Bethel Manor, Virginia

The Battle of Big Bethel was one of the earliest land battles of the American Civil War. It took place on the Virginia Peninsula, near Newport News, on June 10, 1861. Virginia's decision to secede from the Union had been ratified by popular vote on May 23, and Confederate Col. (later Maj. Gen.) John B. Magruder was sent down the peninsula to deter any advance on the state capital Richmond by Union troops based at the well-defended post of Fort Monroe. This garrison was commanded by Maj Gen. Benjamin Butler, a former Massachusetts lawyer and politician, who established a new camp at nearby Hampton and another at Newport News. Magruder had also established two camps, within range of the Union lines, at Big Bethel and Little Bethel, as a lure to draw his opponent into a premature action. Butler took the bait, when he and an aide, Maj. Theodore Winthrop, devised a plan for a night march, followed by a dawn attack to drive the Confederates back from their bases. Butler chose not to lead the force in person, for which he was later criticized. The plan proved too complex for his poorly-trained subordinates to carry out, especially at night, and his staff had also omitted to communicate the passwords. They were trying to advance without knowledge of the layout or strength of the Confederate positions, when a friendly fire incident gave away their own. The commander in the field, Massachusetts militia Gen. Ebenezer Peirce, received most of the blame for the failed operation. The Union forces suffered 76 casualties, with 18 killed, including Maj. Winthrop and Lt. John T. Greble, the first regular army officer killed in the war. The Confederates suffered only eight casualties, with one killed. Although Magruder subsequently withdrew to Yorktown and his defensive line along the Warwick River, he had won a propaganda victory and local Union forces attempted no further significant advance until the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. While small in comparison to many later battles, Big Bethel attracted exaggerated importance because of the general feeling that the war would soon be over. The engagement was also known as the Battle of Bethel Church or Great Bethel.

The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the Lower Peninsula to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the north, the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck. It is the site of historic Jamestown, founded in 1607 as the first English settlement in North America. Geographically located at the northwestern reaches, Charles City and New Kent counties are part of the Virginia Peninsula. In the 21st century, they are also considered part of the Richmond–Petersburg region. The rest of the Virginia Peninsula is all part of the Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News, VA–NC MSA (metropolitan statistical area) with a population of about 1.8 million. The Hampton Roads MSA is the common name for the metropolitan area that surrounds the body of water of the same name. It is the seventh-largest metropolitan area in the Southeast and the 32nd largest in the United States. The land portion of Hampton Roads has been historically divided into two regions, the Virginia Peninsula or Peninsula on the north side, and South Hampton Roads on the south side. (Locally, South Hampton Roads is commonly called "the Southside", but this is not to be confused with "Southside Virginia", a separate region of the south central portion of Virginia located farther inland.) More recently, the boundaries of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area have expanded to include the two southernmost counties of the Middle Peninsula (Gloucester and Matthews), across the York River from the Virginia Peninsula.

Tabb is an unincorporated community in York County, Virginia, United States, on the Virginia Peninsula. Major roads include U.S. Route 17 and State Route 134 (Hampton Highway, which continues as Magruder Boulevard in Hampton). The community was named for Mary Octavia Tabb who served as postmaster from 21 December 1893 until early 1910, as per National Archives and Records Administration. It is home to Tabb High School, one of four high schools in York County. It is also home to Tabb Middle School, Tabb Elementary School, and Mount Vernon Elementary School. Tabb is served by the US Postal Service ZIP code 23693. The ZIP code area had an estimated population of 23,807 in 2014. Tabb, Virginia uses the mailing address of Yorktown, Virginia. This area is also referred to as York County. York County is one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1682. Tabb is primarily a residential community, with a few commercial interests. The largest employer in Tabb is a Walmart Supercenter department store built in the early 2000s on the site of a former Cinema-City drive-in theater and grocery store at the intersection of U.S. Route 17 and State Route 171. Other major employers nearby include the NASA Langley Research Center, Newport News Shipbuilding, Naval Weapons Station Yorktown and Joint Base Langley-Eustis. With a number of small farms that offer fresh locally grown produce, and equestrian facilities, the community serves as a rural escape for the nearby cities of Hampton and Newport News. Predominantly rural until the late 20th century, the community has rapidly grown in recent decades in both population and commercialization. The first organized land battle of the American Civil War, the Battle of Big Bethel, was fought on land in nearby Hampton as well as the area that later became Tabb. During the 1862 Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War, Yorktown was captured by the Union after the Battle of Yorktown. The York County area was then used as a base by the Union Army under General George B. McClellan to launch an unsuccessful attack on Richmond (the capital of the Confederacy).

Virginia Peninsula Community College (VPCC) is a public community college with two campuses in Virginia, one in Hampton and the other in James City County. It also has two education centers The Southeast Higher Education Center in Newport News and the Williamsburg Discovery Center in Williamsburg. It is part of the Virginia Community College System. It mostly serves students living on the Peninsula region of Hampton Roads, but it also has students from other parts of southeastern Virginia. The college adopted its current name in July 2022, having formerly been known as Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) since its inception. The decision to rename the college was approved by the Virginia State Board for Community Colleges in September 2021.

The Lunar Landing Research Facility was an area at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia that was used to simulate Apollo Moon landings with a mock Lunar Module powered by a small rocket motor suspended from a crane over a simulated lunar landscape. Completed in 1965 at a cost of $3.5 million, the facility was used by 24 astronauts, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, to practice solving piloting problems they would encounter in the last 150 feet (46 m) of descent to the surface of the Moon.The structure was used to facilitate "flying" a full-scale Lunar Excursion Module Simulator (LEMS). The LEMS was suspended from a 200-foot (61 m)-tall, 400-foot (120 m)-long A-frame gantry by an overhead bridge crane. The LEMS is now on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center.

