Building Blocks for the Future
The Olde Wythe neighborhood was once part of Elizabeth City County, one of the four original Corporations of the London Company's Virginia colony. The county is now classified as "extinct," because its citizens voted to consolidate with the county seat, Hampton, and the town of Phoebus in 1952 to form the mostly rural 57 square mile City of Hampton.
At first called Kikotan (Kecoughtan), the name of the Indian tribe already here, the name was changed to Elizabeth City in 1620 in honor of Elizabeth, daughter of England's James I. The king revoked the company charter and took control of the Virginia colony in 1634, dividing it into eight administrative shires, later called counties. Elizabeth City County included all of present-day Hampton, parts of Newport News along the James River, and shore settlements on southside Hampton Roads.
In 1882 the Virginia General Assembly removed Newport News Point from Elizabeth City County and placed it within Warwick County in order to accommodate the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway terminus needs. Interestingly, a new town called Kecoughtan was part of Elizabeth City County from 1916-1926. It included several blocks near the eastern shore of Salter's Creek. In 1926 the town was annexed by Newport News, thus pushing Elizabeth City's boundary back to Pear Avenue.
A well-known Elizabeth City County plantation whose lands encompassed a large part of Olde Wythe was Ceeley's, named for Thomas Ceeley who bought the tract in 1625. Today's Celey Street is near the road that connected Ceeley's to Hampton.
Major William Wilson, a successful Hampton merchant, bought Ceeley's in 1695 and in 1706 built a handsome brick, two-story house overlooking the Hampton Roads. It was located near present-day Riverside Rehabilitation Center on Chesapeake Avenue. Major Wilson expanded his property to 2,000 acres, reaching as far east as Curle's (Robinson) Creek. The Wilson's daughter, Mary, married Colonel Wilson Miles Cary, thus linking the properties of the two prestigious families. Ceeley's was the birthplace for Sally Cary Fairfax, a young woman George Washington admired greatly.
At the time of the Civil War, Ceeley's was owned by William S. Smith. He and his family fled the area after Union troops seized their property. During their absence, the house caught fire and burned. After the war Mary Marie Blackmore bought 132 acres of the tract from the Smith family and built a home on the original 1706 foundation. In 1892 most of Ceeley's was subdivided into streets and lots by a local land development company. The Blackmore house eventually became apartments that were demolished in the 1960s.
Bringing History to LifeFor more neighborhood information visit: www.oldewythe.com
For more visitor information visit: www.VisitHampton.com
In partnership with Virginia Civil War Trails, www.civilwartrails.org
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