VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A historic African-American community that predates the Civil War in Virginia Beach is among the latest sites to be added to the Virginia Landmarks Register.
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) announced that the Seatack Historic District is among 11 sites across the state being added to the Virginia Landmarks Register.
Lots of familiar faces grew up in the neighborhood, including Grammy Award-winning musician Pharrell Williams and State Senator Aaron Rouse. Seatack is about a mile from the Oceanfront and is focused around Birdneck Road.
According to the DHR, the Seatack community has remained intact across generations thanks to church and family connections.
"Significant for its African American ethnic heritage, the Seatack Historic District’s core historic period spans from 1915, the date of the oldest house, to 1969, when large-scale apartment complexes began to populate the edge of the older area," the Virginia Landmarks Register listing reads, adding that the neighborhood's origins may date as far back as "the 1800s and earlier" during a period when Princess Anne County had both free and enslaved African-Americans.
"This community wasn't a plan or a laid out community, but it was hued out. Street by street, home by home, road by road, and we evolved," fifth-generation Seatack resident Sharon Felton previously told 13News Now.
One of the many significant points in Seatack's history happened after World War II when several residents chartered the first uniquely African-American fire department in the U.S. No other group has existed like it since.
Getting Seatack its landmark designation has been a process going back to 2020 when the National Park Service announced a $750,000 grant to recognize Underrepresented Communities to add to the National Register of Historic Places.
Felton said she hopes this designation keeps their history alive for generations to come.
"It is a robust community, it still is and it will continue to be," she said.