A face for the community: “The Listener” beautifies downtown Newport News
The extensive history of the Warwick Hotel building has reached another impressive milestone — one involving a new face for change and a better tomorrow.
October 2023 — There’s a new neighbor greeting the faces of Newport News residents every morning, and he’s here to stay.
"The Listener” is the newest downtown mural created by artist Nico Cathcart in collaboration with the Newport News Street Museum and the Contemporary Arts Network Foundation. Using the Warwick Apartments building as a canvas, Cathcart pays tribute to the historic site in her design of The Listener, who is affectionately known as “Mr. Warwick” to residents of the building.
The Listener symbolizes a journalist overlooking his city, listening to residents and embodying accountability and the desire for change, designed to honor to the building’s history and the communities it has served, past and present.
The Warwick building, which overlooks the James River and the historic Victory Arch, once served as a hotel that was a beacon for community buzz before it became The Warwick Apartments, which now serves low-income and formerly homeless individuals in need of affordable homes.
The history of this building begins in April of 1883, when owner John Swinerton opened the Warwick Hotel. A 1990 Daily Press article recounts the hotel’s atmosphere in its first few months:
“Ads showed its Victorian cupolas, it grand staircase and its luxurious dining room. Huntington intended it as a resort hotel, but few vacationers came. It became, instead, a commercial hotel and civic center…Owner John Chamberlin of the Chamberlin Hotel at Old Point generously told the New York Home Journal that “The Warwick is the best hotel south of Washington.”
Location:
Newport News, VA
Developer:
Community Housing Partners
Total Homes:
88
Community Served:
Low-income and formerly homeless citizens
VCDC Equity Invested:
$7,952,899
A historic plaque that sits outside the building describes the Warwick Hotel as “the hub of city activities.” It its heyday, it housed the county seat of government, the city’s first bank, and a newspaper service that inspired the the journalist depicted in The Listener. The hotel was even home to the Newport News WGH AM radio station, which Cathcart references as call letters on The Listener’s pen. Guests who frequented the hotel in its early days included Northern tourists and engineers and builders who helped build the layout of early Newport News. During World War II, it frequently housed military personnel assigned to work on nearby shipyards.
After 78 years of service, a fire destroyed the original structure of the Warwick in 1961, forcing the hotel to shut down. Cathcart pays homage to that part of the Warwick’s history through the flame colors on The Listener’s tie and pocket square.
In 1995, nonprofit developer Community Housing Partners transformed the abandoned Warwick Hotel into affordable housing with 88 single-room apartments. The Warwick Apartments have since provided essential housing for low-income and formerly homeless individuals. A full refurbishment of the Warwick Apartments, completed in 2013, included energy efficiency improvements across the building, a new community kitchen and other high-quality amenities. Echoing the hotel’s historic activities and offerings, the Warwick Apartments offers residents access to a community room, a computer lab, and on-site programs like credit/budgeting classes, employment services, mental health programs, grief counseling, transportation, and social activities. To read more about VCDC’s investment and involvement in the Warwick Apartments, read our blog post here.
As “The Listener,” Mr. Warwick, with his watchful gaze and listening ear, reminds us of the enduring importance of accountability, change, and the bonds that tie this community and a place like the Warwick building’s past to its future. This historic site continues to serve the community, offering not just affordable housing but also a sense of belonging and a brighter tomorrow for its residents. Check out more of Nico Cathcart’s artwork at her website here, and see the mural’s progress pictures below.
