Old Point Comfort facts for kids
Old Point Comfort is a special piece of land located in the city of Hampton, Virginia. It sits at the very tip of the Virginia Peninsula, right where the Hampton Roads waterway meets the sea in the United States. It was later called Old Point Comfort to tell it apart from New Point Comfort, which is about 21 miles (34 km) further up the Chesapeake Bay. In 1619, the first group of enslaved Africans arrived in colonial Virginia at this very spot. Today, it's home to Continental Park and the historic Fort Monroe National Monument.
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History
Early History: 1600s and 1700s
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For over 400 years, Old Point Comfort has been an important guide for ships and a strong military base.
The name "Point Comfort" comes from a story about the first settlers of Jamestown. On April 28, 1607, Captain Christopher Newport's ship, the Susan Constant, anchored nearby. Some of the crew rowed to a spot where they found a safe channel. This made them feel "in good comfort," so they named the land "Cape Comfort."
Point Comfort marked the beginning of the Virginia Colony's boundary. A special paper from 1609, called the Second Charter of the Virginia Company, described the colony's land. It said the land stretched from Point Comfort 200 miles (322 km) north and 200 miles (322 km) south along the coast. It also went "from sea to sea, west and northwest." This meant Virginia claimed a huge area, even reaching the Pacific Ocean!
In the fall of 1609, a leader named Captain John Ratcliffe built the first English fort here. It was called Fort Algernon.
In August 1619, the first Africans arrived in colonial Virginia. They came on a ship called the White Lion. This ship was a privateer (a private ship allowed to attack enemy ships) that flew a Dutch flag. The ship docked at Point Comfort. These 20-25 Africans had been taken from a Portuguese slave ship during a war in modern Angola.
The forts built from wood and planks often wore out because of the humid weather and Atlantic storms. So, in 1630, Captain Samuel Matthews was asked to rebuild the fort at Old Point Comfort. It was finished by 1632.
In 1665, Colonel Miles Cary, a member of the Virginia Governor's Council (a group that helped govern the colony), was told to put cannons at the fort. This was because of rising tensions during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Sadly, Cary was hit by a cannonball from a Dutch ship and died from his injuries in 1667.
Later History: 1700s and 1800s
The Virginia colonies built another fort at Point Comfort called Fort George in 1728. Even though it was made of stone, a big hurricane in 1749 washed Fort George away.
Without a fort to protect the water, the lighthouse at Old Point Comfort was captured by the British during the War of 1812. A British navy fleet sailed into the Chesapeake Bay. After trying to take the town of Norfolk, the British landed at Old Point Comfort. They used the lighthouse as a lookout. From there, they invaded and captured Hampton on June 25, 1813. Later, they marched on to capture and burn Washington, D.C..
Building Fort Monroe began in 1819, and soldiers first lived there in 1823. However, construction continued for almost 25 more years. It was first called Fortress Monroe but officially became Fort Monroe in 1832. When the Marquis de LaFayette, a French hero, visited the United States in 1824-1825, he admired the strong fort at Old Point Comfort. It had been designed by a French engineer named Simon Bernard.
In the 1800s and early 1900s, Old Point Comfort was a busy place for ships. It was a connection point for passenger and cargo ships traveling between cities on the Chesapeake Bay and places like Boston and New York. For example, the Old Bay Line steamship service stopped here on its route from Norfolk to Baltimore.
20th Century Changes
Train lines also reached Old Point Comfort. The New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad had a ferry service that carried train cars from Old Point Comfort to Cape Charles, Virginia on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. From Cape Charles, people could travel by train to cities further north like Wilmington, Delaware, and Philadelphia.
The "Zero Mile Post" for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was also located here. This marked the starting point from which all distances on the main train line were measured, from Fort Monroe all the way to Cincinnati. The train station at Fort Monroe closed in 1939.
For most of the 1800s and 1900s, Old Point Comfort was a popular vacation spot in the town of Phoebus, Virginia. It is where the historic Fort Monroe, The Chamberlin hotel, and the Old Point Comfort Light are located.
The pier (a dock for ships) at Old Point Comfort was owned by the government. It was used by government ships and was a regular stop for commercial shipping lines. In 1952, the people living in the town and county voted to join with the city of Hampton.
On November 12, 1959, the Army announced it was closing the pier and would remove it. On January 2, 1960, the Army said the pier would only be open "at your own risk" to visitors from shore. This included guests of the Chamberlin Hotel that overlooked the pier. However, it was closed to boats and travelers. Travel by steamship had become less popular after World War II. The last ship to use the Old Point Comfort stop was the SS City of Richmond on December 30, 1959. Even though there was a court order trying to stop it, the pier was torn down by the end of May 1961.
Old Point Comfort was also the place in 1909 where Southern Baptists and Northern Baptists began talks to work together.
On January 17, 1950, the USS Missouri, a U.S. battleship, was on a training mission from Hampton Roads. It ran aground (got stuck on the bottom) about 1.6 miles (3.0 km) from Thimble Shoal Light, near Old Point Comfort. It was lifted about seven feet (2.1 m) out of the water. With the help of tugboats, special floating devices, and the rising tide, it was refloated on February 1, 1950, and repaired.
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