Attractions

Art! Drama! Music! Dance! Leadership! Have a new home in Newport News. Come find your place at the Downing Gross Cultural Arts Center. Even the final moments of construction cannot stop the best our imagination can offer the talented youth of our city! Come find your spotlight! Come express yourself!

Endview Plantation was built in 1769 by William Harwood. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Endview’s owner, Dr. Humphrey Harwood Curtis, formed the Warwick Beauregards, which became Company H, 32nd Virginia Volunteer Infantry. During the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, Endview served as headquarters for Confederate generals McLaws and Toombs. The site is maintained today as a historic house.

James Apostle Fields was born a slave in Hanover County, Virginia and found refuge at Fort Monroe during the Civil War in 1862 as "Contraband of War." Fields found employment as a guide for the Union troops. Mr. Fields was one of the first twenty pupils to graduate from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University) in 1871. In 1881, Fields graduated from the School of Law at Howard University. In 1887, Fields served as the Commonwealth's Attorney for Warwick County (now Newport News). In 1889, Fields served in the Virginia General Assembly. In 1908, a team of four doctors pioneered the establishment of the first hospital for blacks in the city. Other than the city's jail infirmary, this institution was the only hospitalization outlet for blacks.

Completed in 1859, Lee Hall Mansion was home to affluent planter Richard Decauter Lee, his wife Martha and their children. One of the last remaining antebellum homes on the Virginia Peninsula, Lee Hall Mansion was used as a headquarters by Confederate generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Magruder during April and May of 1862. Today, guided tours of this beautifully restored home give a glimpse back into the lives of a wealthy family during the 1860s. Hundreds of artifacts, including a tablecloth from the USS Monitor, are on display in the museum's 1862 Peninsula Campaign Gallery.

Explore the arts at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center (Pfac) with an ever-changing array of exhibitions, programs, events and studio classes. Pfac's mission is to provide a balanced and stimulating program of visual arts, through dynamic exhibitions and educational programs for children and adults. Schedule a tour to learn more about the exhibitions and have a fun, interactive experience! Pfac offers guided tours to groups of 10 or more. Tours are led by docents (volunteer educators) who encourage guests to actively view and discuss the art. Pfac docents will assist you in looking carefully at works of art so you can decipher what the artist is trying to say. To schedule a tour please call the Education Department at least four weeks in advance of the date your group would like to visit Pfac.