The Center for Advanced Engineering Environments (CAEE) is a department center of the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University. The center was created in 2001 to serve as a focal point for research activities pertaining to Collaborative distributed Knowledge discovery and exploitation, Interactive visual simulations, Intelligent synthesis, and advanced learning/training technologies and environments, and their application to future complex engineering systems.The activities of the center include the synergistic coupling of modeling, visual simulations, intelligent agents, multimedia and synthetic environments, human-technology interactions, computational intelligence, computational, information and collaboration technologies in the multidisciplinary analysis, sensitivity studies, optimization, design and operation of complex engineering systems. The Center is located at the Old Dominion University Peninsula Higher Education Center in Hampton, Virginia. It is located very close to Nasa's Langley Research Center.

'Peninsula' Catholic High School is a college preparatory regional school of the Diocese of Richmond located in Newport News, Virginia, which offers grades 8 through 12. It is a member of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) and is accredited byAdvancED.

Bridgeport Academy is an alternative school in Hampton, Virginia. Established in 2007, the school serves middle and high school students as an alternative education from regular Hampton City Public Schools.

Langley Speedway is a race track located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. Langley Speedway is a paved short track measuring 4/10 mile in length. It is one of the flattest tracks in the region with only six degrees of banking in the corners and two degrees of banking on the straights. In November 1970, it became the site of the last NASCAR Grand National Series race before the series was renamed the Winston Cup. The track is located in front of NASA's Langley Research Center on Commander Sheppherd Boulevard. The track is NASCAR sanctioned and participates in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, which determines a national champion for the NASCAR sanctioned local tracks. The track hosts 12 divisions that alternate running during their Saturday night program: Late models, Modifieds, Virginia Racers, legends cars, Super Streets, Enduros, Grand Stocks, Super Trucks, UCARS, Pro Six, Bandoleros, and HRKC Pro Winged Champ Karts. Pre race ceremonies for the regular Saturday night events begin at approximately 7:00 PM with the first race of the night beginning about 15 minutes later. Langley also hosts Hampton Roads Kart Club races on most Sundays and some Fridays during the season, Wacky Wednesday which allows anyone with a helmet and a street legal car to participate in the time attack, burnout competition, and one on one drag races on most Wednesday nights during the season, the Langley Drift Club which helped bring drifting to the Hampton Roads’ area, and starting in 2023 Old-Dominion Region-SCCA Autocross events.

City Center at Oyster Point is a business district in the Oyster Point section of Newport News, Virginia. It is a 52-acre (210,000 m2) high density mixed-use development that has 230,000 sq ft (21,000 m2). of Retail Shops and Restaurants and 1,000,000 sq ft (100,000 m2). of Class A office space. It is inspired by the maritime history of the city, landscaped in a southern living style with views to a 5-acre (20,000 m2) fountain. City Center has been touted as the new "downtown" because of its new geographic centrality on the Virginia Peninsula and its proximity to the retail/business nucleus of the city. In fact, many city offices have relocated there from the downtown area. A mall and many other large shopping areas are located not far from City Center, with easy access to Interstate 64, the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport, and public transportation. One of the main aspects is the office space in the development. Corporate headquarters, banking, insurance and legal firms have gathered at City Center for its office space. The mid and high-rise buildings offer a business location surrounded by an 8-acre (32,000 m2) Fountain Park. Also within the office space are the offices of the City of Newport News, which have relocated from the downtown area of the city. The company employees approximately 5,000 people. Within walking distance from these buildings are shopping and dining facilities centered on the fountain in the center of the development. There are 230,000 sq ft (21,000 m2). of retail space consisting of restaurants, specialty stores, cafes, a gourmet market and Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, an eleven-story hotel and conference facility with 23,000 square feet (2,100 m2) of meeting and banquet space. The Marriott Hotel also features a 12,000-square-foot (1,100 m2) ballroom, 4,400-square-foot (410 m2) junior ballroom and a 6,500-square-foot (600 m2) rotunda with views of the 5-acre (20,000 m2) fountain. Residential space is also located within City Center. Four 4-story brick buildings are the home to apartments, with first-floor retail space, a clubhouse, outdoor pool, fitness room and business center. The Point at City Center has condominiums with private balconies, conveniences, and parking. The center was completed and conducted a grand opening in 2009.

Bethel High School is a public high school located in the northwestern section of Hampton, Virginia, United States. Bethel is the third of four public high schools in Hampton City Schools along with Kecoughtan, Hampton, and Phoebus.

The Langley Research Center (LaRC or NASA Langley), located in Hampton, Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay front of Langley Air Force Base, is the oldest of NASA's field centers. LaRC has focused primarily on aeronautical research but has also tested space hardware such as the Apollo Lunar Module. In addition, many of the earliest high-profile space missions were planned and designed on-site. Langley was also considered a potential site for NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center prior to the eventual selection of Houston, Texas.Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the research center devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics and the rest to space. LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnels to study and improve aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, and efficiency. Between 1958 and 1963, when NASA (the successor agency to NACA) started Project Mercury, LaRC served as the main office of the Space Task Group. In September 2019, after previously serving as associate director and deputy director, Clayton P. Turner was appointed director of NASA Langley.