The 1903 Seatack Station of the United States Lifesaving Service (which was the historic precursor to the Coast Guard) is now the Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum at 24th street adjacent to the oceanfront boardwalk.
[1][3][4] Seatack was named so because it was the point on the coast of rural Princess Anne County where the community was the target of cannonballs fired from British ships and was where troops came ashore during an attack in the War of 1812.
It was remodeled in 1888 and renamed the "Princess Anne Hotel", a massive 2 block wooden facility, which attracted vacationers from considerable distances from all across the United States.
[citation needed] In 1891, while hotel guests watched, surfmen from the Seatack station of the United States Lifesaving Service were involved in the rescue efforts for the shipwreck of the Norwegian barque, the Dictator, which ran aground near present-day 37th street.
Seven people died, including the Captain's wife and small child, leading to the Norwegian Lady memorials and several local legends.
[5] In the early 1900s, the name Seatack became more specifically applied to an area west of the beach where a segregated African-American neighborhood was established in Princess Anne County.
Black people who lived in the area called Seatack made many historical accomplishments in the segregated county of Princess Anne, that included raising money to build schools for their children (namely, the Princess Anne County Training School—1938, among other schools), starting one of the first Black-owned fire stations in Eastern Virginia (the Seatack Fire Station), because the black neighborhood was not serviced by the Princess Anne County fire and rescue department at the time, building churches (Mount Olive Baptist, St. Stephens Church of God in Christ (COGIC)) to worship in, and later on, after the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, a parks and recreation center, and a community daycare center.