Built in 1955, at the height of the Nike Ajax air defense program, Missile Site N-36 in Virginia Beach was part of a ring of missile defense sites protecting the important Navy installations located in the vicinity of Norfolk, Virginia. During the Cold War, similar sites surrounded major military installations and other strategic resources across the country. In Virginia, the only concentration of Nike sites outside the Norfolk area was in Northern Virginia, to protect vital military and government assets at the nation’s capital. Nike Ajax missiles were designed to intercept hostile aircraft that might be launched from the Soviet Union and other communist nations. The Nike Ajax systems had a relatively short range and were superseded by the longer-range Nike Hercules systems with nuclear warheads that could target incoming ballistic missiles as well as aircraft. Following the decommissioning of Missile Site N-36, the U.S. Government conveyed the property to the City of Virginia Beach.
Hanbury Preservation Consulting, working in collaboration with the William and Mary Center for Archaeological Research, conducted an intensive level survey of the site in anticipation of its redevelopment.