Virginia Beach
VIRGINIA BEACH
VIRGINIA BEACH, located on Cape Henry at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, the site of the first landing of the Jamestown colonists in 1607. Later in the 1620s, a community known as Lynnhaven grew up in what became Princess Anne County by 1691. After piracy in the area was eradicated in the early eighteenth century, trade emerged as a mainstay of the local economy. To diminish dangers to merchant shipping, the Cape Henry lighthouse was erected in 1792.
In the 1880s Virginia Beach became a popular seaside resort with several luxury hotels. The most famous of these, the Cavalier Hotel, opened in 1927 and became known as the "Queen of the Beach." Although the tourist industry remained a crucial part of the local economy through the twentieth century, the U.S. military—particularly Oceana Naval Air Station—proved an essential catalyst for the city's rapid post–World War II growth.
Another factor in that growth was "white flight," as nearby Norfolk desegregated in the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1963 city and county merged, creating Virginia's largest city. Public hostility kept African Americans from moving in significant numbers to "the Beach," making the city somewhat of an anomaly among southern cities; the 2000 population of 425,257 was overwhelmingly white relative to other urban areas in Virginia and the region.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Beach: A History of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Virginia Beach: Virginia Beach Public Library, 1996.
J. FredSaddler