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| U.S. Ships at Naval Operating Base, Hampton Roads, Circa 1920s |
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| Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition |
Since 1908, the navy had talked of purchasing the property in Norfolk, Virginia, where the Jamestown Expedition had occurred in 1907, but other expenditures had always taken precedence. When the property was offered to the navy in January 1917, it expressed no interest. One day after the United States entered the war in Europe in April 1917, the secretary of the navy approached the Fidelity Land and Investment Corporation, owner of the property, and offered to lease, and later to purchase the property.
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| View of tent housing the Navy's Air Fleet |
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| 美国海军航空站,汉普顿道路,Virginia, 1918 |
President Woodrow Wilson signed aproclamationestablishing the Naval Operating Base, Hampton Roads on June 28, 1917, and construction began within a month. By the end of August 1917, housing was completed for 7, 500 men, along with mess halls, storehouses, and a road system. The Naval Operating Base was commissioned on October 15, 1917. During its first year, the base housed the Naval Training Station, Naval Hospital, a Submarine Station, and was the headquarters for the Fifth Naval District. By Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, there were 34, 000 personnel stationed at the base.
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