I'm a native, and yet I'd never heard the story of Virginia's own ghost town. EVER.

In 1916, DuPont opened a munitions plant in Penniman, Virginia (near Williamsburg), and paid very good wages. In short order, about 20,000 to 30,000 people had poured into the area looking for work.

DuPont built about 300 houses along the York River for the new workers. The houses were DuPont's own designs. DuPont had also done this at Ramsay, MT, Dupont, WA, Old Hickory, TN, Hopewell, VA and Carney's Point, NJ.

After the armistice was signed (November 11, 1918), they decided to dismantle Penniman and close the plant.

After all, President Woodrow Wilson had promised us that The Great War would be the "War to end all Wars" and with the world's last-ever war fought, who'd ever need to build bombs again?

However, just as the war ended, the Spanish Influenza went through Penniman killing hundreds of people. They couldn't make coffins fast enough, so they started stacking the bodies on the back of trucks and hauling them out for burial.

So, by the early 1920s, the flu was over the Penniman was history and they loaded up the houses from Penniman and PUT THEM ON BARGES and moved them Norfolk (where I live) and other areas.

I've spent one year researching this little bit of Norfolk history, and I find it fascinating! Here are a few photos.

Here are the houses being shipped by barge:

Another photo of the houses that came into Norfolk by barge:

Here's a picture of the houses as they stood in Penniman (about 1920).

Here's an original picture of the house that Dupont offered:

And here it is today, in Norfolk. We have more than 50 of these houses, but their origins and history were long forgotten - sadly.

And here's a photo of Penniman in its hey day:

I love history. :)

Today, the old Penniman site is now Cheatham Annex, a Navy facility. Of those 300 houses built at Penniman, all that's left is ONE house. It looks out over the York River. That one house is the last remnant of Penniman.

Rose

Here is a link that might be useful: More on Penniman - Virginia's own Ghost Town