Brief History of Newport News

Newport News was settled by the English shortly after the establishment of Jamestown. Colonists built homesteads along the Warwick River, Waters Creek, Skiffs Creek, and other navigable streams, all of which lie within the modern City of Newport News.  In 1618, 1,000 acres on Mulberry Island were patented by Virginia Governor Sir George Yeardley. The earliest reference to Newport News Point as a geographical feature occurs in a document dated November 11, 1619.

The most influential of the early Warwick planters was Captain Samuel Mathews, who built Mathews Manor at the confluence of the Warwick River and Deep Creek in the mid 1620s. Denbigh and Mulberry Island became centers of activity during Colonial times as Warwick attracted tobacco and wheat planters from England.  After the American Revolution, Warwick County's population fell as tobacco farming reduced the land’s fertility.

During the Civil War, the Virginia Peninsula was a strategic approach to the Confederate capital of Richmond.  Newport News Point became a fortified Union camp called Camp Butler. The Confederates constructed two defensive lines; one at Young's Mill and the other on the Warwick River.

Newport News was the scene of two pivotal Civil War Battles:

  • The clash of the U.S.S. Monitor and C.S.S. Virginia (formerly the U.S.S. Merrimack) on March 8 & 9, 1862, the first battle between ironclad ships, and
  • The Peninsula Campaign's Warwick-Yorktown Siege between April 5 and May 3, 1862.

Newport News was a quiet, rural place after the Civil War until the 1880s when Collis P. Huntington built a railroad and shipyard.  The shipyard was a district in Warwick County until 1896 when it was chartered as an independent city.

The rapid expansion that followed the creation of the railroad and shipyard allowed Newport News to serve during the Spanish-American War and both world wars as a major port of embarkation and debarkation, dispatching millions of men and tons of supplies to the battlefronts.  The City of Newport News and the City of Warwick consolidated on July 1, 1958, forming the modern City of Newport News.

Historic preservation in Newport News documents both pre-1865 agrarian Warwick County, and the urban center created by Collis P. Huntington.  The preservation of Lee Hall Mansion, Endview Plantation, Dam No.1, and Lee’s Mill is significant when coupled with historic structures remaining from Newport News' first 25 years as a city.  This urban history is epitomized by Hilton Village, North End/Huntington Heights, Lee Hall Depot and the Newsome House. The historic fabric provides valuable insights into modern Newport News.  The maintenance and interpretation of historical structures and sites as well as historical districts enable Newport News to use its rich history as educational, cultural, and tourism assets.