[peacock prose] Originally laid out in 1888 by local entrepreneur James S. Darling as a complement to his newly constructed electric railway, the area's first house was erected prior to 1895 and the development was virtually complete by the second decade of this century.

Since the houses in the area were constructed in consecutively popular modes (i.e. Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and American Foursquare) during an era of aggressive eclecticism, the district's architectural cohesiveness is established through use of common building materials, similarity of scale among structures, and mutually sympathetic exterior color schemes.

These dwellings are a testament[peacock prose] to early 20th-century efforts to improve the social and economic status of Blacks and Native Americans by means of a liberal education and training in the manual arts.

[3] James S. Darling was an entrepreneur from New York who fortuitously arrived in Hampton in 1866 with a schooner carrying a cargo of lumber.

Victoria Boulevard was located adjacent to the railway at a critical point where the track turned west to Newport News.

Census data, land tax records, and city directories indicate that this area was generally inhabited by professionals, successful merchants, ship pilots, and trawler owners, as well as the occasional capitalist.

Typically, Queen Anne facades featured elegant combinations of weatherboard, shingles, half-timbering, large areas of casement windows and chimneys laid in decorative patterns.

The goal in the design of the Queen Anne house appeared to be historical reminiscences and not references to specific buildings, as an expression of middle class financial comfort.

In addition popular works such as Joy Wheeler Dow's American Renaissance (1904) provided models for the proper design of such structures.

Of note also is the Georgian Revival variant of this mode, an example of which is 11 Cedar Point, built in 1927 by Frank Darling for his son J.S.

This was a mode aimed at the general benefit of the masses; a straightforward, plain, yet dignified style characterized by simple rectilinear outlines and using only one or two materials for the facades.

Three of the American Foursquares on Victoria Boulevard can be safely attributed to the hands of students of the Hampton Institute Trade School (4404, 4406, 4612).

This important component of the institute was the vehicle by which Major Armstrong sought to provide social betterment for Blacks and Native Americans through their instruction in the manual arts, giving them the necessary skills to ply a trade.