What is the population of Cape Charles, Virginia?

Cape Charles has a population of approximately 1,201 according to the latest available open data.

Where is Cape Charles, Virginia located?

Cape Charles is located in Virginia, United States, at approximate coordinates 37.2497°, -76.0142°.

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Cape Charles

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Cape Charles

Total population

1,201

Founded

1884

Elevation1 m

Land area9.36 km²

Coordinates37.25°, -76.01°

Demographic figures from US Census Bureau · ACS 5-year estimates. Overview below cites Wikipedia and may reference a different year.

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City facts

Founded

1884

Elevation

1 m

Area

9.36 km²

Official website

capecharles.org

Facts from Wikidata (CC0).

Overview

Cape Charles is a town/municipal corporation in Northampton County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,178 as of the 2020 Census.

History & geography

History

Cape Charles, located close to the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, on Virginia's Eastern Shore, was founded in 1884 at a place formerly known as "Cherrystone Harbor" as a planned community by railroad and ferry interests. In 1883, William Lawrence Scott became president of the New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad Company (NYP&N), and purchased three plantations, including "Old Plantation Neck", comprising approximately 2,509 acres from the heirs of former Virginia Governor Littleton Waller Tazewell. Of this land, he ceded 40 acres to the NYP&N, and 136 acres to create the Town of Cape Charles (technically known as the "Municipal Corporation of Cape Charles") named Cape Charles for the geographical cape found on the Point and headland to the south. In that same year, construction of the railroad began. In Cape Charles, the Railroad Company built a harbor port to handle steamships and freighters from Cape Charles to Norfolk. The original Town was surveyed, platted, and laid out with approximately 136 acres divided into 644 equal lots. Seven wider avenues which run from east to west were named for Virginia statesmen and political leaders; the streets which run north and south were named for fruits. The original layout of the Town is still very visible today, and was inspired by the layout of Erie, Pennsylvania, a city in which Scott was formerly mayor. Historian William G. Thomas writes, "At a cost of nearly $300,000, the New York, Pennsylvania, and Norfolk Railroad (N.Y.P. & N. R.R.) was dredging a new harbor out of a large fresh-water lagoon between King's and Old Plantation creeks in lower Northampton County, and Scott planned to develop a new town around it called Cape Charles City. The appellation "City" for any place on the Eastern Shore was romantic, a vision…

Geography

Cape Charles is located at (37.267522, −76.014125). Cape Charles lies on a peninsula and is surrounded by water on three sides. The town is situated directly on the Chesapeake Bay, bordered by King's Creek to the north and Old Plantation Creek to the south. The land in town is low lying and relatively flat, with the highest point of elevation at 15 feet, and a slope of less than 1%. Most of the developed land in town is between 5 and 10 feet in elevation. Under the Köppen climate classification, Cape Charles features a humid subtropical climate with hot, humid summers and chilly, but not very cold winters. Temperatures routinely exceed 90 °F in the summer and typically dip below the freezing point during the winter, though it is somewhat rare for temperatures to dip far below freezing. Cape Charles on average receives roughly 45 inches of precipitation annually. Cape Charles receives 2300 hours of sunshine annually (higher than the USA average).

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