January 1, 1963. At the stroke of midnight, Princess Anne County and the small resort city of Virginia Beach merged into a single independent city — and erased themselves from the map entirely in the process. No county. No town. Just a brand-new city stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Carolina border, covering more square miles than any other city in the contiguous United States.
That merger is the hinge point of A Look Back at Virginia Beach History: From Resort Town to Independent City. But to understand why it happened — and what it means for the neighborhoods, streets, and communities that exist here today — you have to start about 80 years earlier, at a railroad depot on the edge of the sand.
The Train That Started Everything
In 1883, a narrow-gauge railroad line connected Virginia Beach to Norfolk for the first time. The man behind it was William Lawrence Mahone, a former Confederate general turned railroad entrepreneur. His vision was straightforward: build a line to the oceanfront, sell lots, and let the tourists come.
They came. By the late 1880s, a wooden hotel called the Princess Anne Hotel anchored what is now the northern end of the Boardwalk. Norfolkians — and eventually visitors from Richmond and beyond — rode the train on weekends to swim, fish, and escape the city heat. The community that grew up around that hotel and that rail line was incorporated as a town in 1906 and as an independent city in 1952. But it was small. Compact. Focused almost entirely on the strip of oceanfront that drew summer crowds.
Everything else — the farmland, the pine forests, the scattered rural communities — that was Princess Anne County.
Princess Anne County: The Other Half of the Story
Most people who move to Virginia Beach today have never heard of Princess Anne County. But if you live in any of the inland neighborhoods — Kempsville, Great Neck, Pungo, Courthouse Estates — you're living on land that was Princess Anne County soil for nearly 350 years before the 1963 merger.
Princess Anne was established as a county in 1691, one of Virginia's original eight counties. It was largely agricultural — tobacco farms, truck farms, fishing communities along the Lynnhaven and North Landing rivers. Life there looked nothing like the resort strip a few miles east. The county seat sat in what is now the Courthouse area of Virginia Beach, and that civic identity ran deep.
By the late 1950s, though, the pressure was building. Norfolk had been aggressively annexing surrounding land for years, hungry for tax base and room to grow. Princess Anne County leaders saw the writing on the wall: merge with Virginia Beach on their own terms, or risk being absorbed piece by piece by Norfolk. The vote to consolidate passed, and on January 1, 1963, two governments became one.
The Boardwalk, the Base, and the Building of a City
What happened after 1963 is one of the more remarkable growth stories in American municipal history. The new city had land — nearly 250 square miles of it — and it had an identity built on two pillars: the oceanfront resort economy and the military.
NAS Oceana, established during World War II as a naval air station, had already become one of the city's largest employers and a defining feature of the community. Fort Story at Cape Henry had military roots stretching back even further. The presence of the Navy didn't just bring jobs — it brought population, and that population needed housing, schools, and services.
The Boardwalk itself evolved dramatically through those decades. The Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum — still operating today near 24th Street — preserves the history of the beach patrol and the lifesaving culture that developed alongside the resort economy. It's a small but genuinely moving institution, and if you haven't been, it's worth an hour of your time.
Through the 1970s and 80s, Virginia Beach's inland neighborhoods filled in fast. Shopping centers, subdivisions, and schools followed the roads that once connected county farms to market towns. The city's population crossed 100,000, then 200,000, then 400,000. Today it sits at roughly 460,000 — making Virginia Beach the most populous city in Virginia.
Why This History Still Matters If You Live Here Now
A Look Back at Virginia Beach History: From Resort Town to Independent City isn't just a nostalgia exercise. It's actually useful context for understanding how the city works today.
The dual identity — beach resort on one side, sprawling inland community on the other — explains why Virginia Beach feels like multiple cities stitched together. The Oceanfront neighborhood and the Pungo farm belt are technically the same city. They share a government, a school system, and a tax base, but they feel nothing alike. That's not an accident. It's history.
Consider: 'For those relocating to Hampton Roads for the first time' or 'For military-connected households relocating to Hampton Roads' to maintain clarity without implied familial status messaging. The northern oceanfront areas are dense, tourist-adjacent, and active year-round. Use objective descriptors such as 'The inland communities closer to the Chesapeake border have lower population density' or describe specific amenities/features instead. Both are Virginia Beach. Both have their own character rooted in that 1963 merger.
I've been helping people find homes here for more than 20 years, and I still find myself telling this story to buyers who just arrived. Where you choose to plant roots in this city is shaped, more than most people realize, by decisions made in 1883 and 1963.
Explore more about living in Virginia Beach and what makes each neighborhood distinct.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Virginia Beach officially become an independent city?
Virginia Beach became an independent city on January 1, 1963, when it merged with the surrounding Princess Anne County. The merger was driven in part by concerns that Norfolk would annex portions of Princess Anne County, and local leaders chose consolidation as a way to maintain civic autonomy.
What was Virginia Beach like before the 1963 merger?
Before 1963, the City of Virginia Beach was a small resort community centered on the Atlantic oceanfront. It had been incorporated as a town in 1906 and became a city in 1952, but it was compact and seasonal in character. The surrounding farmland and rural communities were part of Princess Anne County, a separate government with roots going back to 1691.
Why is Virginia Beach so large compared to other Virginia cities?
Virginia Beach is the largest city by land area in the contiguous United States largely because of the 1963 merger with Princess Anne County. That county included hundreds of square miles of rural and agricultural land that became part of the new city overnight. Unlike most Virginia localities, Virginia Beach has no county surrounding it — it is fully independent, which means it cannot be annexed and has kept all that land within its boundaries ever since.