In late August, we received this email from reader Virginia L.
“50 years ago at least, when I was a student at RPI, a date took me to a decoy neighborhood. [It was] like a movie set with overgrown houses and streets. It was near the Richmond airport [and was] built during the war to throw off the enemy bombers. Is there more to the story?”
Our interests piqued, we began looking into it. As it turns out, there’s a lot more to the story.
The place Virginia visited that evening was Elko Tract. In May 1943, the US Army began using Richmond Airport as a military airfield. Concerned about the potential for Luftwaffe attacks on the airport, the military decided to build a decoy, complete with real infrastructure and plywood airplanes, several miles away.
The federal government would seize 2,400 acres of farmland for the project that summer. Over 40 farms were forced to vacate the area to make room for the airfield. By the fall, the 936th Camouflage Battalion had constructed the decoy airfield, and the 1896th Engineer Aviation Battalion would move in that September.
The soldiers stationed on the decoy airfield lived in camouflaged huts, performing duties that included routinely moving the massive props to keep up the facade of a real airbase. Luckily, the Luftwaffe never showed up, and the 1896th would be deployed to the Pacific in March 1944.
Following the war, the state tried to buy back the land in order to build a mental health hospital for African American patients. Virginia was still almost completely segregated at this point. Although the population surrounding Elko Tract at that time was predominately Black, the project received major pushback from white Henrico residents.
According to a 1947 article in the Richmond Afro American, the project was “fought bitterly by Henrico County residents.” Due to these protests, as well as ongoing financial issues, the project was continually delayed.
A decade later, the hospital had still not been built. In February 1957, then-governor Thomas Stanley announced plans for the facility to move to Petersburg. By that point, the state had already spent around $500,000 — over $5.5 million in today’s dollars — building infrastructure for the development, including full streets, water lines, and sewage systems.
It would take the state years to sell the land around Elko Tract. Beginning in the 1990s, it became a site for technological manufacturing. Today, the land is occupied by White Oak Technology Park.
Remnants of the development, including fire hydrants and curbs, could be found until very recently.
Photo by Mike Lynaugh
The infrastructure from the 1950s remained until very recently. Since most people didn’t know the history behind what appeared to be a ghost town in the middle of the woods, it gained a reputation as “Richmond’s lost city.”
Have you encountered something around Richmond that’s left you scratching your head? We’d love to investigate — send us a tip.
