The eighteen-block Hilton Village neighborhood within the city of Newport News, containing dwellings, a public square, a commercial row, and land for schools, parks, and churches, was one of the nation’s first planned communities financed with U.S. government funds. The village was created to offset the critical shortage of housing for employees of the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. in World War I. The company, along with the U.S. Shipping Board, chose a tract along the James River accessible to the shipyard by trolley. The project architect was Francis Y. Joannes; Vincent Hubbard provided landscape design. A modified English cottage style was chosen for the architectural theme. Houses varied in size for different income levels; included in the Hilton Village historic district were detached houses, double houses, and row houses.