DuPont Nemours company announced that it would develop a large black powder and shell-loading plant facility six miles northeast of Williamsburg[1] in York County.
At its peak, Penniman had housing for 15,000, and included dormitories, a store, a post office, bank, police station, church, YWCA, YMCA, Mess Halls canteen, and a hospital.
The York County Chapter of the American Red Cross began its initial activities in support of the Dupont Factory and residents of Penniman.
Farmers were greatly handicapped in putting in their crops owing to the exodus of farm labor to the munition plants.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) built a spur track on the Peninsula Subdivision from a point about 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Williamsburg (mp 33) to the York River site.
In July 1916, the Williamsburg Chamber of Commerce requested the C&O establish passenger train service between the city and Penniman.
During World War II, in 1942, the U.S. Navy condemned more than 3,000 acres (12 km2) along the York River to establish Cheatham Annex.
Cheatham Annex was commissioned in June 1943 as a satellite unit of the Naval Supply Depot in Norfolk, Virginia to provide bulk storage facilities in the Hampton Roads area.
[5][6] As of 2007, the remaining portion of the site of the lost town of Penniman on the Cheatham Annex property is bordered to the northwest by Camp Peary, which is reportedly a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) training facility often referred as "The Farm."
In circumstances similar to the acquisition of Penniman, the government takeover of the land into a military facility consumed two other towns, Magruder, and Bigler's Mill.
Near Fort Magruder, the centerpiece of the Williamsburg Line of defensive works during the American Civil War, Penniman Road forms a border of James City and York counties, crossing the much newer Merrimack Trail as it winds its way into the city limits of Williamsburg, ending near Second Street and Page Street.