• Norfolk Virginia is a city of some 238,832 residents and encompasses 66 square miles. It has seven miles of Chesapeake Bay beachfront and a total of 144 miles of shoreline along our lakes, rivers and the Bay. Much of this land is located in residential neighborhoods.
• Norfolk is home to the world’s largest naval base and the North American Headquarters for NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).
• Norfolk is one of the top 10 markets for business relocation and expansion, according to Expansion Management Magazine. USA Today called Norfolk one of the Top 10 booming downtowns, recognizing a decades-long housing, retail and financial boom in Norfolk.
• By 2010, Norfolk International Terminal will complete a 300-acre expansion, making it the largest inter-model center in the U.S.
• Norfolk is home of the USS Wisconsin battleship and a booming cruise port. Ocean-going cruise vessels of up to 3,000 passengers regularly stop at the pier downtown.
• Norfolk is home to the Virginia Opera, the Virginia Stage Company, the Virginia Symphony. Chrysler Hall, Chrysler Museum of Art, the Douglas MacArthur Memorial, and Nauticus, the National Maritime Center.
• Norfolk has been recognized as a Tree City and its neighborhoods have extensive trees and flowers. It is home to the Norfolk Botanical Garden.
• Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University and a new downtown campus of Tidewater Community College are located in Norfolk and Wesleyan College is located on the border between Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
• Eastern Virginia Medical School and its four internationally recognized research institutes are located in Norfolk, as is Sentara Health System, DePaul Medical Center-Bon Secours and Virginia’s only free-standing, full-service pediatric hospital, Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.

Norfolk’s Mace Looking good at 250

April 1,2004 marks the 250th  anniversary of the presentation of the Mace to what was then the Borough of Norfolk. To promote awareness of our City’s history, the Honorable Paul D. Fraim and members of City Council requested the Mace and its connection to the city be recognized and celebrated.

The City of Norfolk invites you to join us in honoring the anniversary of the Mace and promoting awareness of Norfolk’s distinguished and valiant history.

Timeline

• April 1, 1754 – The Mace is presented to the Norfolk Common Council by Royal Lt. Governor Robert Dinwiddie.
• January 1, 1776 – Norfolk burned on New Year’s Day, the Mace lay safely buried at Kemps Landing for its protection.
• 1790 – The Mace was returned to Norfolk’s Clerk of Court.
• May 1862 – When Union forces occupied Norfolk, Mayor William Lamb hid the Mace under a hearth in his home at 420 Bute Street. Union troops occupied the home, but the Mace was never discovered.
• 1881 through1885 – It was kept at the Exchange Bank of Norfolk.
•  The bank foreclosed and the Mace disappeared.
• 1894 – Police Chief C. Iredell discovered the Mace among litter in the Norfolk Police station.The Mace was given to the Norfolk National Bank for safekeeping.  It was later put on display.
• February 16, 1989 – City Clerk Breck Daughtrey, escorted by armed police officers, delivered the Mace to the Chrysler Museum of Art where it remains on public display.
• Today – The Mace, a colonial-era symbol of authority bestowed by English royalty, is a precious reminder of and witness to much of Norfolk’s nearly 400 year history.

Norfolk’s Historical Timeline

Before Norfolk

 9500 B.C. — Earliest evidence of native people in Virginia. 

The Chesipean Indians ruled the area. Their town was called SKICOAK, the site of which is now Norfolk. The Scicoaks were gone by the time the English colonists reached the site of Norfolk, having been wiped out by Chief Powhatan. One of Powhatan’s advisors went to the Chief, telling him of a dream about the Powhatan Confederacy being destroyed by strangers from the east. Powhatan misunderstood this to mean the Scicoaks and so he eliminated this peaceful people before they could turn against him. Later, of course, strangers from the east, across the Atlantic, DID come, and so the soothsayer’s dream was fulfilled.

