Hopewell is an independent city surrounded by Prince George County and the Appomattox River in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States.

[4] The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Hopewell with Prince George County for statistical purposes.

During the American Civil War, Union General Ulysses S. Grant used City Point as his headquarters during the Siege of Petersburg in 1864 and 1865.

Grant's headquarters, which President Lincoln visited, were located at Appomattox Manor, one of the three plantations of Richard Eppes, who cultivated wheat and other grains and held 130 slaves at the beginning of the war.

Immigrants from Bohemia (now the western lands of the Czech Republic),[8] Italy, and Greece[9] populated the city, working in factories and opening small businesses.

As was the case in most southern cities, African Americans in Hopewell were subject to Jim Crow segregation until the success of the Civil Rights Movement.

Like many cities, Hopewell embarked on an urban renewal plan in the 1960s in an attempt to revitalize its downtown retail area.

The plan was a failure because many of the retail businesses that had been located downtown moved elsewhere to new shopping centers being developed outside the city limits in Petersburg, Chester, and Prince George County.

With the exception of a new branch bank and a Hardee's fast food restaurant constructed in the late 1970s, the former downtown area that was razed for redevelopment remained a vast gravel parking lot for decades.

The library has a cyber cafe, extensive YA and children's collections, and a replica of the historic, 1600s-era frigate ship, Hopewell, installed as a centerpiece.

Performers there include The Temptations, The Four Tops, Vince Gill, Travis Tritt, Clint Black, Amy Grant, Average White Band, Vanilla Ice, The Commodores, Pure Prairie League, Delbert McClinton, and many more.

New plantings and street beautification projects have been put into place, to attract more businesses and shoppers to the East Broadway area.

[16] Although closely related to the toxic pesticide DDT, which was banned in the U.S. in 1972 because of the dangers it presents to humans and wildlife, Kepone was not federally regulated until after the Hopewell disaster, in which 29 factory workers were hospitalized with various ailments.

[16] In 1975, the state health department shut down the facility, and fishing in the James River from Richmond to the Chesapeake Bay was banned due to contamination concerns.

[15] In 2019, after years of planning, the city opened a "Riverwalk" boardwalk, seeking to use scenic views and water access as part of overall economic redevelopment efforts.

The Federal Correctional Complex, Petersburg (FCC Petersburg), two federal prisons which house 3400 inmates, are located just outside the Hopewell city limits, in Prince George County[18][19] In 1977, Hopewell again made the national news due to another accident involving a drawbridge when the tanker S.S. Marine Floridian outbound under the command of a James River pilot suffered a steering malfunction just after dawn on February 24 that caused it to veer out of the channel and hit the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge just east of town.

In 1983, Hopewell again received negative publicity from the national news media when it was discovered that Evelyn Rust Wells, an elderly woman, had been held captive and terrorized in her home in the City Point section.

[20] Although still an important industrial city, Hopewell has struggled with transitions through loss of jobs due to plant closures, changes in residential housing patterns, and the costs of environmental clean-up.

Much of its middle-class population moved to neighboring Prince George and Chesterfield Counties for newer housing during the suburban expansion of the 1960s and 1970s.

The city's housing stock is dominated by relatively small homes with a significant percentage being offered as rental properties.

There was no loss of life due to the accident but shortly after the explosion Osage BioEnergy, the owners of the $150 million facility, announced that the plant was for sale.

[24] In 2015 the troubled ethanol plant closed again for a second time after less than a year in operation with its owners citing a lack of profitability as the reason for the shutdown.

HPC Media also published the News-Patriot newspaper covering Colonial Heights and communities in Southeastern Chesterfield County.