close
Plan a trip or create a lesson plan with your favorite heritage sites!
Heritage Sites & Organizations
General Info
Hampton University
Site Type: Educational Site
Historical Significance:
Brevet Brigadier General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, then chief of the local Freedmen's Bureau, founded Hampton in 1868 to serve the growing community of freed people who had gathered in the Hampton area during and after the Civil War. Armstrong modeled Hampton after the Hilo Manual Labor School in Hawaii where his father served as Hawaiian minister of education. The school was chartered as Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in 1870. Booker T. Washington, class of 1875, is Hampton's most famous graduate.
Physical Description:
Classes were originally held in old hospital barracks. By 1874, the Virginia-Cleveland Hall, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, was complete. The students participated in some of the construction. Hunt also designed the Academic Hall completed in 1881. The chapel, of Romanesque Revival style, was designed by J.C. Cady and completed in 1886.
Quick Facts
Geographical & Contact Info
- Address: I-64; exit 267
- City: Hampton
- State: VA
- County: Hampton, City of
- Website: http://www.hamptonu.edu
*locations are approximate
General
- Handicap Access: Yes
- Open to the Public: Yes