• 1560s – Spanish arrive and settle briefly along the York River
• 1585 — English settlers reach Roanoke Island.
• 1591 — Roanoke Colony found with no survivors

Norfolk, 17th Century

• 1607 — Three English ships landed at Cape Henry. After giving thanks for their safe passage to the New World, the colonists proceeded up the river to establish Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America
• 1610 -Hampton Roads named to honor Henry Wriothesly, Earl of Southampton and Treasurer of the Virginia Company in London
• 1613 – tobacco is introduced to the colony and becomes the center of colonial economy. It was the dominant crop in what would become Princess Anne County through the 1680s.
• 1622 – 200 acres of land now occupied by the City of Norfolk was owned by Lewis Vandermill, who in the same year sold it to Nicholas Wise, senior, shipwright.
• 1624 — Thomas Willoughby granted 500 acres by King James I (present-day Ocean View).
• 1634 – Virginia consisted of 8 shires, or counties, with a total population of approximately 5000 inhabitants. The area that comprises the present cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Hampton was part of Elizabeth City Shire.
• 1636 – William Willoughby granted 200 acres by King Charles I (present-day downtown Norfolk).
• 1636 – Ferry service begins across the Elizabeth River
• In 1642, Upper Norfolk Co. became Nansemond Co., now the city of Suffolk.
• In 1691 Lower Norfolk County was divided to form Norfolk County and Princess Anne County.
• 1637 – first court for Lower Norfolk County meets. For 25 years, the court met in private homes.
• 1640 – Elizabeth River Parish completed (site of present Norfolk Naval Station)
• 1661 – Lower Norfolk County builds its first courthouse on Broad Creek, which was replaced in 1689 by 2 courthouses, one on the Elizabeth River and the other on the eastern portion of Lynnhaven River, on the southern end of Great Neck.
• 1673 – Half Moon Fort built at Four Farthing Point (now Town Point) in Norfolk.
• 1680 — The Virginia House of Burgesses orders each Virginia county to purchase 50 acres of land, to be laid out for a town and storehouses. By an Act of Assembly the purchase of 50 acres was authorized for the Town of Norfolk, the purchase price being 10,000 pounds of tobacco. In 1682, in pursuance to the act, land was purchased from trustees of Nicholas Wise, a house carpenter and son of the elder Wise. The deed was recorded and Norfolk Towne was established on the area now bounded by City Hall Avenue on the north, the Elizabeth River on the south and west, and the Norfolk and Western Railroad tracks on the east.
• 1691 – Norfolk County formed from western Lower Norfolk County.
• 1698 – First church in Norfolk built on Church Street (site is in churchyard of present St. Paul’s)

Norfolk, 18th Century

• 1736 — By charter from George II, Norfolk and its suburbs were incorporated into a borough. Samuel Boush became our first mayor.
• 1739 – St. Paul’s Episcopal Church erected on property deeded to the Borough by Samuel Boush.
• 1746 – The inhabitants of Norfolk Borough manifest their loyalty by celebrating the defeat of the Pretender by His Royal Highness, the Duke of Cumberland, at the Battle of Culoden, fought on 6 April of this year.
• 1749 – Hurricane lays down Willoughby Spit and forms Willoughby Bay.
• 1754 – A silver mace, ancient symbol of royal authority, is presented to the Norfolk Borough council by Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie.
• 1761 – Norfolk’s first free school.
• 1766 – Inhabitants of Norfolk Borough and Norfolk County assemble at courthouse and organize the Sons of Liberty, to oppose and protest against the Stamp Act.
• 1774 – First Norfolk newspaper published, the Virginia Gazette or Norfolk Intelligencer, edited by John Hunter Holt. The paper was put out of business when its press was seized by British troops in 1775.
• 1776 — On New Year’s Day, English ships under the command of Lord Dunmore opened fire on Norfolk, burning many of the buildings to the ground. The destruction was completed by Colonial troops in order that the British might not occupy the borough. Norfolk was the only American town completely destroyed and rebuilt. A British cannonball in the wall of St. Paul’s Church is a reminder of the Revolutionary War.
• 1782 – Norfolk Charter amended to allow the Common Council to be elected by a vote of the people.
• 1783 – British blockade lifted and Norfolk begins to rebuild.
• 1787 — The first U.S. Marine Hospital was established in Norfolk County. It later became the U.S. Public Health Hospital.
• 1788 – Norfolk’s first organized volunteer fire fighting company was established. By 1827 there were 3 volunteer fire companies in the city.
• 1788 – First newspaper published in Borough after the Revolution, known as The Norfolk and Portsmouth Chronicle.
• 1790 – Courthouse built on Main Street, east of Church. The population of the Borough was nearly 3000.
• 1792 – The Myers House, one of the first brick buildings to be constructed in Norfolk after the Revolution, was built by Moses Myers. Myers was a shipping merchant who came to Norfolk in 1787 from New York.
• 1793 – Haitian refugees with free blacks as well as slaves arrive in Norfolk.
• 1795 – Federal government buys land and orders building of Fort Norfolk.
• 1797 – The Borough of Norfolk adopts an ordinance to govern a Watch. This was the beginning of our modern Police Department.

