Visiting Portsmouth, United States: Top Sights on Foot

Portsmouth is a historic city where maritime heritage, churches, museums, and community stories come together. The best things to do in Portsmouth include exploring its waterfront, stepping aboard historic lightships, discovering Olde Towne, and seeing places that preserve the experiences of different communities. Neywo has a free audio guide for Portsmouth with 10 narrated places.

What to see in Portsmouth

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum

On Portsmouth’s downtown waterfront, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum traces the long relationship between the city and the shipyard. That connection began with the founding of the Gosport Shipyard in 1767; the yard later became the Norfolk Navy Yard and finally the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

The museum’s collection includes exhibits, hands-on programs, and special events. One of its most distinctive attractions is Lightship Portsmouth, built in 1915 and placed in service with the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1916. After retiring to Portsmouth in 1964, it became a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Visitors can step aboard to see its realistic quarters, artifacts, uniforms, photographs, and models.

Portsmouth

The preserved vessel also known as United States Lightship 101, or LV-101, offers another unusual connection with the city’s maritime past. Before becoming a museum ship, it served as a lightvessel at Cape Charles, Virginia.

LV-101 was given the name Portsmouth when it was placed in dry dock as a museum, even though Portsmouth never had a lightship station. Today, it is a National Historic Landmark and one of only a small number of surviving lightships.

Children’s Museum of Virginia

The Children’s Museum of Virginia is a hands-on stop in Olde Town Portsmouth, with two floors of exhibits and a planetarium. It is the largest children’s museum in Virginia.

Its displays bring everyday objects and experiences into an interactive setting. Children can explore a life-size tugboat and a house, board a Hampton Roads Transit bus, and see the cab of a Portsmouth Fire Department fire truck and a motorcycle from the Portsmouth Police Department. The museum also has an antique toy and model train collection described as one of the largest of its kind on the East Coast.

Trinity Episcopal Church

Trinity Episcopal Church has stood in Portsmouth since the early nineteenth century. The present building was constructed between 1828 and 1830 as a stuccoed brick church, with an attached bell tower as one of its defining features. A parish house was added in 1887.

The church also reflects the city’s experience during the American Civil War: it was used as a hospital during that period.

Commodore Theatre

The Commodore Theatre is a historic movie theater with a Streamline Art Deco design. Built in 1945, it originally held 1,000 people. After closing in 1975, the building stood empty until a change in ownership led to an extensive renovation that began in 1987.

Its design remains an important part of the experience, linking the present-day venue with its original character and opening.

Monumental Methodist Church

Monumental Methodist Church, also known as Monumental United Methodist Church, is distinguished by its two-part central tower, which rises 182 feet above the building. The church has a Victorian Gothic design, with five bays made of brick and stucco.

The current structure was built between 1871 and 1876 on the foundations of an earlier church from 1831. That building burned in 1864, and the present church was later constructed. It was heavily damaged by another fire on January 3, 2018.

St. Paul’s Catholic Church

St. Paul’s Catholic Church stands in Portsmouth’s Downtown Portsmouth Historic District. Its compact Gothic Revival design, granite exterior, and cross-shaped plan make it a distinctive landmark.

Designed by John Peebles in 1897 and dedicated in 1905, it is the fifth church built on the site. The building has load-bearing masonry walls covered with quarry-faced granite, while a rectory built in 1913 also remains on the property. St. Paul’s was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Portsmouth Community Library

The Portsmouth Community Library, also known as the Portsmouth Colored Community Library, preserves the story of a library created for Portsmouth’s African-American community. Built in 1945, the modest one-story brick building originally stood at 804 South Street.

Bertha Edwards became its first librarian and helped raise funds for the library. In 1959, local dentists Dr. James Holley and Dr. Hugo A. Owens successfully sued the City of Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Public Library to integrate the public library. After the system was integrated, the community library closed in 1962.

The building was moved twice after its closure and has stood at its present location on Elm Avenue since August 2007. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010 and is operated by the City of Portsmouth as a museum.

Shea Terrace Elementary School

Shea Terrace Elementary School recalls the history of Portsmouth’s Shea Terrace neighborhood. Constructed in 1925 and opened in September of that year, the building is now also known as Shea Terrace Senior Apartments.

Its design was created by Charles M. Robinson, a Virginia architect known for his work on schools and campus planning. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Temple Sinai

Temple Sinai represents an important chapter in Portsmouth’s Jewish history. The Reform Jewish synagogue served both traditional and non-traditional families and was part of the Union for Reform Judaism.

The congregation was established in December 1953 under Rabbi Arthur Z. Steinberg. It marked its fiftieth anniversary in 2004, then merged with Norfolk’s Ohef Sholom Temple in June 2012.

Explore Portsmouth with a self-guided audio tour

Neywo offers a Portsmouth self-guided walking tour and a bus route, so you can choose how to move through the city. The walking tour, Portsmouth Waterfront: Lightships, Shipyards and Olde Towne Steeples, covers 2.35 km in 87 minutes and includes 8 narrated stops. It visits Portsmouth, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum, the Children’s Museum of Virginia, Trinity Episcopal Church, the Commodore Theatre, Monumental Methodist Church, St. Paul’s Catholic Church, and the Portsmouth Community Library.

The bus route, Route 50: From a Historic Library to Olde Towne, covers 3 km in 13 minutes and has 4 stops: the Portsmouth Community Library, the Children’s Museum of Virginia, Trinity Episcopal Church, and St. Paul’s Catholic Church.

Download Neywo to explore Portsmouth with its free audio guide for the United States. Each story plays as you reach the place, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages, making it an easy way to discover the city while walking or riding through it.