Little England Chapel began in about 1878, when George C. Rowe started Sunday school classes in his home for children in Cock's Newton. After Southern blacks seeking freedom flocked to Union-protected Hampton and, after 1865, began settling in Newtown east of the chapel, they purchased lots from Daniel Cock, Charles Smith, Edward Whitehouse, and William N. Armstrong. Originally called the Ocean Cottage Sunday School, Rowe's teaching became so important for freed slaves previously denied education that by the summer of 1878 classes were held in a bush arbor with 10 rows of seating. The next year, possibly built by Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute students, the chapel appeared on what was then a country road. Hampton Normal students continued to play an active role, rowing across Hampton River each week to teach Sunday school classes for half a century. By 1890, the chapel also had an active sewing club, offered worship services and concerts, and served as a community center for the neighborhood. The building, with some original 19th century furnishings, contains a permanent exhibit on the religious lives of post-Civil War African Americans. It became both a state and a national historic landmark, and in the 1940s the Newtown Improvement Club was founded to address community issues. In 1954, Frederick and Louise Cock deeded the chapel to the club for use by the congregation of the Newtown Improvement Club for non-denominational religious purposes.
