Old Point Comfort Resort: Hospitality, Health and History on Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay

The Chamberlin Hotel still stands today as a dominant landmark along the Hampton Roads Harbor. This restored hotel symbolizes the days when Old Point Comfort was the premiere health and holiday resort in the South. The Hygeia and Chamberlin were grand hotels that lavishly catered to invalids, travelers and vacationers seeking relief from the summer’s heat during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Steamships and trains brought hundreds daily to enjoy Old Point Comfort. These elegant buildings combined a luxurious health resort and waterfront atmosphere with military bands, parades, promenades, historic sites, fresh breezes and the promise of courtship. Longtime Fort Monroe resident and Hampton historian John Quarstein has woven together tales and images, recipes and artifacts to tell the wonderful story of the Old Point Comfort Resort.