Port Richey and New Port Richey, West Pasco's dual coastal communities, are best known today as booming retirement centers, but both towns had more basic origins. Port Richey was started in 1883 by Missourian Captain A. M. Richey, who homesteaded on an island at the mouth of the Pithlachascottee River. New Port Richey, once Hickory Hammonds, made the name concession in 1914 when the Port Richey Company began heavy development.