Former Hampton hotel receives Virginia’s first historic marker for ‘Green Book’ locations

HAMPTON — The history of the Bay Shore Hotel, a popular Hampton Roads destination and “home away from home” for Black Americans during a time of racist segregation laws, is getting renewed attention due it its inclusion in the “Green Book.”

Several state and local leaders gathered Thursday at the site of the former hotel near the Buckroe Beach area, to unveil the first of what is expected to be many new plaques commemorating Virginia sites once included in the book. A bill approved by Virginia lawmakers this year directed the Department of Historic Resources, in partnership with the Virginia Tourism Corporation and the Department of Transportation, to create signs for historic sites identifying Green Book locations and businesses in the commonwealth.

“The Negro Motorist Green Book” originally was published by mail carrier Victor Hugo Green in 1936 and provided a list of hotels, guest houses, service stations, drug stores, taverns, barbershops, and restaurants known to be safe for Black Americans traveling during the Jim Crow Era.

“A lot of times, we only hear one part of history, but we don’t get the full story,” said Andrew Cothern, spokesperson for the Virginia Tourism Corporation. “And we want to make sure that we tell all stories from Virginia’s history, good and bad.”

Del. Mike Mullin, who introduced the legislation, described the Green Book as “an essential guide for African American travelers, who faced pervasive and widespread racial discrimination during the pre-Civil Rights Era.

“For Black Virginians, driving the roads and byways of the commonwealth during Jim Crow was a dangerous proposition,” the Newport News Democrat said. “You didn’t know whether the gas station or a hotel would serve you or it might even be threatening. That’s why having a Green Book in your glove compartment was such an important thing.”

The Bay Shore Hotel no longer exists, but it’s former location is the first site in the state to get the Green Book historic marker. The hotel was next to Bay Shore Beach, which was open to Black swimmers and sunbathers. A fence divided the beach from adjacent Buckroe Beach, which was whites-only when segregation was in effect.

The hotel was listed in the Green Book from 1947-58, and again from 1962-64 and 1966-67. The property began as a four-room cottage in 1898 and later expanded into a four-story beachfront hotel with 70 rooms, long porches facing the water and a dance hall.

“Faced with the terrible institution of segregation, some very smart Black businessmen in the late 19th century turned this spot into the vacation paradise of the South for African Americans who weren’t allowed on other public beaches,” Hampton Mayor Donnie Tuck said during Thursday’s commemoration ceremony. “They had an amusement park, a boardwalk, and the legendary dance hall that brought in everyone from Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong to Virginia’s own Ella Fitzgerald.”

Tuck said people who were told they weren’t wanted elsewhere found “a home away from home” at Bay Shore Beach.

Helen Phillips Pitts, a 75-year-old Hampton resident whose grandfather, John Mallory Phillips, was among the founders of Bay Shore, said the marker’s unveiling was “overwhelming.” She said she hopes the Green Book marker helps people realize “what we had to go through.”

“Everything was separate,” she said.

After integration, the beach declined in popularity as its patrons had more options. Ultimately, the hotel closed and was torn down in the 1970s. The property is now a residential subdivision with a private beach.

The green plaque, by the James T. Wilson Fishing Pier at 330 S Resort Blvd., is attached to another highway marker sign that explains the history of the Bay Shore Hotel.

Department of Historic Resources Director Julie Langan estimates about 300 Virginia sites were at some point listed in the national Green Book. Of these, only about 60 buildings are believed to still exist.

Hundreds of places in Virginia were listed in the famed ‘Green Book.’ This project seeks to find them all.

Additional Green Book plaques will be installed at historic sites around Virginia in the coming months, including in Danville, Martinsville and Richmond. Langan said it remains to be determined whether other sites in Hampton Roads will get similar markers.

Those on hand for Thursday’s commemoration said the goal is for the markers to provide fuller context for the state’s history.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who signed the bill into law, said the marker highlights a history that needs to be told and remembered.

“It’s when we tell our complete history and we understand it and pass it to generation to generation that we can be assured that when we remember the past, we will forge a brighter future,” Youngkin said.

Mullin said he was inspired to introduce the bill after fellow Del. Jeion Ward shared her childhood experience using the Green Book so her family could find safe places to travel. He hopes it helps more people become aware of the struggles Black Americans faced during segregation.

“I think that the experience that so many Virginians had during Jim Crow is not something that is taught enough in our schools,” Mullin said.

Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com.