Norfolk, 19th Century

• 1800 – First Baptist Church on Bute Street was established in Norfolk as the city’s first predominantly black congregation.
• 1801 — The first Continental Navy Yard was established here.
• 1803 – Norfolk was divided onto 8 wards, each electing within its own bounds two common councilmen.
• 1804 – Fire destroys more than 300 houses and warehouses south of Main Street in Norfolk.
• 1804 – Norfolk Academy, founded in 1728 and named Norfolk Academy in 1787, receives its charter from the General Assembly.
• 1807 – Act of Assembly passed empowering the court of Norfolk Borough to cause the streets to be paved under certain conditions.
• 1807 – Embargo Act closes ports. Exportation nearly ceases and business is suddenly interrupted.
• 1809 – Embargo Act repealed.
• 1810 — Fort Norfolk is constructed on the Elizabeth River, on a site originally occupied by an earthenworks fortification built during the Revolutionary War to protect the harbor.
• 1811 – Act of Assembly allows the corporation to erect lamps for the purpose of lighting the streets.
• 1814 — The new Dismal Swamp Canal opened the way for trade between Norfolk and the ports of eastern North Carolina.
• 1815 – the first steam boat, the sidewheeler Washington, arrives in Portsmouth
• 1819 — Act of Assembly authorizes the Governor to cede to the United States jurisdiction over a plot of land for the building of a customhouse in Norfolk.
• 1820s – A severe depression affected the agricultural community in Norfolk County and Princess Anne County and many families moved away from the area.
• 1821 – The Great Gale of 1821.
• 1821 – The Norfolk branch of the American Colonization Society was organized for the purpose of sending blacks to Africa. Many of the emigrants from Virginia and North Carolina embarked from this port. Norfolk native, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, became the first president of Liberia when it became a republic. Roberts Village in Norfolk is named for him.
• 1822 – Slow-moving team boat drawn by blindered (horses wearing blinders) horses established as ferry to Portsmouth.
• 1824 – French soldier and statesman Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolution, revisits visits Norfolk and Portsmouth and is entertained at a Grand Ball.
• 1832 – First steam ferry between Norfolk and Portsmouth, the Gosport, begins service.
• 1837 – Town Back Creek fills in to Henry (now Boush) Street. Most of the remainder of the creek was filled in by 1905.
• 1838 – Wilkes Expedition sails from Norfolk to explore southern Pacific and Antarctica.
• 1839 – Prince Louis Napoleon visits Norfolk.
• 1841 – Norfolk Academy building completed (present Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce).
• 1845 — Norfolk incorporated as a City.
• 1847 — Cornerstone of City Hall (now MacArthur Memorial) laid.
• 1850 – the Princess Anne and Kempsville Turnpike Company was established to construct a road between Norfolk and Kempsville; however, the turnpike was not built until 1871.
• 1850 – The Worshipful Court of the City of Norfolk met for the first time in the courtroom of the new City Hall on 29 May.
• 1851 – Virginia authorized the charter of an 80-mile railroad connecting Norfolk and Petersburg. The line was completed in 1858 and was the forerunner of today’s Norfolk Southern Railroad.
• 1852 – Margaret Douglass, a white woman from South Carolina, is arrested and spends a month in jail for teaching free black children to read and write in a school in her Norfolk home.
• 1852 – Ordinance passed in Norfolk prohibiting cows to go at large in the city.
• 1855 — Steamer Ben Franklin arrives in Hampton Roads with Yellow Fever on board. Epidemic spreads through Norfolk and by 11 August about one-half the population had fled. The epidemic raged until October, by which time one-third of Norfolk’s inhabitants, 2,000 people, had died.
• 1856 — St. Vincent’s Hospital (later DePaul) is founded in Norfolk by the Sisters of Charity in the home of Ann Behan Herron, who had died the previous year of Yellow Fever and left her entire estate to the Catholic order for the purpose of establishing a hospital
• 1859 – United States Custom House completed.
• 1861 – Virginia secedes from the Union. Richmond becomes Capital of the Confederacy.
• 1861 — Slaves fled from Norfolk to Fortress Monroe and Union General Benjamin Butler labeled them as “contraband”.
