Kecoughtan, Virginia

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Kecoughtan, Virginia: A brief history

Kecoughtan was the name of the early settlement that became Hampton, Virginia. The area was originally inhabited by Algonquian-speaking people who called it Kikotan.

When English explorers led by Captain John Smith arrived in 1607, they were welcomed at Kecoughtan. In 1609, the English built Fort Algernon at Old Point Comfort nearby. In 1610, after tensions with Chief Powhatan, the English seized the native village. The surviving Kecoughtans fled and joined other groups in the Powhatan chiefdom. The first English church in the area, Elizabeth City Parish (later St. John’s Episcopal Church), was founded in 1610 and is one of the oldest English-speaking parishes in the United States still in use today.

Over time, Kecoughtan became part of Elizabeth River Shire in 1634 and Elizabeth City County in 1637. In the 1690s, it joined the Town of Hampton, which later became an independent city. In 1952, Elizabeth City County and its town Phoebus merged with Hampton to form the modern City of Hampton. Because of Fort Algernon and the Kecoughtan settlement, Hampton can claim a long history of continuous English-speaking settlement in what is now the United States.

In the 20th century, a separate incorporated town named Kecoughtan formed just southwest of the original settlement in Elizabeth City County. It lay between Salters Creek and Hampton Roads and was developed by the Newport News, Hampton, and Old Point Development Company. Its main business was Elizabeth Buxton Hospital, and it also had Woodrow Wilson School, a town hall, and a fire station. On January 1, 1927, Newport News annexed the town. A hard-surfaced road connecting the area to the city, called Kecoughtan Road, became part of US Route 60.