The United States Housing Corporation (USHC) was created by the federal government to assist in the critical housing shortages that were taking place in America's industrial cities.  One of the Corporation's first initiatives was to destroy rent profiteering.  This type of immoral landlord behavior was such a serious problem that the USHC concluded it was having a negative impact on national security.  Workers in some cities were witnessing rent increases as high as 50% and being served with eviction when unable to pay these inflated prices.[1]  The USHC supported legislation making the practice illegal and putting disputes between war workers and landlords under the jurisdiction of the USHC.[2] 

Most workers never had the opportunity to deal with tyrannical landloards because they were having troubles finding any vacancies.  The United States Homes Registration Service (HRS) initiative cooperated with several different national agencies in the effort to support the nation's industrial war machine by keeing full records of housing vacancies and providing centralized, accessible information for all industrial workers in search of homes.  Agencies such as real estate boards, organized labor, the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., chambers of commerce, boards of trade, and city councils provided money, manpower, and office space for personnel working for Home Registration.  These agencies were also valuable consultants of local conditions and needs.[3] 

Norfolk and Portsmouth were both targeted as cities with severe housing shortages or problems with rent profiteering.  In 1918, the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce met to discuss the problems of housing for war workers in the city.  During their meeting, they stressed the fact that a Homes Registration office was desperately needed in the city.  Labor turn-over had become completely unbearable for local businesses.  On a average day, labor turn-over could be as high as 1000 workers.  In over one-third of these cases the worker left town because of an inability to find proper lodging.  The Board, concerned about the loss of production and harm to the city's publicity, appropriated $3600 for establishment of a Homes Registration Office.[4]

African-American Housing Registration was kept separate from white housing registration in accordance with racial sentiments of this era.  To handle African-American housing needs, Dr. James Ford, Director of the Homes Registration and Information Division of the United States Housing Corporation, directed the establishment of room-registration offices for dealing with African-Americans in cites such as Norfolk and Portsmouth.  Prominent black men were made field agents of these offices, with the responsibility of canvassing local neighborhoods for vacant rooms and emphasizing the importance of supporting the workers of the war effort.[5]  Finding housing for black workers was difficult in many cities due to the socio-economic conditions of African-Americans at the time.

The most difficult cases involved workers with families.  Most landlords refused to take men with wives or families.  This was particularly devastating to the HRS efforts because young, single men were increasingly being taken by the draft, leaving married workers with children behind to work in factories.  The HRS could only make appeals to landlord on patriotic and moral grounds in this type of situation.  The HRS even pursued special appeals to rabbis and preachers.  The HRS hoped that they would show their congregations that winning the war was dependent on having abundant and contented labor in industrial towns supplying the war effort.[6]

The federal government realized that many local conditions would not improve without constructing additional housing for war workers.  In an effort to provide relief for cities plagued with housing problems, congress made $75,000,000 available to the United States Housing Corporation in 1918 to build homes for workers in shipyards.  Canvassing was conducted in major ports to determine the demographics of the workers.  Shortly after the money became available, plans for family housing and dormitories for single workers were drafted for Portsmouth, Virginia.[7]

Funding for the town of Truxtun (known as construction project 150c) was made available as part of the housing plan for Portsmouth.  Two housing areas were built, Craddock for white workers at the Navy Shipyard and Truxtun for black workers.  Together these communities provided housing for over 1000 families of men working at the shipyard in support of the war effort.

The Truxtun community itself was centered around the most western parts of Key Road (now known as Portsmouth Boulevard) about three-eighths of a mile from the Navy Yard.  Truxtun was the only war-time community built by the United States Housing Corporation for African-Americans.[8]  Since Truxtun was a black town in the Jim Crowe dominated south, special considerations did have to be made in its placement.  The United States Housing Corporations understood the local sentiments concerning blacks and stated in its report:

The site of Truxtun was a proper one for a negro development, since the land between it and the navy yard was already occupied by Negroes where built up at all, and this class of occupancy would naturally in any case expand towards Truxtun and eventually include it.  This, too, was a desirable arrangement of population from the point of view of Portsmouth, as it did not force the colored people to traverse a white neighborhood on their way to work or to town, nor did it force much white pedestrian traffic through the colored neighborhood.[9]

The report also made it clear that many cost-saving procedures were used in Truxtun houses since they were "colored" housing.  For instance, a lower grade of siding was used on the exterior to reduce costs.  Unlike many of the white communities built by the USHC, Truxtun houses were not fitted with hot water.[10]  But Truxtun houses did provide several amenities that many working-class African-Americans were not used to having in their homes during this time period.  The houses were equipped with Electricity, indoor plumbing, and complete bathroom fixtures.  Sanitation was provided by an underground septic system.[11]  Truxtun was a paradise when compared to the "small, stuffy, and unsanitary dwellings" that were well known to working-class African-Americans in Norfolk.[12] 

Architect Rossel Edward Mitchell, who designed the town of Truxtun for the United States Housing Corporation, also realized these houses were of superior quality relative to most black housing in this time period and marked a "significant advance in homes for colored workers."[13]  In his own naive and politically incorrect way, Mr. Mitchell commented on the community in "The Housing Book", a design manual compiling articles from many prominent architects:

It is a far cry from the cabin in slaves' quarters on a southern plantation to the trim little colony solely for colored people at Truxtun, Va.  In time and transition it is farther yet from the solitary mountain shack built of rough boards, with its outside chimney of field stones or like as not of sticks laid crib fashion and plastered with mud, to this model town.  It is one of the amazing performances which this last year has accomplished.[14]

Mitchell's design of the town attempted to give the appearance of a model town.  Though the interiors of all the houses were the same, Mitchell was able to introduce some variations in the exteriors of the houses to avoid a monotonous appearance.  Mitchell also diversified the arrangement of porches and gables to achieve the same goal.  The streets were laid out with further expansion in mind for parks and playgrounds.  Mitchell's original design included a school, a Y.M.C.A. building, stores, a movie theatre and a church, all services that any model town would need.[15]  Most of these designed features found funding by Hegeman-Harris Company, the actual builders of the community.  Those that were sacrificed included the Y.M.C.A. building and the movie theatre.

The formal opening of the Truxtun community occurred on May 25, 1919.  The ceremony was attended by approximately 5,000 people.