Cape Henry Memorial: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Colonial National Historical Park, National Park Service

Layton, Tim; Killion, Jeff; Berriault, Ethan; Foulds, Eliot

The Cape Henry Memorial is located on the south side of the Chesapeake Bay, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Established as Colonial National Monument in 1930 and redesignated as Colonial National Historical Park in 1936, the park protects and interprets several sites relating to the Colony of Virginia and the history of the United States more broadly. The park includes the historic Jamestown Island settlement, and the sites of two Battles at Yorktown; in 1781during the American Revolutionary War and in 1862 during the American Civil War. The park acquired the site for the Cape Henry Memorial in 1938, and then relocated the site further inland in 1981 ahead of the encroaching shoreline. The quarter-acre Cape Henry Memorial landscape marks the approximate site of the first landing of the Jamestown settlers in Virginia. The original site was developed in 1935 by the National Society Daughters of the American Colonists, who erected the First Landing Monument, a 12-foot high by 6-foot wide granite cross, in memory of the original wooden cross built by the settlers soon after they landed. Today, the cross stands within a small flagstone terrace partly enclosed by a stone retaining wall. Plantings of beach rose and Chinese holly border the terrace, while grass- and shrub-covered dunes wrap around the site. Nearby is a statue of Admiral Comte de Grasse and a granite memorial honoring those who fought in the Battle of the Virginia Capes. From these memorials a walkway leads to the top of the dunes where one can overlook the Atlantic Ocean and the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. Another walkway just to the south of the Cape Henry Memorial accesses the beach. Towering over the memorials are the Cape Henry Lighthouses, built in 1791 and 1881. The memorial is located within the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, and as such has access restriction. The general public must ride a shuttle from the base gate to the lighthouse, and then walk approximately. two blocks to the memorial. The Cape Henry Memorial Cultural Landscape Inventory (CLI) documents the landscape’s location, size, physical development, landscape characteristics, character-defining features, and condition. The information contained in the CLI is compiled from primary and secondary sources and through onsite surveys of the landscape. The CLI includes historic maps, drawings, and images; photographs of existing conditions; and a site plan that indicates major features. The CLI documents the existing condition of park landscape resources and identifies impacts, threats, and measures to stabilize condition. This inventory was completed as part of a national effort to document all cultural landscapes in the national park system. The National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory (CLI) includes landscapes that are listed, or eligible for listing, on the National Register of Historic Places, or are otherwise managed as cultural resources, which the National Park Service has, or plans to acquire, legal interest. The completed inventories are included in the Servicewide Cultural Resources Information System (CRIS-CL) database.

Cape Henry Memorial: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Colonial National Historical Park, National Park Service

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