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Events that helped shaped the neighborhood
1800s - 1890s
1813 During the War of 1812 British forces landed near Indian River Creek in Wythe and then proceeded to the town of Hampton where they terrorized its residents for several days.
1835 Regularly scheduled steamboat service operated between Hampton and Norfolk.
1861 Hampton citizens ratified the vote to secede from the Union.
1861 Local Confederate troops burned the town of Hampton to keep Federal forces from confiscating buildings there.
1862 Confederate Merrimack and Union Monitor ironclads battled in the Hampton Roads off Olde Wythe’s shores.
1868 Union General Samuel C. Armstrong opened Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, an early school for black freemen which later became Hampton University.
1880 Newport News Point in Elizabeth City County was selected to be the eastern terminus for the Chesapeake and Ohio [C & O] railroad.
1882 After the C & O line was completed from Richmond to Newport News, branch tracks were built to Hampton and Phoebus.
1882 The Virginia General Assembly transferred property at Newport News Point from Elizabeth City County to Warwick County in order to bring about the establishment of the new city of Newport News.
1886 The Chesapeake Dry Dock and Construction Company, predecessor of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company and later Northrop Grumman, began to build and repair seagoing boats.
1888 The first trolley car route in the area ran between the town of Hampton and Old Point Comfort.
1888 The Newport News Cemetery Company began its Greenlawn Cemetery on land near the headwaters of Salters Creek in Wythe.
1891 Third Street [Kecoughtan Rd], a mostly dirt road, ran from Salters Creek to the middle of what became Catalpa Avenue.
1892 The first electric streetcar operated between Newport News and Hampton on tracks running along present-day Victoria Boulevard.
1893 The Hampton Roads Golf and Country Club extended from Ammonate Avenue [Hampton Roads Ave.] to East Avenue.
1895 The Hebrew Cemetery, whose entrance is now on Kecoughtan Road, was established by the Adath Jeshurun congregation of Newport News.
1895 Telephone service was available in Hampton and parts of Wythe.
1896 The Daily Press, the oldest local newspaper, began with four hand-set pages.
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