OpenHistoricalMap/Projects/Hampton Roads
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Hampton Roads is the body of water in Southeastern Virginia where the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth Rivers meet. It is also commonly used to describe the metropolitan area that is comprised of, at a minimum, the cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. Some organizations, such as the US Census Bureau, include more jurisdictions in their definitions of the region.
Resources
- EarthExplorer is provided by the United States Geological Survey, and for the purposes of the Hampton Roads Region, provides online access to digital scans of aerial imagery generally from the mid 20th century onwards. However, downloading files requires the creation of an account, and most of the imagery provided is not georeferenced.
- Virginia Geographic Information Network, Virginia Base Mapping Project has collected aerial photography of the state of Virginia from 2002 to the present. While the iD editor includes the most recent imagery, it is also possible to use the older imagery via a proxy. The ArcGIS MapServers for 2002 - 2025 can be found here.
- The National Archives - The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) contains a plethora of imagery, both drawn surveys and aerial imagery, produced for or by various federal agencies. Unfortunately, most of these do not seem to be readily available online. Special List 25 serves as an index for the aerial imagery that is available, and it is downloadable as an excel spreadsheet.
- The Library of Virginia likewise holds surveys and maps of the region, as does the Library of Congress.
- Newspapers are a useful source for finding information about the usage of buildings, along with their names, phone numbers, and addresses throughout time. The Library of Virginia has scanned large amounts of Virginia newspapers that can be viewed for free via the Virginia Chronicle at this link.
Resources by City
Chesapeake
- The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission has photos of Chesapeake flown by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (Part of the USDA) dating back to 1937. (Note: Obviously, the City of Chesapeake did not exist in 1937, so I'm not entirely sure what exact area is available)
Suffolk
- The City of Suffolk has made public some construction drawings of the old municipal center (Demolished Circa 2015), which formerly served as both City Hall and Police Headquarters. These have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, and can be viewed here.
- The Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society has a large record of photographs and other documents. There is no online index of the items in their collection, and most of their collection is not available online, and must be viewed either in-person or by request. Their website can be found here: https://www.suffolkhistory.org/