Best Web Design in Suffolk, VA (2026)

Web Design for Suffolk, Virginia

Suffolk is Virginia's largest city by land area, a sprawling port city on the Nansemond River in the Hampton Roads region that blends colonial history, the Great Dismal Swamp, and a century of peanut processing. It is the home of Planters and its mascot Mr. Peanut, and it long billed itself the 'Peanut Capital of the World.'

AppWT works with Suffolk, VA businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Suffolk

Also known as. Peanut Capital of the World. World's Largest Peanut Market.

History. The Nansemond people lived along the river; English colonists established Constant's Wharf, and the House of Burgesses authorized the town of Suffolk in 1742, naming it for Royal Governor William Gooch's home county in England. The town was burned by the British in 1779 during the Revolution when riverside warehouses full of turpentine and pitch caught fire. The Siege of Suffolk, April 11 to May 4, 1863, saw Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet besiege the Union garrison while foraging supplies; the Great Dismal Swamp and the Nansemond River anchored the Union defensive line. In 1912 Italian immigrant Amedeo Obici moved his Planters Nut and Chocolate Company to Suffolk, building on the region's peanut farming. In 1974 the independent city of Suffolk merged with surrounding Nansemond County, creating the very large modern city footprint.

Local economy. A historic and continuing peanut-processing center that had been declared the 'Peanut Capital of the World' by 1941. Food and beverage anchors include Planters, Lipton/Unilever tea operations, and Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group. A defense and modeling-and-simulation hub with major operations for Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

Culture and community. The Suffolk Peanut Festival, held each fall since 1977, is the city's signature event. Mr. Peanut, created for Planters, is tied to Suffolk, and a statue of the icon is displayed downtown. Sister-city relationships with Suffolk County, England (1981) and Oderzo, Italy (1995).

What makes Suffolk distinct. Suffolk is Virginia's largest city by land area and one of the largest U.S. cities by area. The call letters of local AM radio station WLPM stood for 'World's Largest Peanut Market.' The city is effectively the birthplace of Mr. Peanut, one of the most recognized advertising mascots in the world. The Great Dismal Swamp within the city was surveyed by George Washington's Dismal Swamp Company in the 1760s and later sheltered maroon communities of escaped enslaved people.

Suffolk Landmarks and Local Life

• The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge - partly within the city, home to Lake Drummond
• Riddick's Folly - an 1837 Greek Revival mansion that briefly served as a Union headquarters and is now a museum
• The Seaboard Station Railroad Museum on North Main Street.
• Historic districts including Driver and Chuckatuck - home to St. John's Church
• The legacy of Louise Obici Memorial Hospital - which Amedeo Obici funded in memory of his wife (opened 1951)