Here in downtown Norfolk, Virginia, the Hampton Roads Naval Museum shares its home with Nauticus, one of ten Navy museums operated by the Naval History & Heritage Command. Inside this museum that opened on August 31, 1979, you'll find a home set in the historic Pennsylvania House, a replica of Independence Hall and one of the state pavilions remaining from the 1907 Jamestown Exposition. The museum celebrates the long history of the U.S. Navy in the Hampton Roads region.
Its permanent exhibits span the Battle of the Chesapeake (1781), the American Civil War in Hampton Roads, the Great White Fleet, World War II and the Cold War. The holdings are especially strong in naval prints, ship models and underwater archaeology, and the museum is the official repository of the remains of two Civil War shipwrecks: USS Cumberland and CSS Florida. A major moment here was the 1984 installation of a large Civil War exhibit, and in December 2008 the museum earned accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums.
Imagine those stories, then let your attention drift to Nauticus and the downtown Norfolk buildings and streets nearby.