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Hello Carol, Wed. Jan. 4, 2006

So many of the site participants seemed to have lived in Stuart Gardens.

Before Stuart Gardens construction began (about 1941), the area was occupied mainly by the Dodge Boat Company and the Old Dominion Golf Course. The World War I hastily-built Camp Stuart had all but disappeared except for a few buildings which had been of brick and mortar construction. The Camp Stuart Armory building survived and was used by the National Guard until the Guard's new Armory was built at the corner of 30th Street and Virginia Avenue (now Warwick Boulevard).

Also little known was that the entire area was still part of Warwick County - a virtual island inside of the City of Newport News. All of it would be annexed into Newport News by the time Stuart Gardens was completed.

In Michigan, the Dodge Boat Company (a branch of the Dodge Motor Company) built racy motorboats. Horace Dodge decided to erect a plant at Newport News to be devoted solely to his boat building. In 1928 a huge 1,000 acre plot was purchased for about $1,000,000 and Horace Dodge's dream plant became a reality.

The history of the Dodge Boat Co. can be viewed online at:

http://www.dodgeboats.org/Michigan.htm

The plant was soon in full operation and the fancy boats sold well for a while. But then the impact of the depression slowed everything down and the plant ceased production. Dodge held on to the facility which sat virtually unused during the late thirties. I can remember going to an air show there in about 1937. The event had one ancient biplane. The acts included wing walking and a parachute jump. Those of us who had paid admission got to see all this up close - but the spectators standing outside the vast chain link fence at the end of Wickham Avenue saw almost as much.

In about 1940 I was in the Sons of the American Legion Bugle Corps. The building in which we practiced marching (corner of 30th and Washington Avenue) was torn down. One of the Legion members was a watchman for the closed Dodge Plant and he arranged for us to drill inside the assembly building.

In 1942 with World War II heating up, the Dodge Boat Company was reactivated. They made several types of high performance boats and landing craft.

After the war the Dodge Plant was sold and much of the surrounding land disposed of. It was subsequently used for many manufacturing ventures. Since moving away I have lost track of the events. However, on a Sunday in 1990 I did find the gate open and ventured onto the property. Just inside the gate was a remnant of an old Camp Stuart street. These tar and gravel streets were distinctive because stream gravel was used. The individual gravel pieces were rounded and had a reddish orange color.

When accessing the dodgeboats web site, be sure to click on Gallery. There are a great number of interesting photos of Dodge speedboats, many of which are cherished collector items today.

Nostalgic best wishes,

Fred

WOWZERONI-RINI!!! I never knew anything whatsoever about any of this! Thanks so much, Fred! While I was looking around, I also found this:

In 1930, Dodge opened a 210,000-square-foot assembly plant in Newport News, VA, and boasted that it was "the largest boatbuilding facility in existence." Unfortunately, the plant was forced to close in 1936 because of the Great Depression.