Phoebus Fire Department / Town Hall building, 1938: Fire Department at left, Town Hall to the right. After Phoebus was incorporated into the city of Hampton in 1952, the fire department expanded into to the town hall section. “The federal government used the potential for a European war, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Works Progress Administration programs to provide unemployment relief and to improve public facilities. Additional buildings were constructed at the [Hampton] Old Soldier's Home, which was made a part of a new agency - the Veterans Administration. Additional barracks, quarters, and training buildings were erected at both Fort Monroe and at Langley Field. The federal government also constructed a new post office in Phoebus, the Phoebus Firehouse and Town Hall, and the Phoebus School, all in the late 1930s.”[1]  Living New Deal researcher Evan Kalish says “I think I was able to trace it to the P.W.A., which undertook a “MUNIC IMP” project in Phoebus beginning in 1938, the year that cornerstone was dated.”[2]

1. Del Sordo, Stephen, Historic Structures of City of Hampton, Virginia, Submitted to Virginia Department of Historic Resources, April 2008. Accessed at dhr.virginia.gov, June 1, 2017.
2. Public Works Administration Dockets 1934-1939 p.120 (top line, docket number W1074), January 3, 1940.

Photos by George and Connie Gilmer, taken May-August 2017.