Hopewell High School - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hopewell, VA)

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Clad in colonial costumes, a Hopewell group entertains in one of the decorated cellar rooms at Berkeley Plantation during the Hopewell Garden Club Christmas tour. A 1 « WK WT 6

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History students watch Aonnie Hock as he stands inside the oldest and largest pecan tree in America. fc HMMMeave St. John’s Episdo] 1860 ’s, the church’s baserifeThf si FoFsIaves from AppomattoxM; Union shelling of City Point- or duri In 1635 Captain Francis Eppes sailed from England on the Good Ship Hopewell with a 2,350 acre land grant from Charles I, King of England. Captain Eppes set aside part of his land naming it Hopewell Farms, in honor of the ship that brought him to Virginia. Eppes built a manor house on the bluff overlooking the Appomattox River. During the Revolutionary War, Appomattox Manor survived the shelling of traitor Benedict Arnold, who was on his way to Yorktown to join Lord Cornwallis. Toward the end of the War, British soldiers set fire to the house and grounds, but slaves extinguished the flames. During the Civil War, General Grant used Appomattox Manor as his headquarters and President Abraham Lincoln spent two of the last three weeks of his life at the Manor. City Point grew and developed into a town complete with shops, bank and post office. Many early struc¬ tures serve as family residences today. On Prince Henry Avenue stands the Cook House (1858) which served as a Union hospital during the Civil War. On Cedar Lane is St. John’s Episcopal Church (1840), still used today for services. A three hundred year old pecan tree, the oldest and largest in America, still stands on Pecan Avenue. 5

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HofJSwel ' the eacly ent, Mrs, Marvin Turpin, revives iram art of quilting. nj ijg ipi ' 5211131 Cjf TJX Our modern city of Hopewell was born in 1915 when E. I. DuPont Nemours Company pur¬ chased 1800 acres from the Eppes family and built a small dynamite plant, naming the project Hopewell. Then came the first World War and guncotton took the place of dynamite. Popula¬ tion grew to 30,000 people and Hopewell became a totally uncontrollable boom town. After the war, the population fell to 1,369 until 1920 when peacetime industries located here. Presently seven major industrial corporations employ over 7,400 of the 25,000 population. Today a great deal of interest is focused on the Hopewell of yesterday. Concerned citizens formed the Historic Hopewell Foundation and began the restoration of Weston Manor (1735) which was designated a Virginia Historic Land¬ mark, along with Appomattox Manor. Plans for the complete restoration and development of Historic City Point are now underway. Hope¬ fully, future citizens of Hopewell will be able to view the past through the restored homes and taverns of her earliest years, begun in the Bicen¬ tennial year —1976.