Lambert's Point, Norfolk

History and Location

Map of Lambert's Point Neighborhood. Retrieved 2025 from Google Maps.

Lambert's Point, named for Thomas Lambert, who patented 100 acres there in 1635, is one of the oldest neighborhoods and industrial areas in Norfolk, Virginia. Lambert's Point is situated along the southern shore of the Elizabeth River and has deep-water port facilities.

Detail from 1889 Atlas of Norfolk. Sargeant Memorial Collection/ Norfolk Public Library. Retrieved 2025 from https://lambertspoint.wordpress.com/

The neighborhood of Lambert's Point began as a town for railroad workers. In 1883, the first trainload of coal arrived in Norfolk from the Pocahontas Coalfield in West Virginia, and coal quickly replaced cotton as the city's main export. At the time, the Norfolk & Western Railroad piers were located in downtown Norfolk on the Elizabeth River waterfront. Because more space was needed to handle the growing shipments of coal, Norfolk & Western expanded into Lambert's Point in 1886.

By 1900, the Norfolk & Western Terminal had become the top coal-exporting port on the East Coast. In 1911, Lambert's Point officially became part of the City of Norfolk. The neighborhood was one of the first in Norfolk where Black residents could buy homes.

Today, Lambert's Point is a predominantly African American neighborhood with a strong sense of community. The Norfolk & Western Terminal, now the Norfolk Southern Terminal, remains a feature of life in Lambert's Point, with its operations continuing to influence the local economy, as well as the ambient noise of trains screeching slowly along the tracks and the distinctive black coal dust residues that mar the outside surfaces of buildings.

Relationship with ODU

In the 1960s and 70s, the expansion of Old Dominion University bulldozed parts of the Lambert’s Point community. Though Lambert's Point was a middle-class neighborhood with a “thriving business sector” and a lot of homeowners, the expansion significantly shrunk the community. While it initially stretched west of Hampton Boulevard from 24th Street to 48th Street, with the expansion of ODU, it now stretches to 43rd Street.

Mapping Lambert’s Point

Because of the ODU expansion on top of the neighborhood, much of the history of Lambert’s Point has been lost. In 2016, a group of undergraduate and graduate students from ODU conducted interviews with residents who grew up in Lambert’s Point during the 1950s and 1960s to learn about how the neighborhood has changed over time. They also gathered historical accounts from the early 20th century using the Norfolk Journal and Guide, a newspaper dedicated to African American news and issues. Their work resulted in a website featuring transcribed interviews and photographs that highlight the stories of long-term residents and the places that shaped their experiences in the neighborhood.

Community and Residents

Demographics

Lambert’s Point is a diverse neighborhood, with just over half of residents identifying as Black (50.8%), about a third as White (36.8%), and a small percentage as Asian (3.5%). The typical household earns around $42,000 a year—about two-thirds of the citywide median income in Norfolk ($64,017). The area falls within Census Tract 25 in Norfolk, Virginia.

Community Center

The Lambert’s Point Community Center is a vibrant point in the community, and hosts regular youth sports games, adult sports games and work out classes, and other events for kids. The Center also offers a chess program, weekly teen nights, and weekly adult nights, in addition to hosting the civil league meeting once a month.

Lambert’s Point Civic League

The Lambert’s Point Civic League (LPCL) is a community organization that works to improve the quality of life for residents in the Lambert’s Point neighborhood. Its actions include organizing neighborhood meetings to discuss local issues, partnering with city officials and police to enhance safety, supporting community clean-up efforts, and promoting neighborhood pride through events and outreach. The League also advocates for better housing, infrastructure, and youth programs to ensure that the community remains safe, connected, and thriving.

Lambert's Point Open Space

Less than 5% of Norfolk’s land is public parkland, which is well below the national average. This parkland percentage is significantly lower than in Virginia Beach (17%) and Chesapeake (27%). Therefore, in the spring of 2023, a grassroots citizens group (supported by the LPCL) was formed to encourage the City of Norfolk to establish a new city park on the city-owned parcel of the former Lambert’s Point golf course (which had also previously been a landfill). In April 2024, the City of Norfolk designated the area for public use as Lambert’s Point Open Space. The Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) also leased their northern parcel, making it temporarily available to the public adjacent to the permanent Lambert’s Point Open Space.

