Ocean View Station Museum - Norfolk, Virginia

R R

Growing up in the Norfolk area, you hear a lot about Ocean View, so it was wonderful to see pieces of its history in person. The museum is filled with photos, trinkets, tickets, and even a restored car from the famous roller coaster— a nostalgic glimpse into the past. Nearly everyone from around here knows someone who was an extra in the movie where they blew the coaster up, and it’s great to see these memories preserved.

The museum does a fantastic job maintaining and presenting all these materials, creating a space where you can truly interact with local history. They make great use of the space but it would be nice if they had a larger space to work. It’s attached to the library, so when you enter the main entrance, the museum is to the right. Highly recommend stopping by and leaving a donation to help keep this gem available for future generations.

Dark Seraphim

Cute and small hyper local history museum. I want to call it more of a local historical center with a bunch of artifacts, articles and art. The space is definitely too small for the mission and vision. Still, I'm grateful to the volunteers who run it. Definitely a wealth of interesting information.

Evan Dwyer

This is a small museum in Pretlow library. There is not much info about it anywhere. But, it keeps the same hours as the library (though it is volunteer run and doesn't always open on time) and is to the right of the main entrance - so if you have 15-20 minutes and want to learn more about local history, this is a nice pit stop. Exhibits cover the naval history of the area, the theme park that used to define OV, some of the major storms from the past, the origins of Ocean View, and how it was affected by WWII, as well as local lore and school memorabilia. The main exhibits are a car and a boat from the defunct theme park. They do a lot with only a small space, but it feels maybe a little too cramped and the flow of information is a little convoluted as a result. Overall though, a stop any history buff in the 757 should make if they're at all familiar with Ocean View, Norfolk, or Willoughby Bay.

Jay Aliason

This is a very small museum packed with all the history of Ocean View. If you've ever wanted to know anything about this district I highly recommend you stop by for a visit. The curator, Charles is a very nice and knowledgeable man. He can answer any questions you may have. I will be going back from time to time get a bit more knowledge of Ocean View!

Lee Briggs

Small museum but packed with Ocean View history. The volunteer staff were very helpful and basically gave us a guided tour around the place. If you are an Ocean View native or just a history buff, this place is definitely worth a stop.

Luke Elliott

If you have an hour to burn or if you would like to learn the history of Ocean View, I would HIGHLY recommend taking a trip to this free venue. The space is actually fairly small but is full of information. We were there for about an hour and looked at all the pictures, artworks, and historical information on display; but there is easily another few days worth of reading material and pictures available in books that are there to view.
The complete history of Ocean View is actually fascinating and, as I said before, recommend this place entirely. The staff is always happy to answer any questions and offer even more information than what is available in the exhibits.
They also have plenty of shirts and stickers available for sale.

J L

VERY cool little bit of history lesson. Definetly worth a trip to see some of the past.

Susan

I stopped in today to learn some local history and I’m so glad that I did! Charlie is a fantastic docent, very knowledgeable and friendly. I thoroughly enjoyed the museum and learning more about OV 🙂