• 1861 – Norfolk voters instruct their delegate to vote for ratification of the Ordinance of Secession
• 1861 — Vessels at Norfolk Navy Yard, including the Merrimac, burned and scuttled.
• 1861 – the first local encounter of the Civil War took place at Sewell’s Point
• 1862 — The Merrimac, rebuilt as an ironclad and renamed Virginia, was built at the Norfolk Navy Yard. The first battle between ironclads – the Virginia and the Monitor – was fought in Hampton Roads.
• 1862 — Mayor Lamb surrendered the City to Union troops. Federal forces under the command of General Benjamin Butler occupied Norfolk until 1865.
• 1863 — Emancipation Proclamation went into effect but did not apply to Tidewater.
• 1861-1865 – Princess Anne County and much of Norfolk County were under Union occupation for the duration of the war
• 1866 – First black-owned newspaper in Norfolk, the True Southerner, published by former slave Joseph T. Wilson.
• 1867 — The United Order of Tents, J.R.G. and J.U., one of the most important African-American women’s lodges in the country, officially organized in Norfolk. Founded by 2 slave women, Annetta M. Lane of Norfolk and Harriet R. Taylor of Hampton, with the aid of 2 abolitionists, Joshua R. Giddings and Joliffe Union, whose initials are incorporated in the title.
• 1867-68 — Dr. Thomas Bayne (former slave Sam Nixon) represented Norfolk at the Virginia Constitutional Convention.
• 1870 – End of Reconstruction in Norfolk. Union occupation troops withdrawn and Virginia is readmitted to the Union. African-Americans throughout Hampton Roads are elected to state and local offices. After the Civil War, Norfolk County’s rich waterways and fertile farmland enabled it to recover quickly from the destruction of the war. In Norfolk, industries and railroads opened the way for transportation of coal to our port, the beginning of trade that made Norfolk the greatest port in the world.
• 1870 — Organization of the Norfolk Library Association, and the beginning of the Norfolk Public Library
• 1870 – the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad consolidated with the Virginia and Tennessee and the Southside Railroads, and eventually re-consolidated to become the Norfolk and Western. The Norfolk and Southern Railroad was chartered to operate between Norfolk and Elizabeth City NC, and opened in 1881. Both are now part of Norfolk Southern.
• 1870 – Horse-drawn trolley introduced in Norfolk.
• 1871 – The volunteer fire fighting system was abolished and the Norfolk Fire Department was established by the City of Norfolk. It was the third fully paid fire department to be formed in the United States.
• 1877 – Ball at the Navy Yard to honor Russian Grand Dukes Alexis and Constantine.
• 1879 – The Norfolk Traction Company lays a narrow gauge railroad to connect Ocean View to the railroad terminus at Church and Henry Streets. The cars are drawn by a steam-powered locomotive. The rail is changed to standard gauge in 1895 and is operated by electricity by 1902
• 1883 – The Norfolk and Virginia Railroad and Improvement Company opened a nineteen-mile, narrow-gauge railroad between Norfolk and Virginia Beach. The same year, the railroad purchased the Seaside Hotel and Land Company and in 1884 constructed the Virginia Beach Hotel, which was remodeled and reopened as the Princess Anne Hotel in 1888. The railroad reorganized, becoming the Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Southern Railroad in 1887. By 1898, the line was so popular that it was widened to standard gauge.
• 1883 – First car of coal arrived from Pocahontas fields over Norfolk & Western Railway.
• 1883 – Norfolk Mission College established by the United Presbyterian Church to provide secondary education for black students.
• 1887 — Brambleton, Norfolk’s 5th ward, was annexed, followed by Atlantic City (6th ward) in 1890.
• 1890 — Atlantic City annexed to the city. Ghent Company begins to lay out a new residential area and renames Smith’s Creek, The Hague.
• 1894 – Electric trolley introduced in Norfolk. Within ten years, they link Norfolk with Sewell’s Point, Ocean View, South Norfolk, Berkley, Portsmouth and Pinner’s Point.
• 1894 — Classes begin at Norfolk’s first public high school.
• By the late nineteenth century, Princess Anne and Norfolk Counties became leaders in truck farming. More than half of all greens and potatoes consumed on the east coast came from this area. Also, Lynnhaven oysters became a major export during this time.

