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Newport News has a long history dating back to the days of Jamestown, Virginia. The area which is now the city of Newport News has existed under different names and forms including Elizabeth Cittie, Warwick River Shire, Warwick County, Virginia, Warwick City, and the current independent city of Newport News.
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During the 17th century, shortly after establishment of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, English settlers and explorers began settling the areas adjacent to Hampton Roads. In 1610, Sir Thomas Gates took possession of a nearby Native American village which became known as Kecoughtan.
In 1619, the area of Newport News was included in one of four huge corporations of the Virginia Company of London, and became known as Elizabeth Cittie, which extended west all the way to Skiffe's Creek (currently the border between Newport News and James City County. Elizabeth Cittie also included all of present-day South Hampton Roads.
By 1634, the English colony of Virginia consisted of a total population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants and was redivided into eight shires of Virginia, which were renamed as counties shortly thereafter. The area of Newport News became part of Warwick River Shire, which became Warwick County in 1637. By 1810, the county seat was at Denbigh. For a short time in the late 19th century, the county seat was moved to Newport News.
Early Warwick County and Elizabeth City consisted of farms and plantations granted to landholders and settlers. Some of these included Marie’s Mount, the Newport News (Parker West) Farm at present-day 18th Street and Harbor Road, Blunt Poynt, Denbigh Plantation, Windmill Point, Bolthorpe Plantation, Celey's, Richneck Plantation, Stanley Hundred, Bourbon, Endview Plantation, Lee Hall Mansion, Cedar Grove, Briarfield and others. In 1704 there were just 125 properties registered in Warwick. Bourbon, Endview, Lee Hall and Cedar Grove (privately occupied) are still standing.
Daniel Gookin, Sr. born in Newcestown, Ireland, arrived in 1621 and is the first documented owner of land in lower Newport News. Gookin's tract of over 1,600 acres (6.5 km2) ran along the James River from Newport News Point at least four miles (6 km) to the north. This tract of land had been known by Captain John Smith who had noted that there was a spring with good water here, where ships navigating the James stopped for fresh water. Between 1632 and 1639, John Chandler bought Newport News from Daniel Gookin, Jr. A large portion of this land included a cattle plantation called Marie’s Mount [1] . The bulk of the tract lay in the long, narrow County of Warwick, which fronted the James River. Tobacco wharves and warehouses lined the river’s deep-water docks. The Newport News acreage along the Hampton Roads waterfront also included fresh water springs where ships navigating the James filled their water casks. John later sold the Marie’s Mount portion of the land to Capt. Benedict Stafford, perhaps in the 1650s when his sons were forming their families. Chandler’s land was eventually divided into a number of farms including Newport News Farm, Pumpkin Hall, the Washington Burk tract, the Wilbern tract, and the Hawkins tract. This property comprises all of the land in Newport News along the James River from Newport News Point to the Mariner's Museum.
Newport News was merely an area of farm lands and a fishing village until the coming of the railroad and the subsequent establishment of the great shipyard.
As a 16-year-old in 1837, Collis P. Huntington had visited the rural village known as Newport News Point. He later became wealthy as one of the men who built the first transcontinental railroad across the western United States. He was recruited to help complete the railroad link from the Fall Line of the James River to the Ohio River, which was accomplished in 1873.
The completion of the new Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) also opened up access to the massive coal resources of West Virginia. However, a deepwater port was needed; the James River at Richmond was too shallow for colliers.
The solution for the C&O was its Peninsula Subdivision, built as an extension from Richmond east about 75 miles (121 km) to Newport News Point. Opened in late 1881, it provided an important pathway for coal mined in West Virginia to reach the harbor of Hampton Roads for coast wise and export shipping.
No place on the Peninsula benefited more from the completion of the C&O's Peninsula Subdivision than southeastern Warwick County, soon to become better known as Newport News. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway became one of the country's wealthiest as West Virginia coal moved eastward to the coal piers. The coal volume of the C&O, combined with that of the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) shipping from Lambert's Point and that of the later-completed Virginian Railway (VGN) at Sewell's Point turned the harbor of Hampton Roads, the East Coast of the United States' largest ice-free port, into the largest coal export point in the world by 1915.
