Wythe is a
neighborhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
in
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton () is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the List ...
, along the water's edge of
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...
, at the end of
Virginia's Lower Peninsula. It is named after one of the signers of the
United States Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ...
,
George Wythe
George Wythe (; December 3, 1726 – June 8, 1806) was an American academic, scholar and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from ...
. The oldest historic portion of the Wythe neighborhood became known as
Olde Wythe and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
When it was developed in the first half of the 20th century, Wythe was part of rural
Elizabeth City County
Elizabeth City County was a county in southeastern Virginia from 1634 until 1952 when it was merged into the city of Hampton. Originally created in 1634 as Elizabeth River Shire, it was one of eight shires created in the Virginia Colony by orde ...
, one of the first eight colonial Virginia counties, the
county seat
A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...
was Hampton. Settled in 1610, Hampton is the oldest continuously inhabited English-speaking city in the United States. In 1952, all of Elizabeth City County merged with Hampton.
Wythe District
The name "Wythe" was first applied to a portion of Elizabeth City County after the Civil War when the Virginia Constitution of 1869 required counties to be divided into townships, rather than districts as formerly. Elizabeth City's three townships were named Wythe, Chesapeake, and Southfield. The Wythe Township was the western portion of the county and included George Wythe's birthplace,
Chesterville, on the Northwest Branch of Back River. In 1874 Virginia replaced townships with magisterial districts requiring at least three in each county. The term "magisterial district" was later shortened to "district." Elizabeth City was one of Virginia's smallest counties thus when it became legal to do so the number of districts was reduced from three to two. The Southfield district was eliminated, leaving Wythe and Chesapeake. All of the county west of King Street outside the town of Hampton was the Wythe district. The Hampton Police Department still divides the city into two patrol districts named Wythe and Chesapeake. "Wythe Sector" includes all of the city west of La Salle Avenue.
Wythe Neighborhood
In the first half of the twentieth-century "Wythe" came to refer to only the southern portion of the Wythe District, which because of its proximity to Newport News, gradually became the most populated portion of Wythe District. The George Wythe Elementary School opened here at the corner of Clairmont Ave. and Kecoughtan Road in 1909. In the 1930s the Wythe Shopping Center and Wythe Place and Wythe Crescent subdivisions were developed about a half mile east toward Hampton on Kecoughtan Road. It was in this period that Wythe came to refer specifically to the neighborhood along Kecoughtan Road east of the town of
Kecoughtan In the seventeenth century, Kecoughtan was the name of the settlement now known as Hampton, Virginia, In the early twentieth century, it was also the name of a town nearby in Elizabeth City County. It was annexed into the City of Newport News in ...
(which was annexed into
Newport News
Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...
in 1927) and stretching westward toward LaSalle Avenue and Church Creek.
The
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
Battle of the Ironclads happened right off Wythe's shores. Newport News railroads and shipyard and Hampton seafood industries and military installations fueled growth in the Lower Peninsula from 1880 through World War II. Residential development began in Wythe in the 20th century with the streetcar and continued through the social and business heyday of the 1950s. Today it is a neighborhood of charming architecture, lovely waterside views, and a promising future as new generations take up the challenge of preserving a rich heritage.
Wythe Presbyterian Church is the oldest congregation founded in Wythe and still remaining there. Many other including Aldersgate United Methodist, Wythe Parkway Baptist, and Emmanuel Lutheran Church have moved or closed. Their buildings are now used used by other churches.
In 1993 the section of Wythe between Kecoughtan Road and Chesapeake Avenue. created a private neighborhood association called
Olde Wythe. The
Olde Wythe Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
References
External links
Olde Wythe Neighborhood Association (Facebook)
Neighborhoods in Hampton, Virginia
{{HamptonVA-geo-stub