downtown visitors are encouraged to stroll across the Booker T.Washington Bridge to the Hampton University Museum on the historic Hampton University Campus. The world class museum houses a collection of more than 9,000 artifacts and works of art, encompassing African and Pan-Asian art, African-American art, and the art and artifacts of many Native American cultures. The campus is also home to other national historic landmarks, including Emancipation Oak, where Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was first read to Hampton’s African-American community.
Visitors to Downtown Hampton can enjoy a day of shopping and sightseeing, incorporating lunch or dinner in one of the district’s many eateries. They offer a wide variety of cuisine, ranging from enticing Creole and Japanese to gourmet sandwiches, Italian and Chesapeake Bay seafood and Southern teas rooms.
Home to festivals such as the annual Hampton Bay Days and the Blackbeard Festival (the pirate’s head once dangled from a pike in the harbor as a warning to other rogues to stay clear of Hampton), Downtown Hampton is a vibrant community with beautiful waterfront vistas, a working fishing fleet, private yachts and people-friendly streets.
A visit to the Hampton Visitor Center will start your exploration of a historic city with one foot planted firmly in the past and another poised to leap into the future.