Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum

The Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum is a maritime museum located at 24th Street on the Boardwalk. The museum explores Virginia's coastal communities and maritime heritage. It honors our past and anchors to our community.

The museum is housed in a 1903 Life-Saving Service building, one of the predecessors to the Coast Guard. Our lower gallery features the men who lived and worked here, as well as the lives they saved. It also highlights stories and artifacts from Virginia Beach’s most famous shipwrecks.

The upper gallery begins with an exhibit about weather tracking and epic storms that have hit the Virginia coast. Then visitors explore World War II on the Atlantic Coast, including the battle between u-boats and the beach patrol. The final gallery focuses on the culture of the beach right outside our doors. This includes exhibits about the beach vacation experience, as well as East Coast surfing culture and our lifeguards.