Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

Due to the light sensitivity of these blueprint sheets, researchers are asked to use extreme caution and limit their exposure to light. See Archives Research Services Staff for assistance.

Preferred Citation

Francis Y. Joannes. Homes for the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Architectural drawings, Newport News, 1918. Accession 42229. Business records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Elizabeth Broudy, Hampton, Virginia, 5 October 2005.

Biographical/Historical Information

Hilton Village, the first government-built housing development in the United States, was born out of a need for worker housing in the shipbuilding industry. During World War I, a severe lack of housing prevented companies such as the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company from filling the demand for American ships from European allies. Armed with a thorough economic study of the total cost, Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company president, Homer L. Ferguson, went before the Emergency Fleet Corporation of the United States Shipping Board with a proposition. If the government would finance houses for shipyard workers, the shipyard would purchase the land, supervise the building, and rent or sell the houses to the workers under the terms agreed upon by the government. The government agreed to finance the $1.2 million project.

Influenced by the English garden cities movement, the development featured modest but well-built homes in the cottage style. Landscape architect Henry Vincent Hubbard and architect Francis Y. Joannes were responsible for the layout and design. Following the war, in 1921, the Shipping Board offered the village for sale at public auction. Henry E. Huntington, chairman of the shipyard, purchased Hilton Village and held it under the auspices of the Newport News Land Company. By 1922, the shipyard began to sell the homes to individuals. Due to the armistice, the full elaboration of the Hilton Village plan was never realized. In 1969, the village was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1972 the Hilton Village Architectural Review Board was created by the General Assembly. The board reviews building permits and maintains a guide for homeowners.

Francis Yates Joannes (1876-1952) was a student of the Art Institute and Armour Institute of Chicago, a graduate of Cornell University, and received his professional training at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris (1904).

Scope and Content

This accession consists of the surviving record set of architectural drawings for the construction of Hilton Village in Newport News, Virginia. The drawings include elevations, floor plans, and details for thirty-five detatched or semi-detached residences and ten row house units. In addition, the set includes drawings for outhouses and a combination booster/railroad station. The latter was never constructed.

The verso of each sheet includes the transcribed signatures of representatives from the Shipbuilding Realty Corporation; Mellon-Stuart Co., general contractor; Noland-Clifford Co., Inc., plumbing sub- contractor; and Bluementhal-Kahn Electric Co., electrical sub-contractor.

Arrangement

Arranged by drawing number.