3 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 586 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1948 on, and the census since 1900.
Founding year: the first Cape Charles post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Cape Charles’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cape Charles is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cape Charles’ overall grade.
Virginia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Virginia town has 3.6 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cape Charles’ 4,896 sits above most of its state (100% of Virginia towns have fewer) while its 588 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Cape Charles’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Cape Charles, located close to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, on Virginia's Eastern Shore, was founded in 1884 at a place formerly known as "Cherrystone Harbor" as a planned community by railroad and ferry interests. In 1883, William Lawrence Scott became president of the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad Company (NYP&N), and purchased three plantations, including "Old Plantation Neck", comprising approximately 2,509 acres from the heirs of former Virginia Governor Littleton Waller Tazewell. Of this land, he ceded 40 acres to the NYP&N, and 136 acres to create the Town of Cape Charles (technically known as the "Municipal Corporation of Cape Charles") named Cape Charles for the geographical cape found on the Point and headland to the south. In that same year, construction of the railroad began. In Cape Charles, the Railroad Company built a harbor port to handle steamships and…
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Cape Charles post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Cape Charles rank for history?
Cape Charles is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Cape Charles?
Three places: the Stratton Manor (listed 1980), the Cape Charles Historic District (1991) and the Cape Charles Rosenwald School (2023).
How old are the homes in Cape Charles?
39% of Cape Charles’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.1 points), against a typical 1.9% for a Virginia town; the median home was built in 1976.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
