Virginia's oldest English parish — burned by Confederate troops in 1861 and rebuilt atop its colonial ruins
100 W Queens Way, Hampton, VA 23669
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Church and cemetery grounds free to visit during daylight hours. Hampton Horror Tours tickets required for evening ghost tour.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Level churchyard and paved paths; some uneven grave markers
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1728 · Oldest English-Built Parish in Virginia (1610) · Confederate Burning Site — August 7, 1861 · Only Surviving Colonial Structure in Downtown Hampton · National Register of Historic Places
The parish of St. John's was organized in 1610, three years after the founding of Jamestown and two years before the town of Hampton itself was platted. The congregation worshiped in a succession of structures before the present brick church was built in 1728 on the same Kecoughtan Indian land the first colonists had settled.
By 1861, Hampton sat at a strategically awkward position for the Confederacy — easily accessible by Union naval forces from Chesapeake Bay. When Confederate General John Bankhead Magruder decided to withdraw on August 7, he ordered the town burned rather than leave it serviceable for federal troops. Confederate soldiers moved through the streets setting fires. St. John's Church was among the buildings torched. The fire consumed most of the interior and damaged the roof structure while leaving the exterior walls standing. Every other eighteenth-century structure in downtown Hampton was destroyed in the same action, making St. John's the sole surviving colonial-era building in the city center.
Union forces occupied Hampton through the remainder of the war. The church was repaired and reopened after 1865. The cemetery adjacent to the building had been in continuous use since the colonial period; it holds the graves of residents who died in yellow fever epidemics, Revolutionary War veterans, and civilians caught between the war's competing sides.
The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the broader recognition of Hampton's colonial and Civil War heritage. The parish remains an active Episcopal congregation.
Sources
Hampton's city-organized Horror Tours have included St. John's Cemetery as a featured stop, presenting it in the context of a suspected murder whose case was tried in Hampton courts but never fully resolved. Accounts collected from tour participants and cemetery visitors describe cold spots that concentrate near the older markers in the western section of the graveyard, and reports of indistinct voices when the property is otherwise quiet.
The church's burn history feeds the paranormal tradition independently. The 1861 Confederate torching was a deliberate act of destruction against a community institution, and accounts from Union soldiers who occupied the site shortly after describe unease in the still-smoldering ruin. Those accounts are recorded in regimental histories from the occupation period.
The site does not operate paranormal investigation events or market itself as haunted. The dark-history appeal comes primarily from the church's documented role in the Civil War burning and the cemetery's long accumulation of Hampton residents who died in epidemic, conflict, and ordinary tragedy across four centuries.
Walk the oldest English-built church property in Virginia (parish 1610, current structure 1728) and survey the adjoining cemetery, which holds four centuries of Hampton residents. The still-visible fire damage from August 7, 1861 — when retreating Confederate troops torched the building to deny Union forces a foothold — is visible in the restored stonework.
The city-run Hampton Horror Tours stop explicitly at St. John's Cemetery for documented legends of a nefarious presence tied to an unsolved murder, cold spots near older sections of the graveyard, and accounts of whispered voices after dark. Tours run on select evenings in the fall season.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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