10/24/2026
PORTSMOUTH HISTORY: THE CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF VIRGINIA
Long before generations of children walked through the doors of the Children’s Museum of Virginia on High Street, the idea began with a group of Portsmouth women who believed children deserved a museum created especially for them.
The story reaches back to 1979, when members of the Portsmouth Service League were searching for a new community project. One member had visited a children’s museum in Washington, D.C., and the idea of creating an interactive museum for Portsmouth began to take shape. With assistance from a Virginia Fine Arts Commission grant, Service League members traveled to Boston to study its children’s museum.
They returned convinced that Portsmouth could create one of its own.
In January 1980, the original Tidewater Children’s Museum opened in an L-shaped room in the basement of the Portsmouth Public Library on Court Street. The Portsmouth Service League contributed $40,000 during the museum’s first two years, while the City of Portsmouth provided a $15,000 grant.
From the beginning, this was not a traditional “look but don’t touch” museum.
Its first major exhibition, “The City,” allowed children to explore objects from everyday community life, including a parking meter, police motorcycle and firefighting equipment. Other early exhibitions included “Water, Water Everywhere” and “Optical Illusions.” Children were encouraged to learn by touching, experimenting and participating.
The idea caught on. More than 26,000 children visited between the museum’s opening and the first three months of 1982.
But that same year, the young museum faced an uncertain future when anticipated grant funding did not materialize. The Portsmouth Service League pledged additional money, the Kiwanis Club contributed support, and the City of Portsmouth ultimately brought the Children’s Museum into the city museum system.
In 1984, the museum left the library basement and moved into the historic 1846 Courthouse at High and Court streets, the building now known as the Portsmouth Art & Cultural Center. The Children’s Museum occupied the first floor, while the city’s art gallery occupied the second.
As attendance and programming increased, another move was eventually needed.
In 1991, Portsmouth purchased the former Leggett department store building on High Street for a much larger museum. The following year, former U.S. Senator William B. Spong Jr., his wife Virginia, and other civic and philanthropic leaders helped establish the Portsmouth Museums Foundation, which raised private funds to support the project.
Another important addition came in 1993. An agreement between Portsmouth Public Schools and the Department of Museums brought the school system’s planetarium from Manor High School to the new Children’s Museum. With support from the Beazley Foundation, the facility became the Beazley Planetarium.
On December 10, 1994, the Children’s Museum of Virginia opened at 221 High Street.
The new facility contained approximately 27,000 square feet, more than 60 interactive exhibits and a 60-seat planetarium. Despite rainy and foggy weather, 725 people visited on opening day.
Mayor Gloria O. Webb called the museum a dream come true and described it as a Christmas present from Portsmouth to children throughout Hampton Roads and beyond.
That same period brought another important addition to the museum’s future. In 1994, A.J. “Junie” Lancaster and his wife, Millie, donated their extensive collection of model trains and antique toys. Valued at close to $1 million at the time, it was considered one of the finest collections of its kind in the country.
The Lancaster collection became part of the museum’s next expansion. A campaign was launched to develop the second floor, providing space for the collection along with additional exhibits. Phase II opened in 1998.
The move to High Street had already produced dramatic results. During the museum’s first six months in the former Leggett building, more than 100,000 people visited, compared with approximately 65,000 during the entire year before the move.
The museum entered another period of major development during the 2000s. The Portsmouth Museums Foundation and the City of Portsmouth undertook the “All Aboard for the Future” campaign, raising millions of dollars toward renovation and expansion. The project added approximately 20,000 square feet, relocated the museum entrance to High Street and created space for new interactive experiences.
Following extensive reconstruction, the Children’s Museum celebrated its grand reopening in May 2011.
Since then, exhibits have continued to be updated and replaced as new generations of children have come through its doors. Today, the Children’s Museum of Virginia remains at 221 High Street—more than four decades after the Portsmouth Service League first turned an idea into a small children’s museum beneath the public library.
Do you remember visiting the Children’s Museum when it was in the library basement or the old courthouse? Or did your memories begin after it moved to High Street? What exhibit did you—or your children—always have to visit?
📸 PHOTO CREDIT: Virginia Tourism Corporation
The Children’s Museum of Virginia at 221 High Street in Portsmouth.
SOURCES:
• The Virginian-Pilot, “Children’s Museum Growing to Maturity,” December 9, 1994
• The Virginian-Pilot, “It’s a Kids’ World — After All,” December 9, 1994
• The Virginian-Pilot, Children’s Museum opening coverage, December 11, 1994
• The Virginian-Pilot, Lancaster collection coverage, December 1994
• The Virginian-Pilot, Children’s Museum attendance coverage, May 19, 1995
• Portsmouth Museums Foundation, “Our History”
• Portsmouth Tourism, Portsmouth History Timeline
• Children’s Museum of Virginia / Portsmouth Museums

