Hampton Roads · VA
Hampton
The oldest continuous English settlement in America, at Old Point Comfort.
- Population
- 137,148 (2020 census)
- Settled
- July 9, 1610
- Fort Monroe
- National monument, 2011
Then
- 1607
Christopher Newport's explorers name Point Comfort at the mouth of Hampton Roads.
- 1610
Colonists seize the Kecoughtan community and found a town and church on July 9.
- 1619
In late August the White Lion lands about 20 enslaved Africans at Point Comfort, the first recorded in the English colonies.
- 1834
Fort Monroe is completed. In the Civil War it stays in Union hands and becomes a refuge for people escaping slavery.
- 2011
Fort Monroe is decommissioned and named a national monument.
Now
NASA's Langley Research Center, where the original astronauts trained, is in Hampton, as is Hampton University. The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel crosses to Norfolk near downtown.