Hilton Village

About this property

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. The planned community was jointly sponsored by the U.S. Shipping Board and the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. It was built on the site of J. Pembroke Jones' farm "Hilton." Hilton Village was opened July 7, 1918. The street names in the 100-acre (0.4 km2) tract of former pine woods honor government and shipyard officials. The 473 English-village-type houses were sold to private owners after the war. In 1917, during World War I, the war effort was in full swing. Newport News Shipbuilding had many contracts to build naval ships and was hiring thousands of employees. Shipyard workers were being housed in overcrowded and/or temporary quarters. The emerging community of Newport News faced a severe housing shortage. This led to the construction of Hilton Village. The housing shortage was so severe that Newport News Shipbuilding president Homer L. Ferguson traveled to Washington to emphasize to Congress the impact of lack of housing on ship construction and thus the war effort. Immediately after his appearance, the United States Shipping Board was provided funding of $1.2 million and authorization to create a comprehensive emergency housing program. Hilton Village was the first project of the emergency housing program. About three miles (5 km) north of the Newport News city limits, in Warwick County, Virginia, land known locally as the "Darling Tract" was purchased. This consisted of about 200 acres (0.8 km2) of woodlands and, located on a bluff overlooking the James River, the pre-Civil War homestead was named "Hilton". The planning for Hilton Village was conducted using a team approach, highly innovative for the time. Initially. landscape architect Henry Vincent Hubbard was hired as town planner, Joseph D. Leland, III as architect and Francis H. Bulot as sanitary engineer. Leland was unable to finish the assignment because of other obligations, and Francis Y. Joannes was hired as the architect to work on the project. 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. The location of the neighborhood was several miles away from the urbanized areas of Newport News. Trolley car tracks were run from the city to Hilton Village to allow workers to commute to work at Newport News Shipbuilding and residents access to city services and shopping. The village-style neighborhood was planned so as to offer many services locally. Plots for four churches, a library, a fire house, commercial spaces, and a school, Hilton Elementary School, were provided for in the plan. The houses and services were grouped together in close proximity to allow for easy walking distances. For recreational purposes, the Hilton Pier and ravine, containing a small park, beach and fishing pier, on the banks of the James River were included in the plan directly behind Hilton Elementary.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Newport News County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Newport News County.

More historic places in Virginia

Browse all historic places in Virginia.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Virginia history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.