Collis P. Huntington and his associates set developing the tiny unincorporated community at Newport New Point. His Old Dominion Land Company built the landmark Hotel Warwick, opened in 1883, which played a significant role in the development of the city. The hotel dominated the landscape, and was the civic and commercial center of the area during its early years. The first bank at Newport News, the first newspaper, the U.S. post office, the federal customs office, and even the municipal government of Warwick County were each located within the Hotel Warwick, at least for a time. It was also the site in 1886 of the organizational meeting for the Chesapeake Dry Dock and Construction Company. The latter evolved into the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. [2]
For a brief time, Warwick County shifted the location of its county seat to Newport News from the historic location at Denbigh, where it had been situated since colonial times. However, the growth at Newport News was such that, in 1896, by an act of the Virginia General Assembly, it became one of only two Virginia localities to ever become an independent city without the additional stepping-stone of first becoming an incorporated town. (Virginia has had an independent city political subdivision since 1871). Walter A. Post served as the city's first mayor.
In the early years of the new city, leaders of the community and shipyard were virtually interchangeable. The newly incorporated city's first mayor, initially appointed, and then elected in 1898, was Walter A. Post. He had come to the area as one of the builders of the C&O Railway's terminals. He later became president of the shipyard, serving from March 9, 1911, to February 12, 1912, when he died.
On March 14, 1914, Albert L. Hopkins, a young New Yorker trained in engineering took over leading the shipyard. He was traveling to England on the RMS Lusitania on shipyard business when he died on May 7, 1915, after the ship was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat [3] off Queenstown on the Irish coast. 127 other Americans also lost their lives. His assistant Fred Gauntlett, was also on board, but was able to swim to safety. [4] The Lusitania incident was among the events that brought the United States into World War I. Between 1918 and 1920, NNS delivered 25 destroyers.
Among all of the early shipyard leaders, after city and shipyard founder Collis Huntington, Homer Lenoir Ferguson is probably the best remembered for various roles in the community as well as his work and long tenure at the shipyard. He was a manager there when Albert Hopkins died, and assumed the presidency the following July. He saw the company through both world wars.
As war clouds loomed over the U.S. in 1917, Ferguson had a major role in the development of Hilton Village, located just northwest of the shipyard, it became one of the first planned communities in the country. Built in 1918 by the federal government to house shipyard workers, the planners met with the wives of shipyard workers. Based on their input 14 house plans were designed for the projected 500 English-village-style homes. After the war, in 1922, Henry Huntington, who had a close relationship with Ferguson, acquired it from the government, and helped facilitate the sale of the homes to shipyard employees and other local residents. Three streets there were named after Post, Hopkins, and Ferguson. Hilton Village was the first significant suburb in Warwick County. [5] [6]
The incorporated town of Kecoughtan was formed on January 1, 1916, within Elizabeth City County. [7] Eleven years later it was annexed by the independent city of Newport News on January 1, 1927. It is now part of the East End neighborhood of Newport News.
After the first world war, Newport News Shipbuilding began building aircraft carriers. Ranger was delivered in 1934. It is an activity that was continuing as of 2008. At the shipyard, Homer Ferguson served until July 31, 1946, after the second World War had ended on both the European and Pacific fronts. As a noted community leader, he was a co-founder of the Mariners' Museum with Archer M. Huntington and his wife, sculptor Anna Hyatt. Ferguson remained active with the museum until his death. The former Homer L. Ferguson High School was named for him, as was the more recent Ferguson Center for the Performing Arts, located adjacent to the Mariners' Museum and Christopher Newport University.
A wave of political consolidations swept across the Hampton Roads region beginning in the 1950s after the fast population growth years of World War II and the period after. Independent city status guarantees protection against annexation of territory by adjacent communities. After years of resisting annexation efforts by Newport News, in 1952, Warwick County was successful in petitioning the Virginia General Assembly to become the independent city of Warwick. The first and only city manager of Warwick was J. Clyde Morris.
In 1958, the citizenry of the cities of Warwick and Newport News voted by referendum to consolidate the two cities, choosing to assume the better-known name of Newport News, and forming the third largest city population-wise in Virginia with a 65 square miles (168 km2) area. The boundaries of the city of Newport News today are essentially the boundaries of the original Warwick River Shire and those of Warwick County for most of its existence, with the exception of minor border adjustments with neighbors.
In addition to Collis, other members of the Huntington family also played major roles in Newport News. After his uncle's death, his nephew, Henry E. Huntington, assumed leadership of the shipyard. Huntington Park, developed after World War I near the northern terminus of the James River Bridge, is named for him.
Collis Huntington's son, Archer Milton Huntington and his wife, sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, developed the Mariners' Museum beginning in 1932, creating a natural park and the community's Mariners' Lake in the process. A major feature of Newport News, the Mariners' Museum has grown to become one of the largest and finest maritime museums in the world.
Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the sole designer, builder, and refueler of aircraft carriers and one of two providers of submarines for the United States Navy. Founded as the Chesapeake Dry Dock and Construction Co. in 1886, Newport News Shipbuilding has built more than 800 ships, including both naval and commercial ships. Located in the city of Newport News, Virginia, its facilities span more than 550 acres (2.2 km2).
Newport News is an independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the fifth-most populous city in Virginia and 140th-most populous city in the United States. The city is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the northern shore of the James River to the river's mouth on the harbor of Hampton Roads.
James City County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,254. Although politically separate from the county, the county seat is the adjacent independent city of Williamsburg.
Elizabeth City County was a county in southeastern Virginia from 1634 until 1952 when it was merged into the city of Hampton. Originally created in 1634 as Elizabeth River Shire, it was one of eight shires created in the Virginia Colony by order of the King Charles I. In 1636, it was subdivided, and the portion north of the harbor of Hampton Roads became known as Elizabeth City Shire. It was renamed Elizabeth City County a short time later.
The Virginia Peninsula is located in southeast Virginia, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the Lower Peninsula to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the north, the Middle Peninsula and the Northern Neck.
Collis Potter Huntington was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading who invested in Theodore Judah's idea to build the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. Huntington helped lead and develop other major interstate lines, such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulfilled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link from the James River at Richmond to the Ohio River Valley. The new railroad facilities adjacent to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte, West Virginia into part of a new city which was named Huntington in his honor.
Warwick County was a county in Southeast Virginia that was created from Warwick River Shire, one of eight created in the Virginia Colony in 1634. It became the City of Newport News on July 16, 1952. Located on the Virginia Peninsula on the northern bank of the James River between Hampton Roads and Jamestown, the area consisted primarily of farms and small unincorporated villages until the arrival of the Peninsula Extension of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1881 and development led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington.
Warwick is an extinct independent city which was located in the State of Virginia in the United States from 1952 until 1958. Formed by a political conversion of the former Warwick County, Virginia (1634–1952), it is now part of the independent city of Newport News, Virginia.
The Mariners' Museum and Park is located in Newport News, Virginia, United States. Designated as America’s National Maritime Museum by Congress, it is one of the largest maritime museums in North America. The Mariners' Museum Library contains the largest maritime history collection in the Western Hemisphere.
Williams Carter Wickham was a Virginia lawyer and politician. A plantation owner who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, Wickham also became a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861, where he voted against secession, but after fellow delegates and voters approved secession, he joined the Confederate States Army and rose to the rank of cavalry general, then became a Confederate States Congressman near the end of the American Civil War. Later, Wickham became a Republican and helped rebuild Virginia's infrastructure after gaining control of the heavily damaged Virginia Central Railroad, which he repaired and helped merge into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway company. Cooperating with financier Collis Huntington, Wickham developed coal resources and the Newport News Shipyard. He was also again elected to the Virginia Senate. His son Henry T. Wickham also became a lawyer and would work with his father and eventually twice become the speaker pro tempore of the Virginia Senate.
Lee Hall is a community located in the extreme northern portion of the independent city of Newport News in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States.
In the United States, the Peninsula District is a district of the Virginia High School League. It consists of public high schools in the cities of Hampton and Newport News, plus Gloucester High School in Gloucester County.
Hilton Village is a planned English-village-style neighborhood in Newport News, Virginia. Recognized as a pioneering development in urban planning, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood was built between 1918 and 1921 in response to the need for housing during World War I for employees of Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company. It is recognized as the United States' first Federal war-housing project.
U.S. Route 60 (US 60) in the Commonwealth of Virginia runs 303 miles (488 km) west to east through the central part of the state, generally close to and paralleling the Interstate 64 corridor, except for the crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and in the South Hampton Roads area.
Homer Lenoir Ferguson was an author and businessman. He was president of Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia, from July 22, 1915, through July 31, 1946.
Elizabeth City was one of four incorporations established in the Virginia Colony in 1619 by the proprietor, the Virginia Company of London, acting in accordance with instructions issued by Sir George Yeardley, Governor. This allowed the crown to benefit from the offerings of the new land, including its natural resources, new markets for English goods, and the leverage it provided against the Spanish.
The Mariners' Lake is a reservoir which was created as part of the natural park on the grounds of the Mariners' Museum and Park located in the independent city of Newport News in the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia.
Skiffe's Creek is located in James City County and the independent city of Newport News in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. It is a tributary of the James River.
The Peninsula Extension which created the Peninsula Subdivision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was the new railroad line on the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to southeastern Warwick County. Its principal purpose was to provide an important new pathway for coal mined in West Virginia to reach the harbor of Hampton Roads for coastal and export shipping on collier ships.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Newport News, Virginia, United States.
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