Village History
MOSTLY AS RECORDED BY WANDA WITHERS IN THE SECOND ANNUAL BOOKLET
According to census information, Wilmington’s population in 1939 was 33,407. In 1943 World War II had quadrupled the population to more than 120,000. Many of these people came to help with the defense of the Country by working at the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, located on the Cape Fear River. At the shipyard’s height, it employed 21,000.
To help alleviate the housing shortage, the Wilmington Housing Authority helped build and manage several large federally funded housing projects. One of these was started as the Captain John N. Maffitt homes.The first units were primarily wooden, duplexes, consisting of one, two or three bedrooms. The last units were of masonry construction multi-units and were completed in November 1943, bringing the total to 4,182 units.
The Hewes Building was a twelve bed infirmary built for residents to relieve congestion at James Walker Memorial Hospital and included a cafeteria. In 1943, approval was granted to add an 800 seat theatre, built later as the Hanover Theatre, across Carolina Beach Road from the Village.
There was plenty of recreation for the young people, with ball fields, monkey bars and the Vance Building for basketball, volleyball, racket ball, tennis, etc, as well as card games, ping pong or just hanging out.
There was a strip mall on Vance Street (across from the Vance Building) which had a grocery store, drug store, barber shop, beauty shop and post office. There was also Kornegay's Grocery on Shipyard Blvd and Taylor's at the end of Williamson Drive.
There were two churches, Baptist and Prebsyterian, each on Shipyard Blvd.
A number of the young guys enjoyed climbing the water tank behind the Vance Building when adults were not looking.
For information about reunions, click on the link below:
http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20080603/COLUMNISTS/806030373