ELECTRIC LINE COMPLETED TO NEW KENT COURTHOUSE 

The Virginia Electric and Power Company recently completed its line from Eltham to New Kent Courthouse and for the first time in the history of the county the citizens of this section of the county are enjoying electric lights.

 About 30 customers have been hooked up on this line and many more are expected, to discard their old time kerosene and home made electric lights for the modern type of artificial light.

 Mr. Samuel Lacy, clerk of New Kent county, stated this week that the Courthouse was wired and has electric lights and any attorney desiring to look up any records or have any business there are welcome to come and make use of the building. 

-Tidewater Review,  21 January 1937

Much of the progress like this originated from the Rural Electrification Act. A later New Deal program, the Rural Electrification Act was passed by Congress in May of 1936; the act funded and empowered the Rural Electrification Administration. Created by Roosevelt in 1935, the Administration removed, according to Robert T. Beall, an Economist with the REA,

"the most important barriers restricting rural electrification prior to 1935 . .   the conditions and rates imposed on farmers if service were made available to them. Frequently the farmers had to pay for the distribution line, give the company title to the property, and then guarantee high minimum charges over a long period of years."

 "In 1934, only 7.6% of Virginia farms had electricity; by 1950, more than 90% did." 

Reddy Kilowatt- ™

 

Aerial Photography

 An interesting site I just discovered called Vintage Aerial. 

Just search New Kent and then zoom in to select an area to search for pictures. Oldest pictures are only as far back as 1985 that I saw . . . but that might be pretty old for some of you.

For example here is a link to an image of the old Colonial Restaurant with the trailer park behind it in Bottom's Bridge in 1993.

Here is another larger shot from 1983 of the same location.

Here we have a house that no longer exists, the Christian residence in Providence Forge in 1985. The parking lot on the viewers far left is the back of Citizens & Farmers Bank.

Here is a contemporary plat of that area to give you a better idea of the site