The Jamestown Exposition for the 300th anniversary of the 1607 founding of Jamestown was held at Sewell’s Point in a rural section of Norfolk County in 1907.
President Theodore Roosevelt arrived by water in the harbor of Hampton Roads, as did other notable persons such as Mark Twain and Henry Huttleston Rogers, who both arrived aboard the latter’s steam yacht Kanawha. A major naval display was featured, and the U.S. Great White Fleet made an appearance. The leaders of the U.S. Navy apparently did not fail to note the ideal harbor conditions, as was later proved.
Beginning in 1917, as the United States became involved in World War I under President Woodrow Wilson, formerly rural Sewell’s Point became the site of what grew to become the largest Naval Base in the world which was established by the United States Navy and is now known as the Naval Station Norfolk.
Twice in the 20th century, inhabitants mostly African American were displaced when land along the northern side of the Peninsula primarily in York County west of Yorktown was taken in large tracts for military use during World War I and World War II, creating the present-day U.S. Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, which includes Cheatham Annex, and a former Seabee base which became Camp Peary.
Communities including “the Reservation”, Halstead’s Point, Penniman, Bigler’s Mill, and Magruder were all lost and absorbed into the large military bases.
Although some left the area entirely, many of the displaced families chose to relocate nearby to Grove, an unincorporated town in southeastern James City County where many generations of some of those families now reside. From a population estimated at only 37 in 1895, Grove had grown to an estimated 1,100 families by the end of the 20th century. (To its north, Grove actually borders the Naval Weapons Station property and on its extreme east, a portion of the U.S. Army’s land at Fort Eustis extends across Skiffe’s Creek, although there is no direct access to either base).
CONTRACTOR NOTICES
Congratulations to Horizon Grounds Management! They have won our 2021 landscaping contract and will start maintaining our property on April 1st! A gracious thank you goes out to the years of service we received from Kelvin and his team at B&B.
Pool restrooms and bar areas at the West pool are being rebuilt by Rocky’s Handyman Services.
Please expect minimal contractor activity on property as we ramp-up towards the Modernization Project. This is in an effort to conserve funds and to ensure the strongest financial position possible ahead of the project.
JOHN CANDELORA III
3061 Brickhouse Court, Suite 109
Virginia Beach, VA 23452
757.333.7675 8.30-5p M-F