CCC Camp NHP-1 (former) – Yorktown VA

Description

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp NHP-1 was created at Yorktown, Virginia, for the purpose of developing the Colonial National Historical Park (Jamestown Settlement, Yorktown Battlefield, Colonial Parkway). Camp NHP-1 housed CCC Company 352, which had been formed at Fort Monroe, Virginia, on April 27, 1933.

Company 352, along with four other African American CCC companies, developed Colonial National Historical Park. This work would continue until at least the end of 1941 – virtually the entire life of the CCC program. The CCC enrollees worked under the direction of the National Park Service (NPS), which had just taken over the job of caring for military and historical parks from the US Army.

A history of Company 352 notes, “Vocational classes are held for those interested. Music, dramatics, arts, crafts and athletics are given considerable attention and enjoy the hearty participation of the company members,” and that the enrollees worked on, “Forest Stand Improvement, Archaeological Work, Construction of Battlefield Relief Models, Flood and Erosion Work, Surveying and Road Building, Stump Puller, Pile Driver and Sawmill Operation, Beach Improvement, Blasting and securing marl for road surfacing” (Dist. 4, Third Corps Area history, 1937).  (See our various project pages on Colonial National Historical Park, here.)

The location of Camp NHP-1 is described as being near Surrender Field, but beyond that we have no exact information about location or survival of any traces of the camp.

NB: CCC camps in the South were always segregated, but that was not true everywhere until 1935; for further discussion, click here.