Grove, Virginia
Grove is bordered by the James River and separated from the Newport News city limits near Lee Hall by Skiffe's Creek.
Historic places in Grove related to Virginia colonial past include the archaeological site of Wolstenholme Towne, the administrative center of Martin's Hundred.
In part this was due to attracting hundreds of displaced people, mostly African American, who were uprooted by federal land acquisition for major waterfront military installations in nearby James City and York counties.
Navy bases established were the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, the Cheatham Annex supply complex, and Camp Peary.
The latter also constitutes the eastern border of Grove (and the county), which adjoins the Lee Hall area of the independent city of Newport News.
Prior to the arrival of Spanish and English settlers in the 16th and 17th centuries, they were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, although more complex civilizations arose among the Mississippian culture.
A capital of this confederacy, Werowocomoco, was located near the north bank of the York River in present-day Gloucester County, about 15 miles (24 km) as the crow flies from Grove.
Over the decades, white indentured servant women, African men, and few Indians married and created free mixed-race populations before the American Revolution.
The proprietary plantation of over 20,000 acres (80 km2) was an enterprise of the Martin's Hundred Society, a London-based investment group operating under the auspices of the Virginia Company of London.
Most of the population of Wolstenholme Towne was killed in the Indian massacre of 1622, one of the largest incidents of loss of life by Virginia settlers during the colonial years.
The children and their descendants were free because they had the status of the white mother, under the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, which Virginia had adopted into law in 1662.
It was formed by freedmen after the Civil War and named after nearby Grove Creek, which drains into the James River about 6 miles (9.7 km) east (downstream) of Jamestown.
In 1881 the C&O's Peninsula Extension was built through the area from its previous eastern terminus in Richmond to reach the coal piers and the new city of Newport News at the southeastern tip of Warwick County.
Local stations were established in James City County along the new railroad at Diascund, Toano, Vaiden's Siding (Norge), Kelton (Lightfoot) Ewell, Williamsburg, and Grove.
It received African-American residents displaced by government land acquisition for two large military reservations established by the U.S. Navy in adjacent York County.
As the United States became involved in World War I in 1917, the U.S. Navy determined to establish a supply and munitions base near Yorktown adjacent to the York River.
Under Executive Order of President Woodrow Wilson, the US Navy took a sizable piece of land to create the needed military base, initially known as a mine depot.
The largest portion chose nearby James City County, where a substantial number relocated to Grove, which was south of the Navy land.
A few miles upstream, also along the James River, a satellite facility, Camp Wallace, was established in 1918 as the Upper Firing Range for artillery training.
During World War II, when Virginia still had racial segregation laws, many black and other minority U.S. Army personnel stationed at Fort Eustis were restricted to living in separate housing in the Grove Community.
In 1971, the U.S. Army agreed to a land swap with Anheuser-Busch in return for a larger parcel located directly across Skiffe's Creek from Fort Eustis (adjacent to the southeastern edge of the Greenmount Industrial Park).
Because Grove was unincorporated and had a relatively small minority population at a time when blacks had been disenfranchised by the turn of the century Virginia constitution and discriminatory practices in voter registration, they had no say over routing of new highways.
Warwick County treasurer and civic leader Simon Curtis held a ceremony at the Lee Hall Depot in 1924 to celebrate the completion of first hard-surfaced roadway (concrete) between Newport News and Williamsburg.
Like Grove, Lackey, and other small post-Civil War communities in northern York County, Magruder's residents were mostly African American.
Although access to the base at Camp Peary is highly restricted, families and others from the church may gain permission to enter to visit and tend to the old cemetery.
Two larger mobile home developments feature modern amenities, such as underground wiring, curbs and gutters, paved driveways, street lighting, and community playgrounds.
Officials wanted to provide better access to Interstate 64 from the industrial sites in Grove, which generate a considerable volume of truck traffic, and reduce the same on the existing roadway.
Access for the industrial traffic to I-64 requires a drive of about 4 miles (6.4 km) in either direction on two-lane sections of U.S. 60 at non-highway speeds through residential areas.
A similar roads issue was earlier visited in the 1930s, when the current parallel State Route 143 (Merrimack Trail) was built as part of a four-laned through-route alternative to U.S. 60 for increasing volumes of east-west through traffic in the area.
It continues east to serve the Wal-Mart distribution center, a Haynes furniture warehouse in the growing Green Mount industrial park, and provides an hourly connection seven days a week to the massive Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) system at the western edge of Newport News at Lee Hall.
