Have you seen that which is in your “own backyard?” Come see the architecture, stained glass, and memorabilia of eight houses of worship in Olde Towne Portsmouth. Hear stories of the Yellow Fever Epidemic; the Jewish people here as early as 1916; the Underground Railroad; the Irish immigrants...
Founded in 1772, three years before the American Revolution, it is the oldest African-American church in the area. Originally the church was on Glasgow Street, but it was “burned by wicked hands” in 1856. This building was built entirely by hand by slaves and free blacks in one...
This Federal style home was built by Colonel Demsey Watts. Congressman Henry Clay, Chief Black Hawk and President Andrew Jackson have all been entertained here. When Blackhawk was brought here Captain Watts took him to the Navy Yard to see the battleship New York in Dry Dock 1....
Chevra T'helim Synagogue is now known as the Jewish Museum & Cultural Center. This rare surviving example of Eastern European Jewish Orthodoxy is located at the main entrance to the City of Portsmouth, VA. It is a place where visitors from home and around the world can celebrate...
Housed in the 1846 Courthouse, the Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center is home to rotating visual art and cultural exhibits, lectures, workshops, and performances. Current Exhibits: Sailing to Freedom Through April 16 Often overlooked by historians is the large number of enslaved people who used coastal routes along...
Imagine a family went for an afternoon stroll and never returned home... This is what it feels like in the Hill House Museum which is furnished entirely with family belongings from the 19th and 20th centuries. The Hill House (circa 1825) is a four-story antebellum English basement home,...
When Col. Crawford, the founder of Portsmouth laid out the town in 1752, he named one of the blocks “Church Square.” Trinity Church was built on Church Square in 1762. It continues as a vibrant Christian witness on Church Square some 250 plus years later. Trinity is a...
St. John’s Church was established by the Diocese of Virginia in May 1848 as the second Episcopal congregation in Portsmouth. The original Greek Revival building was located near the corner of Court and London Streets. During the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1855, James Chisholm, the church’s first priest,...
St. Paul's Catholic Church was first built in 1813 by French and Irish immigrants. It was the first Catholic congregation in Portsmouth. This is actually the congregations' fifth building (once the membership expanded and twice the previous churches were burned down). St. Paul's was built of shaved granite in...
Court Street Baptist Church, founded in 1789, was burned down and rebuilt in1901 of pink granite quarried in Salisbury, N. C. This church is one of only two Baptist churches in this exuberant Romanesque Revival style in the nation. The other is in Tennessee. The stained glass is...
