Military housing is limited in the area, so find out where other military families live so you can be close to other families who can support you during your time here. 7 Cities Law is a criminal defense law firm that serves the Hampton Roads community. [64], The Virginia Living Museum, first established in 1966, combines the elements of a native wildlife park, science museum, aquarium, botanical preserve, and planetarium. The region of Hampton Roads consists of seven cities: Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. Cable television service in most Hampton Roads localities is provided by Cox Communications. [76] The trust fund created from the Syms and Eaton donations has remained intact since the 17th century and was incorporated into support for the Hampton public school system.[77]. Norfolk State and Hampton, both historically black institutions, compete in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. [57], First Landing State Park and False Cape State Park are both located in coastal areas in Virginia Beach. The new title is based on events in 1607 when English Captain Christopher Newport's three ships – the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery landed at Cape Henry along the Atlantic Coast in what is today Virginia Beach. [108] The Sportsplex was expanded to accommodate the Virginia Destroyers, a franchise in the United Football League which relocated from Orlando. [107] The Piranhas play at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex. [46] Operated by Hampton Roads Transit, it is the first light rail service in the state. It is currently home to the USS Monitor Center where 210 tons of artifacts recovered from the USS Monitor are held, including the gun turret. There are also several smaller shipyards, numerous docks and terminals. Hampton Roads previously hosted a successful franchise in the American Basketball Association, although it was never a full-time home for that team. First Landing is the site of Cape Henry while False Cape is located at the southeastern end of Virginia Beach. Suffolk Publications also produces Virginia-Carolina Boomers, a regional guide for Boomers in the area, which comes out twice a year.[95]. Highlights of the museum's collection include a section of the Berlin Wall and the outer wall from Dachau Concentration Camp. Newmarket North Mall is now NetCenter, a business center. Hampton Roads has become known as the "world's greatest natural harbor." [44] Local routes serving Williamsburg, James City County, and upper York County is operated by Williamsburg Area Transit Authority.[45]. Several older malls such as Pembroke and Military Circle have since their grand openings been renovated, and others have been closed and torn down. The area is called 'Hampton Roads', but it may be referred to as 'Coastal Virginia'. The region has extensive natural areas, including 26 miles (42 km) of Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay beaches, the Great Dismal Swamp, picturesque rivers, state parks, wildlife refuges, and botanical gardens. I'm confident this series will make your next PCS your best move, yet! Other references to the Earl include the area to the north across the bay (in what is now the Eastern Shore) which became known as Northampton, and an area south of the James River which became Southampton. Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean, and the surrounding metropolitan region located in the Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina portions of the Tidewater region. Body of water and metropolitan area in the US, Satellite view of Hampton Roads with the Hampton Roads channel at center. Use the drop-down tab to select a location. Cameron is the founder of MilitaryTownAdvisor.com. The museum also consists of a 550-acre park and the Mariners' Lake, through which is the five-mile Noland Trail. The region has a number of venues hosting live music and performances. In 1959, one of the largest on the east coast of the USA was opened at the northeast corner of Military Highway and Virginia Beach Boulevard on property which had formally been used as an airfield. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC) currently includes 16 cities and counties and one incorporated town in Virginia, representing over 1.7 million people. The center also contains a Studio Art School of private and group instruction for all ages. The geology and topography of the Hampton Roads region is influenced by the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater which is one of three factors contributing to the sinking of Hampton Roads at a rate between 15 and 23 centimeters (5.9 and 9.1 inches) per century. The city was incorporated in 1705 and is one of the oldest cities in Hampton Roads metropolitan area, and is considered to be the historic, urban, financial, and cultural center of the region. [35][36], In 2007, the new Hampton Roads Transportation Authority (HRTA) was formed under a controversial state law to levy various additional taxes to generate funding for major regional transportation projects, including a long-sought and costly additional crossing of the harbor of Hampton Roads (The Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, Monitor-Merrimac Bridge Tunnel, and the James River Bridge are the existing crossings). The Admirals play at Norfolk Scope Arena, seating 8,725 or 13,800 festival seating, which opened in 1971. There are no further plans for light rail mass transit initiatives within Virginia Beach. MacArthur Center opened in March 1999, which made downtown Norfolk a prime shoppers destination, with the region's first Nordstrom department store anchor. Highways at Bower's Hill near the northeastern edge of the Great Dismal Swamp. The Hampton Roads MSA, with a population of about 1.7 million, is the seventh largest metropolitan area in the Southeastern United States after the Washington metropolitan area; Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach, FL, MSA; Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Marietta, GA, MSA, Tampa–St. Afton Square, located in the Cradock naval community of Portsmouth, was the first planned shopping center in the US and has served as template for future developments throughout the nation.