A brief history of Norfolk, produced originally by the City, and shaved down for ease of mass consumption.
Before Norfolk
1560s - Spanish arrive and settle briefly along the York River
1585 – English settlers reach Roanoke Island.
1591 – Roanoke Colony found with no survivors.
Norfolk, 17th Century
1622 – 200 acres of land now occupied by the City of Norfolk was owned by Lewis Vandermill, who in the same year sold it to Nicholas Wise, senior, shipwright.
1624 — Thomas Willoughby granted 500 acres by King James I (present-day Ocean View).
1636 – William Willoughby granted 200 acres by King Charles I (present-day downtown Norfolk).
1640 – Elizabeth River Parish completed (site of present Norfolk Naval Station)
1661 – Lower Norfolk County builds its first courthouse on Broad Creek, which was replaced in 1689 by 2 courthouses, one on the Elizabeth River and the other on the eastern portion of Lynnhaven River, on the southern end of Great Neck.
1680 — The Virginia House of Burgesses orders each Virginia county to purchase 50 acres of land, to be laid out for a town and storehouses. By an Act of Assembly the purchase of 50 acres was authorized for the Town of Norfolk, the purchase price being 10,000 pounds of tobacco.
Norfolk, 18th Century
1736 – By charter from George II, Norfolk and its suburbs were incorporated into a borough. Samuel Boush became our first mayor.
1739 - St. Paul’s Episcopal Church erected on property deeded to the Borough by Samuel Boush.
1749 - Hurricane lays down Willoughby Spit and forms Willoughby Bay.
1776 – On New Year’s Day, English ships under the command of Lord Dunmore opened fire on Norfolk, burning many of the buildings to the ground. The destruction was completed by Colonial troops in order that the British might not occupy the borough. Norfolk was the only American town completely destroyed and rebuilt. A British cannonball in the wall of St. Paul’s Church is a reminder of the Revolutionary War.
1790 - Courthouse built on Main Street, east of Church. The population of the Borough was nearly 3000.
Norfolk, 19th Century
1801 — The first Continental Navy Yard was established here.
1804 – Norfolk Academy, founded in 1728 and named Norfolk Academy in 1787, receives its charter from the General Assembly.
1845 — Norfolk incorporated as a City.
1847 — Cornerstone of City Hall (now MacArthur Memorial) laid.
1851 – Virginia authorized the charter of an 80-mile railroad connecting Norfolk and Petersburg. The line was completed in 1858 and was the forerunner of today’s Norfolk Southern Railroad.
1855 — Steamer Ben Franklin arrives in Hampton Roads with Yellow Fever on board. The epidemic raged until October, by which time one-third of Norfolk’s inhabitants, 2,000 people, had died.
1856 — St. Vincent’s Hospital (later DePaul) is founded in Norfolk by the Sisters of Charity in the home of Ann Behan Herron
1861 – Virginia secedes from the Union. Richmond becomes Capital of the Confederacy.
1861 – the first local encounter of the Civil War took place at Sewell’s Point
1870 – End of Reconstruction in Norfolk. Union occupation troops withdrawn and Virginia is readmitted to the Union.
Norfolk, 20th Century
1917 — The U.S Naval Operating Base and Training Station was established on the old Jamestown Exposition grounds.
1919 – Crispus Attucks Theatre opened; designed, financed and developed by African-Americans. The theater is named to honor African-American Crispus Attucks, who was the first American killed by British soldiers when they fired into a crowd of demonstrators in Boston in 1770.
1923 — An annexation including Ocean View, Larchmont and Lafayette added 27 square miles to Norfolk City.
1938 — Norfolk Municipal Airport opened on the former Truxton Manor Golf Course tract. A new terminal building was dedicated in 1951. In 1976, Norfolk International Airport opened, with overseas flights.
1941 — World War II, with heightened defense activities and hundreds of families moving into the area, doubled Norfolk’s population. At the end of the war, Norfolk Naval Base and Air Station remained the largest military installation in the world.
1952 — The Downtown Norfolk-Portsmouth Bridge-Tunnel opened. A modern engineering marvel, it was followed by the Mid-Town Tunnel in 1962 and a second Downtown Tunnel in 1986. Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel opened in 1957, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in 1964 and a second Hampton Roads Tunnel in 1976. In 1992, the $400,000,000 Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel opened,connecting Suffolk and Newport News and completing the loop of interstate highways in Hampton Roads.
1955 — Tanners Creek annexed.Norfolk becomes largest city in state, with a population of 297,253.
1955 — Ferry service from Norfolk to Portsmouth, established in 1636 by Adam Thoroughgood, was discontinued. Pedestrian ferry service was resumed in 1983.
1959 – Norfolk’s public schools were desegregated when 17 black children entered 6 previously all-white schools in Norfolk.
1962 – Norfolk College of William and Mary has its name changed to Old Dominion College.
1964 – General Douglas MacArthur Memorial opens in Norfolk. Death of General MacArthur.
1966 — Norfolk International Terminals are built.
1969 – Norfolk State College, founded in 1935 as a branch of Richmond’s Virginia Union University, becomes an independent 4-year college.
1971 — Donation of major art collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences.
1971-1972 — Norfolk’s $30,000,000 convention and cultural center opened; SCOPE, a unique domed convention hall; and Chrysler Hall, a separate theater.
1973 — Eastern Virginia Medical School, the hub of a major regional medical and health service center, began. In 1980, the first in-vitro fertilization clinic in the U.S opened at EVMS in a $25,000 lab.
1975 — Professional Opera arrived in Norfolk as the Virginia Opera Association opened its premiere season at the Center Theater. In 1993, the renovated theater was rechristened the Edythe C. and Stanley L. Harrison Opera House in honor of the company’s founders.
1976 — Operation Sail began as a tall ship celebration for the American Bicentennial. It developed into the annual Harborfest.
1981 — Birth at Norfolk General Hospital of first baby in the United States conceived by in-vitro fertilization (Elizabeth Jordan Carr)
1982 – Norfolk and Western and Southern Railways consolidate; the new company, Norfolk Southern, moves its headquarters to Norfolk.
1983 — Waterside opened in Norfolk as a festival marketplace with 120 food and specialty shops. Adjacent is Town Point Park, the scene of concerts and activities for all ages. In 1990, the $8,500,000 Waterside expansion opened.
1992 — Ground was broken for a 12,000 seat, $13,000,000 baseball park, which opened as Harbor Park in 1993 and is touted as the country’s finest minor-league stadium.
1998 – The Virginia Symphony, under the direction of JoAnn Falletta, performs at Carnegie Hall.