Colonial National Historical Park
- Colonial National Historical Park** is a National Park Service unit in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia that preserves and interprets some of the most consequential landscapes in American history. The park is comprised of two significant historic sites — Historic Jamestowne and Yorktown Battlefield — representing the beginning and end of English colonial history in America. For residents of and visitors to Virginia Beach, the park holds particular significance: one of its key components, the Cape Henry Memorial, sits within the city limits of Virginia Beach itself, marking the very shoreline where the English colonists first set foot on the continent in 1607. Over 3 million people visit the park each year, making it one of the most-visited units within the entire National Park System.
Establishment and Administrative History
The Colonial National Monument — later re-designated Colonial National Historical Park — was created in 1930, in time for the sesquicentennial of the Yorktown victory the following year. Its establishment was spurred by the anniversaries of key historic events of 1607 and 1781, and by the restoration of the colonial capital of Williamsburg in the late 1920s; the primary goal of the new park was to commemorate and preserve the unique historical features of the James/York peninsula, including Jamestown, Yorktown, and the Yorktown Revolutionary War battlefield.
Colonial National Monument was authorized on July 3, 1930, established on December 30, 1930, and on June 5, 1936, it was redesignated a National Historical Park. Colonial National Historical Park represented the pioneering efforts of the National Park Service in historical research and management.
The cemetery at Yorktown was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933. Jamestown National Historic Site is co-owned by the National Park Service and Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) and administered by the NPS, and was designated on December 18, 1940.
As with all historical areas administered by the National Park Service, Colonial National Historical Park and Jamestown National Historic Site are listed on the National Register of Historic Places of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Colonial National Historical Park covers a total area of approximately 15 square miles (39 square km) in southeastern Virginia, situated on a peninsula between the York and James rivers, and comprises five discrete units.
The Cape Henry Memorial: Virginia Beach's Connection
The Cape Henry Memorial is the component of Colonial National Historical Park most directly associated with the city of Virginia Beach. The Cape Henry Memorial is at the site of the landing of Captain Christopher Newport and the Jamestown colonists in 1607. It is located in the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, at Cape Henry, and is open to the public, located off U.S. Route 60 on the Navy's Joint Expeditionary Base East.
After sailing from England in December 1606, three ships carrying the investors of the Virginia Company and their hired men arrived off the coast of Cape Henry on April 26, 1607. A small party went ashore to explore but ended up having a violent encounter with Indians that left two men wounded. On the 29th, another party came ashore and erected a cross of oak, naming the spot Cape Henry in honor of Henry, Prince of Wales. Sending a small party of men to shore, they built a wooden cross, planted it in the sand, and named the place Cape Henry.
A granite cross was erected in 1935 by the National Society Daughters of the American Colonists, in memory of the original wooden cross. Today, a ten-foot high granite cross of the Cape Henry Memorial stands at the approximate location of the colonists' initial landing in memory of the wooden cross built by the English colonists.
The memorial site also commemorates a pivotal naval engagement from the Revolutionary War era. On September 5, 1781, nineteen British warships were surprised by an awaiting fleet of twenty-four French ships commanded by Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse. The two navies battled for four days, each sustaining heavy damage. On the 9th, another fleet of French ships arrived from Rhode Island, forcing the British to flee the area and return to New York. The outcome was instrumental in the American victory over the British at Yorktown because the British ships were loaded with supplies and reinforcements for General Charles Cornwallis.
In addition to the battle monument is a statue of de Grasse — provided by the French government for America's bicentennial and dedicated in October 1976.
The older of the two Cape Henry lighthouses is the fourth-oldest lighthouse in the United States; it was built in 1792. The second was built in 1881. Both have helped guide sailors home to safety. Today, visitors can tour the original lighthouse and climb to the observation deck for spectacular views over the area.
Historic Jamestowne
Historic Jamestowne encompasses all of Jamestown Island — the original site of James Fort and the first successful English settlement in North America. The more than 1,500-acre island is connected to the mainland by a manmade causeway via the Colonial Parkway. Historic Jamestowne is located in James City County, Virginia, just outside Williamsburg, and anchors one end of the "Historic Triangle," which includes Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.
The story begins in April 1607, when after many months at sea, 144 Englishmen made landfall on the eastern coast of America where they anchored their ships in the deep and protected waters of the Chesapeake Bay. By May 13, 1607, about three weeks after this initial landing, colonists traveled up the James River to Jamestown Island and established the first permanent English colony in North America.