[31]. [84] Hampton University, a private HBCU university, has a long history serving Hampton.[85]. Emails consist of recommendations about local restaurants, shopping, salons, health care providers, service providers, and tons of advice about things to do! Some offer only associates and technical degrees and certificates, while others award advanced degrees, including doctorates. The region hosts two-week-long visits by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus each year with multiple performances at Norfolk Scope and the Hampton Coliseum, and even attracts a group of Circus Train Enthusiasts, railfans who watch, photograph and report on the blue or red unit trains as they make their move between the two sites, requiring a long inland trip through Petersburg and Richmond in order to avoid crossing the 10-mile (16 km) geographical distance across the harbor (a trip impassable directly by modern trains; the two bridge-tunnel facilities operated by VDOT accommodate only highway traffic). The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (in Suffolk and Chesapeake) is accessed from U.S. Route 17 in Chesapeake. The airport is located near Chesapeake Bay, along the city limits of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. The Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (known as 'Jefferson Lab')[25] conducts cutting edge physics research in Newport News; the lab hosts the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF)[26] and a kilowatt-class free-electron laser.[27]. Also in the 1970s, Tower Mall was built in Portsmouth, but was torn down and turned into the Victory Crossing shopping development. Sign up for our PCS Series or Town Advice, or both! The Destroyers played in Virginia Beach from 2011 to 2012, and won the 2011 league championship. America's first free public schools, the Syms and Eaton free schools (later combined as Syms-Eaton Academy), were established in Hampton in 1634 and 1659 respectively. MacArthur Center is compared to other downtown malls, such as Baltimore's Harborplace, Indianapolis' Circle Centre Mall, Atlanta's Lenox Square Mall and most comparably to The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City near Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Virginia. It is the eastern terminus of the Colonial Parkway connecting these locations. 57.2% of the population were of non-Hispanic White background. The College of William and Mary was chartered by the Crown and is the only pre-Independence college to have kept it. That's when she created the site: a place for military families to leave reviews about neighborhoods, areas of town, recommend real estate agents, things to do, local businesses and more. Hampton Roads 7 Cities Basketball Pro-Am, Inc.: Sports league web site provided and hosted free of charge by LeagueLineup.com - The Youth and Amateur Sports Portal! [65], The Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News contains a rotating gallery of art exhibits. Some of the outlying areas further from the harbor may or may not be included as part of "Hampton Roads", depending upon the organization or usage. The coal loading facilities in the Port of Hampton Roads are able to load in excess of 65 million tons annually, giving the port the largest, most efficient and modern coal loading facilities in the world. [101][102][103][104] ODU joined Conference USA, an FBS football conference, as a full FBS member in 2015. Show your pride and love for the 757 area with this clear vinyl die-cut weatherproof sticker. Williamsburg became a "sleepy" small town. While the borders of what locals call "Hampton Roads" may not perfectly align with the definition of the MSA, Hampton Roads is most often the name used for the metropolitan area. Although the South Norfolk section of Chesapeake is fine from the walkability aspect, the rest of the city … Home to more than 1.8 million people, the Hampton Roads region includes the independent cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, and Williamsburg and the counties of Gloucester, Isle of Wight, James City, Mathews, Southampton, Surry*, and York. They ceased operations in 2003 after their fourth season. When import and export tonnage are combined, the Port of Hampton Roads ranks as the third largest port in the country (following the ports of New Orleans/South Louisiana and Houston). Norfolk International Airport (IATA: ORF, ICAO: KORF, FAA LID: ORF), serves the region. District members are usually independent cities and counties. The Airport experienced a 4th year of record, double-digit growth through 2011, making it one of the fastest growing airports in the country. In late 2006, the Hampton Roads Partnership, a non-profit organization representing 17 localities (ten cities, six counties, and one town), all local universities and major military commands as well as leading businesses in southeastern Virginia, commenced a campaign aimed at branding the land area of Hampton Roads as "America's First Region". Check out our directory of. Huntington Ingalls Industries (formerly Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company), was created in 2008 as a spinoff of Northrop Grumman Newport News and is the world's largest shipyard. Goodwin dreamt of a much larger restoration of the colonial town. For a long time, the indoor shopping malls were seen as largely competitive with small shopping centers and traditional downtown type areas. The early administrative center of the new colony was known as Elizabeth Cittie, named for Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of King James I, and formally designated by the Virginia Company in 1619. 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