Old Dominion Land Company Records

In 1869, Collis P. Huntington and a number of others formed a syndicate to purchase controlling interest in the Chespeake & Ohio (C&O) Railroad; they soon began looking for an Atlantic terminus for the railroad. Tradition has it that Huntignton had first visited the small village of Newport News in 1837 when he was a traveling salesman. As early as 1870, agents began to quietly purchase land between Richmond and Newport News. They negotiated with local residents or bought auctioned land in James City, York, Warwick, and Elizabeth City Counties. In 1872, the decision was made to locate the Atlantic terminus of the C&O Railroad in Newport News. On October 19, 1880, the Old Dominion Land Company (ODLC) was chartered to secure railway right-of-ways on the Peninsula.

Company officers were: President - Collis P. Huntington; Secretary - Frank S. Storrs; Treasurer - Isaac E. Gates; Superintendent - Theodore Livezey; Agent - Calvin B. Orcutt, Collis P. Huntington, A.A. Low; Directors - A.S. Hatch, James H. Storrs, John Stewart

In 1881, Huntington and the land agents turned over their real estate purchases to the Company for $1 per parcel. By June of that year, the Company had acquired approximately 17,000 acres of land on the Peninsula. Railroad construction on the Peninsula began in 1880. In 1881, Eugene McLean, chief engineer for the ODLC for the many years, made the map that determined the eventual layout of Newport News. In 1882, the ODLC began work on the Hotel Warwick which was formally opened in April of 1882. Until the mid-1930s, the hotel's affairs were directed by many of the same officials who were in charge of the ODLC. On November 12, 1935, the ODLC and the hotel were consolidated.

In order to fulfill its purpose of developing and selling real estate in Newport News and nearby areas, the ODLC distributed a circular to attract new residents and industries in 1883. It had alread begun to establish a number of community facilities and by the early 1890s had given land for or assisted with the creation of a church, a bank, the county's courthouse, schools, and other vital commerical and civic entities. Later land donations included sites for a hospital, a public library, and a park. In 1886, on land owned by the ODLC, the Newport News Shipyard was built. It was directed by some of the ODLC officials includings Huntington, Gates, and Orcutt. Land Company officials recognized that a sufficient supply of fresh water was essential to the development of a city. In the late 1880s, the ODLC was a moving force in the organization of the Newport News Light & Water Company, which was mostly operated by the ODLC until it was purchased by the City of Newport News in 1926. Important purchases included Lee Hall Lake, Harwood's Mill Pond, and Skiff's Creek. Land Company officials were also involved in the incorporation of Newport News as a city. Correspondence in the officers' files reflect a real concern for proper timing of incorporation so that it would best benefit the company. Newport News became an independent city in 1896, withdrawing from Warwick County.

In October of 1925, a group of Newport News men purchased the entirety of the Huntington family's interests, as well as those of other stockholders. By 1932, nearly all of the income-producing properties had been sold, and company officials focused on finding new markets for unimproved property. In 1938, the company was mostly liquidated, the capital stock taken in and was held by the Treasury, and the Hotel Warwick remained as the last valuable piece of property owned by the ODLC. During the 1940s, the predominence of transactions carried out by the ODLC concerned the Hotel Warwick. Company liquidation was completed in 1948.