Lee Hall, Virginia

Lee Hall, Virginia
	Lee Hall, Virginia
	Lee Hall Area
	; Seal
	; Seal
	Location in the State of Virginia

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Lee Hall is a former unincorporated town (or village) long located in the former Warwick County. Since 1958, Lee Hall has been a suburban community in the extreme western portion of the independent city of Newport News in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[edit] History

Lee Hall was named for nearby Lee Hall Mansion which was built in 1859 as the home of Richard Decatur Lee, a prominent local farmer who was not directly related to the famous Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The mansion was used as headquarters for Confederate generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Magruder during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War in 1862. Nearby is Endview Plantation, a 238-year-old house. Endview was used as a hospital during the Civil War and as a campground during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War.

Lee Hall Depot was a railroad station on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which was built through the area of Warwick County in 1881 to reach the new coal export facilities at Newport News on the port of Hampton Roads. On October 19, 1881, the first passenger train from Newport News took local residents and national officials to the Cornwallis Surrender Centennial Celebration at Yorktown on temporary tracks which were laid from Lee Hall Depot.

Lee Hall Depot became a very busy railroad station after the establishment nearby of Fort Eustis in 1918. It handled heavy troop movements during World War II. Although Warwick County became a city in 1952 and then was consolidated with Newport News in 1958, in the half century since, the Lee Hall area has retained a rural atmosphere, partially due to the proximity of the expansive Newport News Park and Newport News Reservoir along the former Warwick River and nearby Skiffe's Creek.

[edit] Lee Hall Depot preservation

In the 21st century, Lee Hall Depot (no longer is use) is the only surviving C&O structure of its type on the lower Peninsula. It is the only survivor among five stations which were located in Warwick County, the others formerly located at Oriana, Oyster Point, Morrison, and Newport News.There are plans to relocate the historic 2-story depot slightly to the north of the busy CSX Transportation railroad tracks, as well as redevelop the adjacent historic area as Lee Hall Village. Across the street from the Depot, the Boxwood Inn, a bed and breakfast establishment in an 1896 house, is open and available for overnight visitors and some meals. The city's tourism agency operates several other attractions at Lee Hall Mansion and Endview Plantation, as well as nearby civil war historical sites.

[edit] Transportation

The Lee Hall community is served by exit 247 of Interstate 64. About 1 block from the historic railroad station, U.S. Route 60 and State Route 238 intersect.

Lee Hall is served by both Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) and Williamsburg Area Transport (WAT).

HRT operates Route 116 (Mall-Hall Loop) between Patrick Henry Mall and Warwick Blvd (U.S. 60) @ Elmhurst St about every 30 minutes [1]
WAT operates the Grey Line Newport News Connection hourly [2]

For direct service to the Williamsburg Amtrak and Greyhound/Carolina Trailways station, ride the WAT Grey Line to the Williamsburg Transportation Center. For service to the same in Newport News, ride HRT Route 116 to the Newport News Greyhound station or ride the 116 and transfer to the 106 or 107 to get to the Newport News Amtrak station.