By way of introduction, I am a former resident of Southeastern Virginia, primarily from Hampton/Newport News, although I spent one rather tumultuous year living in Chesapeake or rather Churchland (?), when my family moved in to a just completed home in brand new Dunedin, on Maori Drive. At that point, it was being rapidly filled by many other middle class/white collar families with children of all ages.
My stepfather was a Piping Designer on the Nuclear Submarines at Newport News Shipbuilding, having graduated from their Apprentice School following WWII, and my mother was a teacher at the Virginia State School for the Deaf and Blind at Hampton. I have three much younger siblings, two of whom were in 1st grade, and the youngest not old enough for school yet. The house still smelled of fresh paint, and had that “brand new, just barely finished, workmen out the back door while you move in through the front” smell. I still remember that smell, some 45 years or so later! Even so, many homes had yet to be started in the development, much less finished.
And, if that wasn’t enough “newness” for one year, I also started my Sophomore year at a brand new, still being constructed Western Branch High School! The auditorium wasn’t finished when school opened right after Labor Day - in fact, it wasn’t even done until after Christmas break! There are several reasons why we only stayed for the one year, all of which are too numerous and too personal to address here. Suffice it to say it was quite a roller coaster ride for us all.
While living there, I became familiar with the local area to a point, but we weren’t there long enough for it to become much more than what most military families even experience, in fact, probably less. I heard of Craddock High School of course, and had some vague notion of what the area was about, but wasn’t really into the historical aspects at the time, since I had so many other new things to occupy my attentions!
Now, having read your description of the history of the area, as being one of the first planned communities, plus what I found when I went to the website through the link you provided, it seems that Homer Ferguson did actually get his request, in the form of government planned and funded housing for Shipyard workers during WWI, to the tune of $1.2 million for the U S Shipping Board to use to house the many workers who were being hired by the Shipyard to build the ships for which they had numerous contracts. This took the form of Hilton Village, on Warwick Blvd., or should I say just off of Warwick Blvd in Newport News! They certainly share identical beginnings, and for identical purposes, numerous identical or at least shared features, and without comparing month to month calendars of development right off the bat, certainly seem to share practically identical time frames and futures! The following link will guide anyone who isn’t familiar with this area to a very comprehensive website covering the history of its development, and also the fact that IT is laying claim to the identity of the first planned community in the country!
Now, I’m not here to “stir the pot” as it were, about which one was really first, and so forth, but just to put forward the fact that for nearly a century, your area of Craddock, and mine of Hilton Village , have laid claim to the same title, and barring a minute-by-minute comparison, likely could share it, given the government’s aim was to help establish badly needed housing for essential war workers during an extremely tumultuous time in American history, and world history as well. Utilities were likewise buried, homes had the modern conveniences of the times, including indoor plumbing, with hot and cold running water, electricity, sewers and central heating, electric appliances in kitchens, street lights, sidewalks and curbs, paved streets, a streetcar line which picked up at the entrance to the area and carried passengers all the way downtown to the Shipyard and in the mid day to the stores and city services available, even though local merchants were also established within walking distance. There was a school for the children, a library, a fire department, and other amenities designed to make the area as livable as possible. They even invited in a committee of wives of Shipyard employees to help decide upon the style of architecture which would be employed, the floorplans, and the features the homes would provide. It too remained unfinished by the end of the War, but was completed shortly after, in a somewhat smaller size than originally planned, and In 1921, Hilton Village was purchased from the United States Shipping Board by Henry E. Huntington, chairman of the board at Newport News Shipbuilding. He formed the Newport News Land Company, which ran Hilton as an adjunct of the company. In 1922, many of the houses, which had previously all been rentals, were put up for private sale, and Hilton Village gradually became a community of homeowners.
