Hampton History and Facts

Located on the southeastern tip of the Virginia peninsula on the Chesapeake Bay, Hampton is the oldest continuously settled English community in the United States. As an Indian village called Kecoughtan, it had been visited by the first English colonists before they sailed up the James River to settle in Jamestown.

In 1610 the construction of Fort Henry and Fort Charles at the mouth of Hampton Creek marked the beginnings of Hampton. In 1619, the settlers chose an English name for the community, Elizabeth City. The settlement was known as Hampton as early as 1680, and in 1705 Hampton was recognized as a town. The City of Hampton was first incorporated in 1849 and classified as a city of the second class in 1908. In 1952 Hampton, the independent town of Phoebus and Elizabeth City County, encompassing Buckroe and Foxhill, were consolidated under one municipal government and classified as city of the first class.

The first free public schools in the United States were founded in Hampton by Benjamin Syms and Thomas Eaton and are commemorated in the Syms-Eaton Museum. Hampton is the site of Hampton University, established in 1868 to educate freed slaves, and Thomas Nelson Community College. St. John's Episcopal parish was founded in 1610, making it the oldest in the country.

Fort Monroe dates from 1819. For a long period during the American Civil War the fort was the only Union outpost in the Confederacy. The famous battle between the first ironclad battleships, the Monitor and the Merrimac, was fought just offshore.

During the Civil War the city was burned down by its own troops rather than surrender to Federalist troops in 1861. Before the fire, Hampton had 30 businesses and over 100 homes. Fewer than six buildings remained intact after the fire. In 1884 fire again besieged Hampton and almost completely destroyed the downtown business district.

Today Hampton is a thriving city of over 141,000 residents. Major industries are NASA and high-tech firms, seafood processing, military and tourism. In 1992, the Virginia Air and Space Center opened on the downtown waterfront with almost 300,000 visitors a year coming through its doors.

The city's logo and slogan - Hampton, America's First - identifies the city as home to many firsts such as America's first continuous English-speaking settlement; America's first free public education; and America's first training ground for the astronauts and many, many more.