Coal Terminals

The Lambert’s Point neighborhood is shown at left of railroad tracks, 1934. Sargeant Memorial Collection/Norfolk Public Library. Retrieved 2025 from https://lambertspoint.wordpress.com/

Lambert's Point is the home of Norfolk Southern's Pier 6, which has been a defining industrial feature of the neighborhood for over a century, shaping both the physical landscape and the social fabric of the surrounding community. The terminal directly borders the neighborhood, and is located downwind, leading to long standing concerns about coal dust pollution in the area.  

The terminal’s history dates back to the late 19th century, when the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) (a predecessor of today’s Norfolk Southern Railway) selected the site for its deep-water coal pier. The first coal shipments from Lambert's Point began in 1884, marking the beginning of Norfolk’s rise as a leading coal export hub. Over time, the facility grew into a vast industrial complex, with Pier 6 becoming the largest and most advanced coal transloading facility in the world at the time after it was completed in 1962. Pier 6 is part of the massive Port of Virginia, which includes two other major coal export facilities (across the bay from Lambert’s Point): Pier IX, operated by Kinder Morgan, and Dominion Terminal. These three terminals combined represent 23% of all coal export capacity in the United States.

Coal from the Appalachian mines of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky arrives at the terminal by rail, where massive rotary dumpers unload the railcars directly onto conveyor belts. From there, coal is sorted, blended, and loaded onto ships bound for power plants and steel mills worldwide. This is different from the CSX coal piers across the river from Lambert's Point (located in Southeast Newport News) where coal is offloaded and stored in large piles before being loaded onto ships for export.

The coal terminal has long been the source of environmental and health concerns. The wind blows southwest off of the Elizabeth River, blowing coal dust off of the terminal and into Lambert's Point. Coal dust emissions from railcars, conveyor systems, and ship-loading operations have been documented throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, prompting community activism and regulatory scrutiny.

Coal Dust Activism in the Lambert's Point Community

For decades, residents of Lambert's Point have raised concerns about coal dust pollution stemming from the nearby terminal. Local residents and environmental advocates have argued that fine coal particles frequently escape during handling and transport, coating nearby homes, vehicles, and public spaces in black dust. The particulate matter from the coal dust has been shown to cause significant health issues in the community, leading to high rates of asthma (source needed)

The neighborhood is also subject to lots of traffic emissions, as it is bordered on one side by Hampton Boulevard (one of the main truck routes servicing the Port of Virginia).

Community activism around the coal dust issue dates back to at least the 1970s, when neighborhood groups began organizing to demand stronger environmental protections and monitoring. Over the years, residents have reported respiratory problems and other health concerns they attribute to long-term coal dust exposure. Activists have called for measures such as covered railcars, enclosed conveyor systems, and independent air quality testing. Norfolk Southern currently uses a wet dust suppression system, coating the sprinklers with reused stormwater. However, residents complain that these sprinklers are not always on, and are not fully suppressing the fugitive dust.

Organizations such as the Sierra Club, Virginia Environmental Justice Collaborative, New Virginia Majority, and local community associations have periodically partnered to amplify residents’ voices. These groups generally focus their efforts both in Lambert’s Point and in Southeast Newport News, both historically Black neighborhoods alongside coal terminals. Their efforts have included petitions, public meetings, and engagement with city officials and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

Norfolk Southern has maintained that the facility operates within regulatory limits and has implemented dust-control technologies, including water sprays and chemical suppressants. However, many community members argue that these measures are insufficient and that the problem persists, especially under certain weather conditions. Local air monitoring has existed since at least the mid 1950s, and community efforts to measure coal dust exist today via groups like the VOICES Network (Voices Organizing In Opposition to Coal dust with Environmental Sensing).

Getting Involved

The Civic League meets at the Lambert’s Point Community Center (4100 Bowdens Ferry Road Norfolk, VA, United States, Virginia 23508) on the third Tuesday of every month.

Documents

• U.S. Census Bureau. Census Tract 25, Norfolk, VA. American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Census Reporter Profile. 2023.
• McPhillips, Lambert’s Point, Norfolk Public Library, 2013
• Lazo, J & McClain, K. Community perceptions, environmental impacts, and energy policy: Rail shipment of coal. Energy Policy, Vol. 24. No. 6. pp. 531—540. 1996
• Evoqua Water Technologies, ETS-UV Disinfection, 2017