Virginia Beach has two Atlantic Parks: One is a forthcoming surf park. The other is a historic Black neighborhood.

VIRGINIA BEACH — By next year, the surf lagoon at the heart of Pharrell Williams’ Atlantic Park development at the Oceanfront is set to open.

But about 3 miles away, is an older, quieter community — also called Atlantic Park. The neighborhood, west of Birdneck Road, is made up of mostly houses with a few small commercial businesses on the south side of Virginia Beach Boulevard.

The community was recently recognized as one of Virginia Beach’s historic Black neighborhoods.

Atlantic Park was historically known as part of a commercial business district. It was home to a hair salon, a dry cleaners and a cinderblock company, said local historian Edna Hawkins-Hendrix, who has compiled a timeline of Virginia Beach Black history that will be published in a book this spring.

The book will include the history of Atlantic Park, referred to as “Black Wall Street,” said Hawkins-Hendrix.

“They were self-sufficient because these were businesses that were started because they couldn’t go into the white businesses,” she said.

Williams lived in Seatack, adjacent to Atlantic Park, when he was a child. The Virginian-Pilot recently asked the project developer Venture Realty and Williams if the surf park is named after the neighboring community but did not receive a response by deadline.

The Virginia Beach City Council shined a light this month on the city’s historic Black neighborhoods. Before reading a proclamation Feb. 6 for Black History Month, Councilwoman Sabrina Wooten announced the names of each neighborhood and invited representatives to come forward.

Burton Station, Newsome Farm, Lake Smith, Reedtown, Seatack, Atlantic Park, Queen City, New Light, Gracetown, Great Neck, Beechwood, Doyletown, Old Town, Little Neck, L&J Gardens and the Historic Centerville Society were among them.

Seatack is one of the commonwealth’s oldest historically African American communities. It recently landed a spot on the Virginia Landmarks Register and is currently under consideration for the National Register of Historic Places. L&J Gardens was added to the national register in 2022.

Hendrix-Hawkins, 73, and another local historian, Jackie Malbon, 74, will publish “Seatack: A Tapestry of Black Perseverance,” this spring. The book will include a timeline of local Black history along with a collection of more than 400 photographs.

They hope the book inspires others to uncover more local history.

“This is going to be a springboard for the community, the neighborhoods,” Malbon said. “They’re going to be able to take what we have researched and go in their family archives, and they’re going to be able to write the next chapter.”

Neighborhoods, landmarks and the people who played integral roles in Virginia Beach’s history are among the subjects of more than a dozen other books Hendrix-Hawkins has published.

She grew up in the Bayside area where her father was a farmer and manned a produce stand. Hawkins-Hendrix graduated from Union Kempsville High School, which was previously known as the Princess Anne County Training School, in 1969. She was in the the last class to graduate before it closed due to city-wide integration of schools.

When Hawkins-Hendrix began to research local Black history in the 1980s, she realized it wasn’t readily available.

“We have to change that,” she said.

Over the years, she’s collected memorabilia, helped conduct research for state historical highway markers and has consulted on a initiative spearheaded by Councilwoman Amelia Ross-Hammond to place signs in historic Black neighborhoods.

“The city is doing a lot to recognize African American communities now, and this is a good time because the kids have so much interest in it now,” she said. “It’s important to get our history up and out there so the young people can see it.”

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com