Wythe (Hampton, Virginia)
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37°0′11.6″N 76°22′39.8″W / 37.003222°N 76.377722°W Wythe is a neighborhood in Hampton, Virginia, along the water's edge of Hampton Roads, at the end of Virginia's Lower Peninsula. It is named after one of the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, George Wythe. The oldest historic portion of the Wythe neighborhood became known as Olde Wythe and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
When it was developed in the first half of the 20th century, Wythe was part of rural Elizabeth City County, one of the first eight colonial Virginia counties, the county seat was Hampton. Settled in 1610, Hampton is the oldest continuously inhabited English-speaking city in the United States. In 1952, all of Elizabeth City County merged with Hampton.
The name "Wythe" was first applied to a portion of Elizabeth City County after the Civil War when the Virginia Constitution of 1869 required counties to be divided into townships, rather than districts as formerly. Elizabeth City's three townships were named Wythe, Chesapeake, and Southfield. The Wythe Township was the western portion of the county and included George Wythe's birthplace, Chesterville, on the Northwest Branch of Back River. In 1874 Virginia replaced townships with magisterial districts requiring at least three in each county. The term "magisterial district" was later shortened to "district." Elizabeth City was one of Virginia's smallest counties thus when it became legal to do so the number of districts was reduced from three to two. The Southfield district was eliminated, leaving Wythe and Chesapeake. All of the county west of King Street outside the town of Hampton was the Wythe district.[1][2] The Hampton Police Department still divides the city into two patrol districts named Wythe and Chesapeake. "Wythe Sector" includes all of the city west of La Salle Avenue.[3][4]
