Welcome sign to the formerly independent town of Phoebus, Virginia, incorporated into the city of Hampton since 1952[2,p.5]: “PHOEBUS, 26.1 m. (3,500 pop.), is a fishing mart and residential town. During the fishing seasons, crowded lines of boats tie up along Mill Creek Wharf to dump their shimmering cargoes of shad, bluefish, croakers, spots, flounders, trout, oysters, and crabs. The town, built on land once owned by Harrison Phoebus, began about 1870 as a handful of catch-penny stores around the gates of the National Soldiers Home. Here during the War between the States was Camp Hamilton, concentration point for Union troops.”[2]

1. Virginia, A Guide to the Old Domininion, Compiled by Workers of the Writers' Program of the Works Projects Administration of the State of Virginia, Oxford University Press American Guide Series (1940).
2. Hampton Downtown Historical District, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, November 1, 2010.

Photos by George and Connie Gilmer, taken May-August 2017.