Evening star., 1915-05-30
OVER $4,000 PEOPLE
|NUNNAMED Town
Remarkable Growth of PopuIa-
ton at Site of du Pont Com
pany's New Plant.
IS LOCATED IN VIRGINIA,
VICINITY OF CITY POINT
Rapid Development Primarily Is Due
to Europe's Demand for
High Explosives.
Special From a stafr Correspondent.

HOPEWELI. Va. May 29-This is
dated Hopewell As matter of fact.
the town is new that 1T doesn t
know what its name is. Imagine a
Tcnopah or Goldfield-without the
n,ines-dumped down in the oldest,
sleepiest part of the Old Dominion
that's Hopewell.
Last November Hopewell was a
siding on branch line of the Norfolk
and Western railroad. The du Pont-de
Nemours Powder Company came along
and bought I 900 acres of farm land.
running down on one side to the James
river They strung a ten-foot harbed-
wire barricade around the tract and
began digging for foundations ana
putting up brick and concrete and
steel buildings for another big factory
for high explosives
Today the company has two huSe
Euncotton plants working night ana
day, and third building is going up
as rapidly as material can be dumped
on the ground and hundreds OF ia
borers can put it in place
April Hopewell had grown from
a flag station to village of perhaps
500 people Today il has population
of more than 1T.ooo. and it's growing
by leaps and bounds.
April l the bullulnES di flope" CT
comprised those of the du Pont com
pany-two mills and three or four rows
Of galvanized iron barracks for nous
ing the laborers. Today 1t has MID
way extending mile and quarter
along the railroad-now grown TO the
main spur and a regular network OF
sidetracks-made up of a double row
of shacks. tents. galvanized IRON sheds
and every imaginable shelter. win
hundreds of men working night and
day on more shacks. more buildings.
more sheds to say nothing of the 900
or more cottages the company is hqiid-
ing for the accommodation OF its en-
ployes
Boost in Property Values.
April / lots along the Midway TWEEN
ty.five feet front by seventy-five feet
deep were selling for from $40 to 500.
those nearest the railroad station
bringing the highest price. May l lots
n quarter of a mile down the track
either way from the station sold for
$500 and upward. Today a lot any
where along the middle of the MldWay
cannot be bought for less than s3,ooo
or 81 ,oOo. and plenty of people are not
only willing but anxious to buy them
at such prices The same lots can De
rented If one wants to pay $4oo
month for the use of the land ana
build his own shack or storeroom
I said the town is SO new it doesn't
really know what it's name is Ihe
powder company's employees cail IL Du-
pont Petersburg people = petersburg
is about fifteen miles away-stiH call
IL Hopewell, which was its name when
IL was Just a flag station on the branch
line Of railroad. Others call 1t CITY
Point, though City Point really is ABOUT
two miles away through the Wooas.
Farmers from hereabouts all call IT
New Town and let it go at that. When
a real post Office is established here it
will probably be named Dupont
1t Is the biggest development project
Virginia has known in all its history.
There has never been anything like II
In the Old Dominion. From popula-
fion of not more than 500 or SO 10
population of 1900 and more in sixty
days is to say the least. going some.
and that is what Hopewell has done;
and all because the European war
made it necessary for the du Pont
company to build big new factory for
turning out high explosives.
Towns Reputation Spreading.
began to hear about Hopewell at
Richmond. only there they call it Du-
pont At the railroad station it was
stated that Italians. Greeks. Hungari-
ans, Poles Jamaican negroes, repre-
sentatives of every nationality. almost.
under the sun. had been going to the
ne" town DN tue lpI tHe
last two months.
At Petersburg one is greeted with
Auto for Hopewen sir; going right
over, Take YOU to Dupont, cap-go
over in the big car" and SO on. Every
body in Petersburg and vicinity who
owns a machine is running 1t a sort
of stagecoach over to the new town.
Boys who don't look to be q day over
fifteen years old: gray-haired men, and
men of all the ages between. have be-
come jitney drivers; and practically
every one of them thinks. or seems to
think. that he is a Vanderbilt cup rae
er. The fifteen miles Of what used to
be a fairly good pike between Peters
burg and Hopewell is traversed each
way by hundreds of automobiles, day
and night. The result is that the once
good pike today resembles a streak of
dust. ankle deep-after a rain the dust
10 a more or less soupy mud-into
which had been dumped hundreds of
wagonloads of boulders in assorted
sizes. 1t costs from IS cents to a dollar
10 ride over from Petersburg to Hope
well, the 25-cent fare being on auto
trucks htted with cross seats. but not
fitted with springs or shock absorbers.
For the trip in a real auto the fare is
30 cents per person for more than two;
two or one. 81 each. II you stay on
the cushions half the time-t takes
about forty minutes to make the trip