In different times in its past, some have called Hopewell "the wonder city" or "the city that would not die." Others have called it "the wizard city," or "the city that DuPont built." "Hopewell," as someone once put it, "was either in the stew of most early American history or very near the fire." Images of America: Hopewell and City Point depicts the people, places, and products of a city that is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in America. Its natural deepwater harbor and its junction at the Appomattox and James Rivers attracted Native American settlements, colonial farmers, the plantation system of the South, the depot and command post for the Union siege of Petersburg, and a major manufacturing site prior to and during World War II.

What can a small industrial city in Virginia named Hopewell tell us about its experiment in possibilities? Located at the intersection of the Appomattox and James Rivers, this wondrous place was poised to yield "the greatest hope ever." From America's founding years to the twenty-first century Hopewell's historic sights and the stories that citizens tell about their lives provide glimpses into an ever changing landscape that embodies all the American dream has come to symbolize.

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