Jamestown Exposition
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Jamestown Exposition Site Buildings
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Exposition Seal
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| Location | Bounded by Bacon, Powhatan, Farragut, Gilbert, Bainbridge, and the harbor, Norfolk, Virginia |
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| Coordinates | 36°57′08″N 76°18′47″W / 36.95222°N 76.31306°WCoordinates: 36°57′08″N 76°18′47″W / 36.95222°N 76.31306°W |
| Area | 130 acres (53 ha) |
| Built | 1907 |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival, Georgian Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 75002114 |
| VLR # | 122-0054 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | October 20, 1975 |
| Designated VLR | February 18, 1975 |
The Jamestown Exposition 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.
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."
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