Wash Ave.: 1906

Years ago, there were signs stating "Sailors and Dogs, Keep Off the Grass" in Newport News.

Multiply by 3 to 5 for party line subscribers, but still not as dense as today. Of course, soon there will be virtually NO wires for phones...

I grew up in Newport News. This picture was taken about 20 years after the C & O railroad pushed east from Richmond to Newport News, transforming a sleepy fishing village into a boomtown. In the 1950s and '60s the black population in the downtown area grew and whites fled to the west. Most of the buildings along once thriving Washington Avenue slowly were abandoned and then demolished in the '60s and '70s. Save for the shipyard at the western end, most of the street is empty lots and isolated office buildings now. It's desolate at night. I doubt there's a single building in this picture left standing. I like the poster to the right of the Morris Brothers signs, for a performance of "Tom Sawyer" at Buckroe Beach about 10 miles away in neighboring Hampton. You could take the trolley from Newport News to the beach when this picture was taken.

The poles with the many small wires are for telephones. 10 insulators per row and 6+5 rows = 110 wires or 55 pairs for 55 telephones. Not much by today's standards.