Endview Plantation

The History Behind Endview Plantation in Newport News, VA

By J. Michael Moore

Newport News, VA – Situated on a rise above a fresh-water spring in Newport News is the ancestral home of the Harwood and Curtis families. Completed for William Harwood in 1769, this Georgian-style frame dwelling house has a brick foundation basement and chimneys laid in English bond.
Through the years, William Harwood’s home was passed on to relatives. Dr. Humphrey Harwood Curtis, a great-grandson of William Harwood, acquired the plantation in 1858. Dr. Curtis was alt

one of only two physicians in Warwick County, which eventually became part of Newport News.
The young doctor renovated the old colonial structure and changed the name of his property to “Endview” to reflect the approach to the side of the house. In August 1858, Dr. Curtis married Maria Whitaker. By 1861, Dr. Curtis owned 910 acres. He cultivated corn, wheat, and potatoes on the farm; however, the couple’s prosperity was soon threatened by the Civil War
Dr. Curtis and other Warwick County residents answered the call to arms by the Confederate States of America in May 1861 when they organized a volunteer infantry company called the Warwick Beauregards on the grounds of Endview. Curtis was made captain and several Curtis kinsmen served as officers. The Warwick Beauregards joined the 32nd Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment on May 27, 1861.
The Peninsula Campaign of 1862 brought the Civil War to the doorstep of the Curtis family when Maj. Gen. George McClellan launched his amphibious operation to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond via the Virginia Peninsula. The Confederates used Endview as a hospital during the Siege of the Warwick-Yorktown Line from April 5 to May 4, 1862. More importantly, Endview served as the headquarters for Confederate generals Lafayette McLaws and Robert Toombs.
After Dr. Curtis received a discharge from the Confederate Army, he and his wife Maria abandoned Endview before the Confederate retreat and moved to Danville, Virginia, where there was a large refugee colony from the Peninsula.
In February 1864, the Federal government seized Endview Plantation. Dr. Curtis returned to Warwick County in May 1865 and applied for the return of his property. He also signed an oath of allegiance to the Union. On November 7, 1865, Curtis regained possession of Endview. Until his death in 1881, Curtis continued practicing medicine and managing the farm. Endview would remain in the Curtis family for another century.
Maria Curtis managed the farm with the assistance of her oldest son, Simon. Beyond farming, Simon worked as an agent for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and rebuilt the family’s fortune. Maria Curtis died in 1919, and the Curtis family retained Endview until 1985.
The City of Newport News purchased the property in 1995 and began the restoration of Endview as a living history museum. It opened to the public on May 20, 2000, with Humphrey and Maria Curtis’s two surviving grandchildren, Prentis Smith and Elizabeth Bentien, in attendance.