, the only original country house still standing on Naval Weapons Station Yorktown The site of NWS Yorktown is rich in
colonial era (1607–1776) history, as well as that of the
American Civil War (1861–1865). The station is located on the York River, in an area that was an early settlement of
English colonists in Virginia. They displaced the
Algonquian-speaking
Kiskiack and other
American Indian tribes of the
Powhatan Confederacy, who historically inhabited the area. The colonial infantry of the
American Revolutionary War and forces of the Civil War slogged along the Old Williamsburg Road that today runs through the station.
Kiskiack (Lee House) The oldest structure at the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station is the brick "
Kiskiack (Lee House)", built as a private residence in the late 17th century by English immigrant Henry Lee or his near descendants.
Bellfield / E.D. Plantation Naval Weapons Station Yorktown is also the location of most of the historic
Bellfield Plantation (E.D. Plantation) land, located on the east side of Felgate's Creek. The land was originally granted in 1630 to
John West (governor) and held through from 1650 till 1769 by decedents of
Edward Digges. Bellfield continued as an agricultural operation until August 7, 1918 when the Navy purchased the land to establish the mine depot.
20th Century Around 1914, the
DuPont Company acquired a site on the banks of the
York River and built a
dynamite plant, which came to be known as
Penniman. Before DuPont production started, the Navy acquired the site in August 1918 by presidential proclamation in response to the outbreak of
World War I in Europe. This eventually developed as the largest naval installation in the world. The Navy acquired the property to establish the
Navy Mine Depot, Yorktown at this site. The Navy planned to lay the
North Sea Mine Barrage to protect commercial shipping and required an Atlantic Seaboard plant to support the effort. Here the
mines would be stored, assembled, loaded, tested and issued to the Service. A related station was required for the training of personnel to adjust and operate the mines. The Navy selected the DuPont site, about of area near Yorktown, Virginia, as the best location on the East Coast for its mine activities. The
Bureau of Ordnance of the Navy Department assumed possession one month later. Yorktown was near the
Navy Operating Base at Hampton Roads, the
Norfolk Navy Yard, and the Fuel Bases of the
Fifth Naval District. It had excellent transportation access, with the main lines of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway forming one of the boundaries of the Depot, and of waterfront on the navigable York River. Ocean-going vessels of largest dimension and deepest draft could navigate there. To make way for the new Mine Depot, the government acquired by
eminent domain the property of many landowners along the former Yorktown-Williamsburg Road in nearby
Lackey, Virginia. Both landowners and tenants in this area were primarily African American. (Since the late 19th century, this area had been locally known as "the Reservation".) Assisted by self-educated farmer
John Tack Roberts (born 1860), many of the displaced residents of Lackey negotiated better financial compensation for their properties. Many relocated to the community of
Grove in nearby
James City County. Another small community, also named Lackey, was later developed along the Yorktown Road a few miles away. As many as 10,000 personnel worked at the Naval facility during
World War I. Many workers lived in the town of
Penniman. After World War I and the Navy's shift away from mines, this community also vanished as workers moved away.
Halstead's Point, another community of workers on the station, also declined and disappeared. It was located near the present main gate off
State Route 143. ==Current use==