Ocean View Station Museum

Sometimes, when Anouk and I visit the Pretlow Library in Norfolk, we stop in and visit the Ocean View Station Museum on the ground floor before we leave, if it's open. It's one of our favorite places to visit, so I can never quite believe that many people don't even know the little museum is there.

Which is kind of like Ocean View itself: a lot of people don't know that this quiet-but-colorful neighborhood in Norfolk used to be one of the most popular beach vacation destinations on the East Coast. In its heyday, Ocean View featured an amusement park, resort hotels, a bustling boardwalk and fishing pier.





When my mom was a little girl, her grandparents, my great-grandparents, Anouk's great-greats (!), lived in a little brick house right on the beach in Ocean View, and she and all of her siblings and cousins spent a lot of time there. So Ocean View has a special place in my heart, and it's fun to be able to peek in and take a look at how it used to be. A. and I like to take our time moving through the museum, looking at everything: the old ticket stubs and photographs, old Granby High yearbooks from the 1920s and '30s, and even the restored front car of the Rocket, the amusement park's most popular roller coaster (which was spectacularly demolished in a made-for-TV movie in the 1970s).

More information about the Ocean View Station Museum's hours and exhibits can be found here. Be sure to stop in the next time you return your library books and have a chat with one of the staff, most of whom remember Ocean View the way it used to be and are all too happy to tell you all about it.

Is there a place that means a lot to your family? Tell us about it. And have a great weekend!