Demographics/Quick Facts
Population 195,347
53.50% White
39.07% African American
2.33% Asian
5.10 Other
Median Age: 32 years
Median Household Income: $36,597
Land 68.3 sq mi

Newport News is an independent city on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending to its mouth at Hampton Roads.

With a population over 180,000 people, the city’s major industries are Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, which is now owned by Northrop Grumman. Miles of the waterfront can be seen by automobiles crossing the James River Bridge and Monitor- Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel. Recovered artifacts from the USS Monitor are displayed at the Mariners’ Museum, and American Civil War battle sites near historic Lee Hall and several plantations have been protected along the roads leading to Yorktown and Williamsburg of the Historic Triangle.

Newport News, known traditionally as a blue-collar industrial city, is currently undergoing dramatic changes to accommodate its growing affluence and relative significance as a major metropolitan nexus in the Hampton Roads region. The city’s traditional downtown, located on the James River waterfront, is home to, almost exclusively, Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard and municipal offices. While the downtown area has generally remained the only true area of the city that offered genuine urban layout, that is changing with the introduction of a number of successful New Urbanism projects in the city such as Port Warwick, named after the fictional city in William Styron’s novel, Lie Down in Darkness. Oyster Point City Center, located near Port Warwick in the thriving Oyster Point Retail/Central Business District (often cited as the busiest in Hampton Roads), has been touted as the new “downtown” because of its new geographic centrality on the Virginia Peninsula, its proximity to the retail/business nucleus of the city, etc.

One large and relatively new planned community is Kiln Creek, which is one of the upper scale areas of Newport News. With homes costing from $200,000 to $1.2 million, Kiln Creek offers a golf course among its amenities, while the average home cost in Newport News is $125,000. Currently under planning stages are a number of other New Urbanism projects, including “Asheton,” a mega-development at the north end of the city bordering the Historic Triangle of Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown. Asheton is designed to compliment the historic attraction of the region. There are also plans to develop a light rail line on the Peninsula, largely in Newport News, as well as continue the gradual urbanization of the city to transform it from its currently suburban layout into a more cohesive, attractive, and enticing destination.

History
Origins of the city’s name are uncertain, but references to its existence is found as early as 1619. The name may commemorate English mariner Capt. Christopher Newport who made five voyages to Virginia between 1607 and 1619. Capt. Newport was among the most important men connected with the permanent settling of Virginia, having been “in sole charge and command” of the small squadron of three ships making the historic voyage which landed at Jamestown in 1607.

One popular explanation of the city’s name holds that when the first Jamestown colonists set out to return to England after the Starving Time of 1610, they encountered Captain Christopher Newport’s ship in the James River off Mulberry Island (now Fort Eustis). From Capt. Newport, they learned it was not necessary to abandon Jamestown, as reinforcements of men and supplies had arrived – thus the city was named for “Newport’s good news.”

Numerous early documents and maps verify the city’s name was formerly recorded as “Newport’s News” and “Newportes News.” The change to “Newport News” may have resulted from language usage. In 1851 “New Port News” was sanctioned as the name of the first post office by the Post Office Department, and in 1866 the department approved the name as “Newport News.” No matter how the city came by its name, seafarers played an integral role in founding Newport News.

With its strategic port and ability to meet the nation’s need for construction of naval ships, Newport News faced inevitable overcrowding with the onset of World War I. The small city was hemmed-in by several surrounding features – army camps of Camp Morrison, Camp Stuart, Camp Hill, Camp Eustis; the C&O Railroad; the shipyard, and the James River. Shipyard workers, migrating from rural Virginia and North Carolina, packed the city’s rooming houses and created a real estate boom. The War Shipping Board built the nation’s first planned town, Hilton Village, at a cost of $5 million for 500 houses, nearly all of which continue to be occupied. The government also built the Shipyard Apartments between 46^th to 50th Streets on the James. The shipyard itself provided barracks, tent colonies, and a few houses.

The effects of the Second World War were not as crushing to the city as those of the first. Still, ship construction was stepped up and temporary housing, including Copeland Park, was built to accommodate a new round of shipyard workers. A 24-hour work schedule pumped out hundreds of ships both in Newport News and its subsidiary, North Carolina Shipbuilding, at Wilmington, North Carolina. Between the two shipyards, a total of 185 warships and 243 merchant ships were built, including the Essex and Midway class aircraft carriers built at Newport News.

In 1950 voters rejected a proposal to unify the peninsula’s five communities. The City of Hampton held out. But 1952 saw change when neighboring Warwick County was absorbed and became the City of Warwick. Neighboring Elizabeth City County did the same, creating the City of Hampton.

In Virginia, city and county governments are separate. A city may annex part of a county if its need for the area can be successfully defended in the courts. Annexation is fairly common. Warwick incorporated as a city to escape annexation by Newport News, among other reasons. But with the growth of both cities, the efficiency of a single government was advocated and discussions of merging Warwick and Newport News ensued. The tiny city of Newport News had reached a population of 45,000 with nowhere to grow, while the larger Warwick held a land mass of 61.2 square miles and a population of 75,000. On July 1 1958, the new City of Newport News was created through the consolidation of the two cities. The name of Newport News was kept.

Downtown Newport News, the hub of commerce, began to see its demise as early as the 1930’s, but the mass exodus of retailers was seen in 1967 when the first indoor shopping mall opened in Hampton. The increased threat of racial riots, with black neighborhoods being only blocks away from the mainly white shopping district, along with the arrival of “retail chain” stores, made “suburban” shopping more appealing. Climate-controlled shopping under one roof also appealed to shoppers. Downtown mainstays such as Leggett, Nachman’s, LaVogue, Sears, Woolworth, Grants and Phillip Levy closed, reopening in suburban Hampton and Newport News. Downtown storefronts were boarded and sat vacant until converted to small factories and shipyard offices or condemned and replaced with shipyard parking and fast food chains. The hustle and bustle business district of department stores, offices, bar, theaters and specialty shops lining Washington Avenue for over 40 years became a ghost town almost overnight. As downtown’s businesses left, so did its residents.

Newport News is located on one of the world’s greatest natural harbors and is home to one of the largest military complexes in the world, Ft. Eustis Transportation Center. Newport News, long known as one of the world’s major shipbuilders through Newport News Shipbuilding which employs 18,000, is emerging into a high-tech future. Attesting to the city’s dynamic future are such attractions as the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, a world-class nuclear research and education facility; the Mariner’s Museum, one of the world’s largest maritime history museums; and the Canon Copier Company’s Virginia operations, now a major employer in the region.