Historic Jamestowne

America's Birthplace

Today, the National Park Service and APVA Preservation Virginia preserve and interpret our nation's roots at Historic Jamestowne - America's Birthplace.

Start your experience at the Historic Jamestowne Visitor Information Station, where exhibits and walking tours with Park Rangers provide background on Jamestowne's beginnings. Walk through the townsite to see the original church tower dating to the 1640s and the reconstructed foundations of some of the earliest buildings.

At the Glasshouse, costumed glassblowers demonstrate one of the furst industryed attempted in English-speaking America.

Driving tours explore the lush natural setting, and exhibits explain how the settlers harnessed that wilderness for their needs.

Be sure to visit the APVA Jamestown Rediscovery excavation, where archeologists are uncovering the remains of the original James Fort and learning how the environment and climate in 1607 affected the settlers. At the Dale House, see a modest exhibit of artifacts, watch conservators working on the latest finds from the James Fort and browse the museum store books and memorabilia of Jamestown archaeology.

Historic Jamestowne is open daily 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Jamestown Settlement

Recalls America's Beginnings

Your visit to Jamestown Settlement starts with 1607: A Nation Takes Root, a new 23-minute dramatic film tracing the evolution of the Jamestown Colony. Shown in a new 250-seat theater, the film chronicles the Virginia Colony that sponsored the Colony, examines the relationship between the colonists and the Powhatan Indians, and tells the story of the arrival of the first Africans in 1619.

Comprehensive gallery exhibits describe world events and social and economic conditions that led to the English colonization of America and the formation of the Virginia Company that sponsored Jamestown with a goal of earning its investors a profit.

Learn about the land and lifestyle of Algonquian-speaking tribes in coastal Virginia under the powerful leader Powhatan and about the culture of the first documented Africans in Virginia, who were from the kingdom of Ndongo in Angola.

Exhibits trace the development of the Virginia colony from a humble outpost in 1607 to a politically and economically secure entity. Find out about the cultivation of tobacco, the cash crop that ensured the colony's survival, and the evolution of social and government institutions throughout the 17th century, while Jamestown served as Virginia's capital.

Visit the outdoor living-history areas on a guided tour or on your own. In the re-created Indian village, historical interpreters discuss and demonstrate the Powhatan way of life: how the Powhatans farmed, hunted, fished and gathered to obtain materials needed for housing, clothing and food. Wander through reed-covered houses and watch or participate in tool making, gardening and hide processing.

At the museum pier, board the Susan Constant, Godspeed or Discovery, replicas of the three ships that transported the original Jamestown colonists to Virginia in 1607. On the Susan Constant, explore the crew's quarters and descend to the 'tween deck, where passengers stayed during the four-month voyage across the Atlantic.

A riverfront discovery area provides information about European, Virginia Indian and African economic activities associated with water, including navigation, boatbuilding, fishing, commodities and trade.

Within the triangular wooden palisade of the re-created James Fort, wattle-and-daub structures with thatched roofs represent dwellings, a church, a storehouse and a guardhouse. See a "settler" load and fire a matchlock musket,a blacksmith forge tools, or a carpenter work with wood.

Jamestown Settlement is open 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. year-round, (until 6:00 p.m. June 15 - August 15) except Christmas and New Year's Days.