Walter A. Post (died February 12, 1912) was the first

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Newport News, Virginia 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 ...

. He was born in Kingston, New York on the 7th of January, 1857, and studied as a civil engineer. He was sent to Newport News by his brother-in-law, Eugene White of Brooklyn, who had contracted with railroad magnate

Collis P. Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who invested ...

to build a

cargo terminal A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...

at the end of the newly built eastern terminus of the

Chesapeake & Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond to ...

on the

Virginia Peninsula The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the ''Lower Peninsula'' to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the ...

, in 1880. When Newport News was chartered as an

independent city An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province). Historical precursors In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...

in 1896, Post was chosen to serve as acting mayor until the city's first municipal elections could be held. On July 1 of that year, he was elected. Post chose to serve only one term as mayor, stepping down in 1898. In 1911, he assumed the presidency of

Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is the largest industrial employer in Virginia, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy ...

. He would hold that office until his death in 1912. The newspapers of the day attributed his death to "overwork", and heart failure. His entire time in Newport News was spent serving as a kind of lieutenant for Huntington, who essentially built the city of Newport News to serve his railroad. ''Post Street'' in the

Hilton Village Hilton Village is a planned English-village-style neighborhood in Newport News, Virginia. Recognized as a pioneering development in urban planning, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood was built between 1918 ...

historic district in Newport News is named after Post.

References

Mayors of Newport News, Virginia 1912 deaths {{Virginia-mayor-stub