Under the leadership of John Smith and the Reverend Robert Hunt, the colonists endured hard times and great strife during the early years. Starvation, conflicts with American Indians, inclement weather, and lack of supplies threatened the survival of the colony. In the early months during the first winter, many of the original colonists died of starvation. The colony eventually prospered as the colonists found ways to survive and to co-exist with the Powhatan, which historians estimate had a population of 13,000 to 14,000 in 1607 in the Tidewater Virginia area. The Powhatan had an important impact on the survival and everyday lives of the colonists.
After the Jamestown statehouse burned to the ground first during Bacon's Rebellion in 1676 and again in 1699, the colonists moved the capital of Virginia a few miles away to Williamsburg. Most of Jamestown's merchants followed the government to Williamsburg, which precipitated Jamestown's steady decline.
Today, Historic Jamestowne is jointly managed by the NPS and Preservation Virginia. Preservation Virginia owns 22 acres containing the remains of the original 1607 fort. In 1994, with the quadricentennial year approaching, Preservation Virginia agreed to fund a 10-year archaeological project called Jamestown Rediscovery to search for any remains of James Fort, led by William Kelso. In 2007, Preservation Virginia and the National Park Service rebranded Jamestown Island as "Historic Jamestowne," where both organizations provide tours, programs, and events year-round.
Officially named the Nathalie P. and Alan M. Voorhees Archaearium, the on-site museum houses excavated artifacts and exhibits about Jamestown. The building is located over the excavated remains of the last Statehouse in Jamestown, which visitors can see. The museum displays objects that belonged to Jamestown colonists 400 years ago, unearthed from the long-lost James Fort site, in a 7,500 sq ft gallery space that integrates both life and death experiences of the colonists and the landscape they shaped.
Yorktown Battlefield
On October 19, 1781, American and French troops defeated the British at Yorktown in the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War. General George Washington's allied American and French army forced the British army under General Charles Lord Cornwallis to surrender. In 1691, Virginia's colonial government had established Yorktown as a place to regulate trade and collect taxes on both imports and exports for Great Britain, and by the time of the Revolution it had grown into a prosperous colonial town.
The Thomas Nelson House was built around 1724 and served as Cornwallis's headquarters during the final battle of the Revolutionary War. The battlefield was the site of the British defeat, and both the house and the historic siege earthworks were restored in 1976. The Moore House is where surrender negotiations took place in 1781, located in the eastern part of the park.
The Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center shows a short film about the Siege of Yorktown and has exhibits that display items from the siege. Nearby are the state-operated American Revolution Museum at Yorktown and the Yorktown Riverwalk Landing area.
The Colonial Parkway
The Colonial Parkway is a twenty-three mile scenic roadway stretching from the York River at Yorktown to the James River at Jamestown. A major feature of the park, it links Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. The parkway links the three points of Virginia's Historic Triangle — Jamestown and Yorktown — running through the historic district of Colonial Williamsburg, and is located in James City County, York County, and the city of Williamsburg.
This scenic route runs alongside forests, marshes, fields, and shorelines and alongside such notable historic sites as Powhatan's Village, Indian Creek, and Kingsmill.
Visitors can follow the historical move of Virginia's colonial capital by taking the Colonial Parkway from Historic Jamestowne to restored Colonial Williamsburg. The parkway is designed to minimize modern intrusions on the landscape, and commercial signage and billboards are prohibited along its entire length.
Visiting the Park
The Historic Jamestowne Visitor Center at 1368 Colonial Parkway, Jamestown, VA, and the Yorktown Battlefield Visitor Center at 1000 Colonial Parkway, Yorktown, VA, are open daily from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm, except on Thanksgiving Day, December 25, and January 1. All park grounds close at sunset.
The Cape Henry Memorial portion of the park is located on the south side of the Chesapeake Bay, sitting within the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story. Civilian visitors must pass through a military security checkpoint before reaching the memorial, and valid identification is required for entry.
From Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport (20 minutes from Yorktown), Norfolk International Airport (one hour east) and Richmond International Airport (one hour west) provide commercial air service. For those arriving from the Virginia Beach/Norfolk corridor, the park is accessible via Interstate 64.
The Cape Henry Memorial section, entirely within Virginia Beach, serves as an evocative prologue to the full park experience. Visitors who begin their journey at Cape Henry — standing where those first English colonists came ashore in the spring of 1607 — and then follow the historic trail inland to Jamestown and onward along the Colonial Parkway to Yorktown, can trace the full arc of English colonial America across a single connected landscape.