Ten years after Col. William Craford laid out the town in 1752, Portsmouth Parish was built on Church Square. Portsmouth Parish served as the first Church of England for Norfolk County and was re-named Trinity Episcopal after the revolution. Brimming... Read More

1769 Old Chapel Church in Penhook is one of only four pre-Revolutionary War frame Anglican churches in Virginia. Built in 1769, it is the oldest documented frame structure in Southwest Virginia. The one-story, 249 year old church has been preserve... Read More

Founded in 1772, three years before the American Revolution as the Black Methodist Society, Emanuel AME is the oldest African-American church in the area. The congregation shared several locations with the (White) Methodist Society before becoming th... Read More

Imagine a family went for an afternoon stroll and never returned home... This is what it feels like in The Hill House Museum, a historic home in Portsmouth, Virginia furnished entirely with family belongings from the 19th and 20th centuries, colle... Read More

With more than 400 graves and monuments dating from the late 1700s to the present, Cedar Grove was established as the first city-owned cemetery in Portsmouth and remains its oldest. Its memorial markers include small tablets, ledger stones, obelisks... Read More

The AAF Tank Museum is a living memorial dedicated to the Tank and Cavalry soldiers of the world. Before 1981 some of the artifacts that make up the AAF Tank Museum was a private collection belonging to Mr. William Gasser. Mr. Gasser felt that his co... Read More

In the summer of 1780, the Southern American colonies - and hopes of independence - seemed at the mercy of an invading British army. A militia was formed on the western frontier, known as the Overmountain Men. This brave group of some 400 volunteers ... Read More

As an early settler, Abraham Hollingsworth traveled the Wilderness Trail when it was still an Indian path. He built one of the first grist mills in the Valley and the Hollingsworth home served as the area's first Quaker meeting house. Constructed of ... Read More

Constructed about 1882, the Wytheville Training School was built on land where a Freedmen's school once stood, shortly after the freedom of the slaves between 1865 and 66. Sometime between 1880 and 1882, the Freedmen's school was razed and a new chur... Read More

Even before the founding of the City of Alexandria in 1749, Africans and their descendants, enslaved and free, have lived and worked along the waterfront, making significant contributions to the local economy and culture. The two African American Her... Read More

African American Museum, History and Genealogical Resource Center also known as AAHA. Guided tours are available to adults for $5.00, students and seniors $2.00 per hour. The museum houses 18 exhibits focusing on Fauquier County and African Americans... Read More

The courthouse was first established in 1762, on land donated by Dr. Thomas Walker. William Cabell was the first builder of the original frame building, which was torn down and replaced in 1803 by the rear wing of the existing building. The grounds o... Read More

Discover a part of Northern Virginia's industrial heritage - the restored gristmill at Aldie Mill Historic Park, in Aldie. Built between 1807 and 1809, the Aldie Gristmill was once the largest factory of its kind in Loudoun County. The mill's metal w... Read More

Step right into the Museum's laboratory and see archaeologists at work reconstructing Alexandria's history, fragment by fragment. The Museum displays the results of recent digs and interprets the results of ongoing research through exhibitions, video... Read More

The Alexandria Black History Museum is housed in the historic Robert H. Robinson Library, Alexandria's separate but unequal library built in 1940. It owes its existence to attorney Samuel W. Tucker, who orchestrated a sit-in at the Alexandria library... Read More