The Jamestown Exposition, also known as the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition of 1907, was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, it was held from April 26 to December 1, 1907, at Sewell's Point on Hampton Roads, in Norfolk, Virginia. It celebrated the first permanent English settlement in the present United States. In 1975, the 20 remaining exposition buildings were included on the National Register of Historic Places as a national historic district.
Site selection
Early in the 20th century, as the tercentennial of the 1607 Founding of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony neared, leaders in Norfolk, Virginia began a campaign to have the celebration held there. The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities had gotten the ball rolling in 1900 by calling for a celebration to honor the establishment of the first permanent English colony in the New World at Jamestown, to be held on the 300th anniversary.
During the planning phase, virtually no one thought that the original site of Jamestown would be suitable, as it was isolated and long-abandoned. There were no local facilities to handle large crowds, and it was believed that the fort housing the settlement had long ago been swallowed by the James River. No rail lines ran near Jamestown. Many Virginia residents thought that Richmond, the state capital, would be chosen as the site of the celebration.
On February 4, 1901, James M. Thomson began a campaign for the celebration in his Norfolk Dispatch, proclaiming: "Norfolk is undoubtedly the proper place for the holding of this celebration. Norfolk is today the center of the most populous portion of Virginia, and every historical, business and sentimental reason can be adduced in favor of the celebration taking place here rather than in Richmond." The Dispatch was an unrelenting champion of Norfolk as the site for the exposition, noting in subsequent editorials that "Richmond has absolutely no claim to the celebration except her location on the James River."
By September 1901, the Norfolk City Council had given support to the project, and in December, 100 prominent residents of Hampton Roads journeyed to Richmond to urge Norfolk as the site. In 1902, the Jamestown Exposition Co. was incorporated. Former Governor of Virginia Fitzhugh Lee, a nephew of General Robert E. Lee and the most popular man in Virginia, was named its president.
The Company decided to locate the international exposition on a mile-long frontage at Sewell's Point. The location was almost an equal distance from the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News and Hampton. While hard to reach by land, it was much more favorably accessible by water, which ultimately proved a great asset.
Issues with Sewell's Point
Because of the isolation of Sewell's Point, the company's choice made the site difficult to reach by land. Access to the site required construction of new roads in order to develop it for the Exposition. Two existing streetcar lines had to be extended a considerable distance to reach the site. The eastern portion of the newly built Tidewater Railway (soon to become part of the coal-hauling Virginian Railway) was rushed into service, and the local Norfolk Southern Railway agreed to add substantial passenger capacity in conjunction with the Tidewater Railway to prepare to move the thousands of daily attendees anticipated. On the shore, new piers had to be constructed for moving supplies to exposition buildings. Hotels had to be raised to handle the millions of anticipated exposition visitors. Bad weather slowed everything.
Another major setback was the death of Fitzhugh Lee in 1905 while traveling in New England to drum up trade for the celebration. Henry St. George Tucker, a former Virginia Congressman, succeeded him. The Norfolk businessman David Lowenberg ran most of the operation as director general.
Opening day
Opening day was April 26, 1907, exactly 300 years after Admiral Christopher Newport and his band of English colonists made their first landing in Virginia at the point where the southern shore of the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. They recorded giving thanks, planting a cross and naming the location Cape Henry. Within the next few weeks, they found and explored the harbor now known as Hampton Roads. Sailing upriver on its biggest tributary, the James River, they eventually settled at what they would call Jamestown to begin their first settlement.