Norfolk - Virginia - History 

There is evidence that in  9500 B.C. -- native Chesipean Indians ruled the area. Their town was called SKICOAK, the site of which is now Norfolk. The Scicoaks, lead by Chief Powhatan, were gone by the time the English colonists reached the site of Norfolk. One of Chief Powhatan’s advisors went to the Chief, telling him of a dream about the Powhatan Confederacy being destroyed by strangers from the east. Powhatan misunderstood this to mean the Scicoaks and so he himself eliminated this peaceful people before they could turn against him. Later, of course, strangers from the east, across the oceans came, and so the advisor’s dream was fulfilled.

In 1560s the Spanish arrived and settle shortly along the York River. In 1585 the English settlers arrived in Roanoke Island.   In 1591 the Roanoke Colony was found with no survivors. In 1607 three English ships landed at Cape Henry. In 1610, Hampton Roads named to honor Henry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton and Treasurer of the Virginia Company in London. In 1613, tobacco was introduced to the colony and became the main source of the colonial economy. 

In 1766 the inhabitants of Norfolk Borough and Norfolk County assembled at the courthouse and organized the Sons of Liberty, to oppose and protest against the Stamp Act. In 1774 the First Norfolk newspaper published. It was called the Virginia Gazette or Norfolk Intelligencer, edited by John Hunter Holt. The paper was put out of business when its press was seized by British troops in 1775. In 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 city was totally grounded and rebuilt later.

In 1851, the state of 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. In 1870, after the Civil War, Norfolk County's rich waterways and fertile farmland enabled it to recover quickly from the destruction of the war. In Norfolk, industries and railroads opened the way for transportation of coal to our port, the beginning of trade that made Norfolk the greatest port in the world.

In 1938, Norfolk Municipal Airport was opened on the former Truxton Manor Golf Course.  A new terminal building was dedicated in 1951, and in 1976, Norfolk International Airport was opened, with overseas flights.

In 1941, World War II, with heightened defense activities and hundreds of families moving into the area, doubled Norfolk's population. Therefore, at the end of the war, Norfolk Naval Base and Air Station remained the largest military installation in the world.