Pasture Point

Pasture Point, one of Hampton's oldest neighborhoods, has deep roots in Virginia's colonial history. It was part of the sprawling plantation lands acquired by Miles Cary, who emigrated from England in 1645. Cary served as customs collector at Point Comfort. He was killed there during an attack by the Dutch in 1667. , , The area bordered on the east by Hampton River and on the north by Bright's Creek became known as "Pasture Track." It was a grazing area for cattle that also encompassed an orchard. During the Revolutionary War, it included several country homes, some of which may have been used as winter quarters for French officers after the British defeat at Yorktown in October 1781. , , A reference to "Pasture Point" appears in 1849 deeds. When the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway built a station at the end of Washington Street in the 1880s, a number of distinctive homes began to appear. Hampton's seafood business was booming then, and roads between the port and station thronged with commerce. In the late 1880s, Jefferson Sinclair's Pasture Point Farm was subdivided into lots. Charles Taylor Holtzelaw, who built several Hampton landmarks, including the first Chamberlin Hotel, teamed with his brother William to develop the neighborhood. Many of these elegant Victorian and American Foursquare houses, the earliest dating to about 1890, exist today. , , It was a typical "streetcar suburb," with a spur that extended from downtown along North King Street. The streetcars turned right on what is now Pembroke Avenue, rambled three blocks along the median, then turned north on Washington Street and ended at the C&O Station. Many of Hampton's most prominent families, blacks and whites, called Pasture Point home. Shopkeepers, ship captains, and others could hop the streetcar, walk, or ride carriages to downtown and the waterfront. , (captions) , The Holtzclaw home, located at 316 Marshall Street. Charles Taylor Holtzclaw built this home for himself. Courtesy of the Hampton History Museum , , By the turn of the twentieth century, Pasture Point had become one of the most fashionable neighborhoods in Hampton. Here, young people pose in a "minuet" at the Booker home, on Marshall Street Courtesy of the Hampton History Museum , , This streetcar is one of the many streetcars that traveled on the 40 plus miles of track laid out within the cities of Hampton and Newport News. Courtesy of the collection of Gregory Siegel