Hampton University

By 1878, in an agreement with the federal government, the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute extended its innovative education program to include Native Americans. Seventeen young captives of the 1873 Indian Wars arrived from Kiowa and Cheyenne reservations. The university program, supported by the federal government, served as an effort to assimilate the students into mainstream society. The program drew an additional 1,300 members of more than 65 tribes to Hampton over the years, until it ended in 1923.

The school’s name was changed to Hampton Institute in 1930 and Hampton University in 1984.

Today, Hampton University is one of the nation’s topranked private universities and enrolls approximately 6,000 students from 50 countries. The waterfront campus contains 110 buildings, which include the following National Historic Landmarks: Academy Building (1881), Virginia-Cleveland Hall (1874), Memorial Chapel (1886), Mansion House (1828) and Wigwam Building (1878). The sixth National Historic Landmark on campus is Emancipation Oak, whose age is unknown.

(From Interstate 64, take exit 267 to Hampton University. Enter campus by turning left from William R. Harvey Way onto Norma B. Harvey Road. A security officer will provide a campus pass and directions. Suggested driving tour time for campus sites: 30 minutes. Allow additional time for stops at Emancipation Oak, Memorial Chapel, Legacy Park, Booker T. Washington Memorial Garden & Statue and Hampton University Museum.)

Site Of Dixie Hospital

A training school for Black nurses was established in 1890 at Hampton Normal and Agriculture Institute when one of its teachers, Alice Mabel Bacon, saw that African Americans needed formal nursing skills to tend to their families.

The 10-bed, two-ward hospital was affectionately named “Dixie,” after the horse Alice rode to visit the sick. In 1892, the Virginia General Assembly granted the school the formal title of Hampton Training School for Nurses. It was one of the earliest training schools for black nurses in the country. Dixie Hospital’s last class of nurses graduated in 1956. The location of the hospital changed several times throughout its history and the building was recently demolished. The hospital was moved to Victoria Boulevard in 1959 and became known as Hampton General Hospital in 1973. It was the precursor of Sentara Hampton, located on Coliseum Drive.

The Hampton University School of Nursing presently offers degree programs in nursing on the undergraduate, graduate and PhD levels. Hampton University has continually provided professional nursing education at the Bachelor of Science degree level since 1943. The nursing doctoral program at Hampton is the first to be fully implemented by a historically black college or university.