The neighborhood was built between 1918 and 1921 in response to the need for housing during World War I for employees of Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company.

Immediately after his appearance, the United States Shipping Board was provided funding of $1.2 million and authorization to create a comprehensive emergency housing program.

About three miles (5 km) north of the Newport News city limits, in Warwick County, Virginia, land known locally as the "Darling Tract" was purchased.

This consisted of about 200 acres (0.8 km2) of woodlands and, located on a bluff overlooking the James River, the pre-Civil War homestead was named "Hilton".

Based on their input, 14 house plans were designed for the projected 500 English-village-style homes.The location of the neighborhood was several miles away from the urbanized areas of Newport News.

[5] Hilton was modeled after an early-English village, a decision which was probably influenced by the British Garden city movement in vogue at the time.

Shipping Board hired one of the finest urban planners of the era, Henry Vincent Hubbard of Harvard University.

Recognized as a pioneering development in the area of urban planning, Hilton Village was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

[1] The text of the historical marker that appears on Warwick Boulevard in Hilton Village reads as follows: The nation's first Federal War Housing project, this planned community was sponsored by the U. S. Shipping Board and the Newport News Shipyard on the site of J. Pembroke Jones' Warwick County farm "Hilton".

Street names in the 100-acre (0.40 km2) tract of former pine woods containing 500 English village-type houses honor government and shipyard officials.