Lee Hall Depot

Lee Hall Depot. . , The historic Lee Hall Depot was constructed in the 1880s as part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway’s efforts to establish its Atlantic terminus at Newport News, thereby linking the Ohio River Valley with the sea. The station was sited on Warwick Road, now Boulevard, connecting the Warwick Courthouse with Williamsburg and Yorktown., Traditionally, the depot served the Yorktown, Lee Hall and lower James City County communities and was the social and economic focal point of the village of Lee Hall that grew around the station, . The depot is the only remaining station on the Lower Virginia Peninsula from the railroad’s expansion into Warwick County. Five stations (Lee Hall, Oriana, Oyster Point, Morrison and Newport News) once served the county. It is a symbol of Newport News’ early development from the agrarian Warwick County into the modern City of Newport News and of the history of transportation., The first passenger train from Newport News took local residents and national officials to the Cornwallis Surrender Centennial Celebration on October 19, 1881, on a temporary track laid from Lee Hall to Yorktown. During World War 1, the depot served as the initial rail link for the military when the construction of Camp Eustis on Mulberry Island began in 1918., The present-day depot is a culmination of several additions. After the original one-story section facing Newport News was erected, the two story midsection was added in 1893. The newest wing, the waiting room, was built in 1918. A storage shed, now razed, was completed in 1943., Passenger service ended in the late 1970s. In 1993, CSX, formerly the C&O Railroad, decided that the location of the depot was unsafe because it was too close to the tracks. They donated the structure to the City of Newport News which moved it across the tracks to its current location.