 Norfolk, 20th Century

• 1902 – in Norfolk, Park Place (7th ward) was annexed, followed by Berkley (8th ward) in 1906 and Huntersville (9th ward) and Lambert’s Point (10th Ward) in 1911.
• 1903 – News of the Wright Brothers’ historic first flight at Kitty Hawk NC is “scooped” by a Norfolk newspaper reporter
• 1907 — The Jamestown Exposition, celebrating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, was held in the Sewell’s Point area of Norfolk.
• 1907 – The Abraham Doumar family moves to Norfolk and sets up an ice cream concession at Ocean View Park. In 1904, at the St. Louis Exposition, the Doumars were credited with inventing the ice cream cone. In 1905 they made the first ice cream cone machine, which is still in use at Doumar’s Restaurant today.
• 1907 — The Great White Fleet – 15 U.S. ships on a peace mission around the world – sailed from Norfolk.
• 1909 – Virginian Railway opened for business.
• 1910 — Eugene Ely makes aviation history when he successfully launches his Curtiss biplane from the deck of the cruiser Birmingham and lands on the beach at Willoughby Spit.
• 1910 – P.B. Young founds the Norfolk Journal and Guide newspaper.
• 1917 – 600 German sailors, crew of the interned raiders Kronprinz Wilhelm and Prinz Eitel Friedrich, are held at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth and build a German Village to pass away the time. The village is a popular tourist attraction – entrance fees and revenue from the sale of baked goods and souvenirs are sent to the German Red Cross. After the United States enters the war, the sailors become prisoners of war and are sent to POW camps in Georgia.
• 1917 — The U.S Naval Operating Base and Training Station was established on the old Jamestown Exposition grounds. 1400 sailors from St. Helena Training Station in Berkley marched to the new base.
• 1917 — Announcement made that Norfolk leads the nation in Navy recruiting for World War in proportion to population.
• 1917 — Poet James Weldon Johnson meets with P.B. Young and other prominent blacks in Norfolk to organize NAACP chapter.
• 1918 — The City Manager form of government was established in Norfolk, and the old 5 ward system was replaced by a 5 member at-large City Council. In 1989, the ward system returned to Norfolk, with members elected from 5 wards and 2 superwards.
• 1919 – Crispus Attucks Theatre opened; designed, financed and developed by African-Americans.  The theater is named to honor African-American Crispus Attucks, who was the first American killed by British soldiers when they fired into a crowd of demonstrators in Boston in 1770. The event, which closely preceded the American revolution, became known as the Boston massacre.
• 1921 – Virginia Beach Boulevard, a concrete road running from Virginia Beach to Norfolk, was completed
• 1922 – The US Army dirigible Roma crashed at the Quartermaster Depot (now Norfolk International Terminal), killing 34 of the 45 men aboard.
• 1923 — An annexation which included Ocean View, Larchmont and Lafayette added 27 square miles to Norfolk City.
• 1924 – a bus route between Norfolk and Virginia Beach was established
• 1926 – The Schneider Cup Race between American and Italian aviators is held in Norfolk and receives international publicity. The race is won by an Italian aviator, flying at an average speed of more than 246 mph.
• 1935 – Norfolk unit of Virginia Union University established (now Norfolk State University).
• 1938 — Norfolk Municipal Airport opened on the former Truxton Manor Golf Course tract. A new terminal building was dedicated in 1951. In 1976, Norfolk International Airport opened, with overseas flights.
• 1938 – Norfolk Virginian-Pilot editor Louis Jaffe’s anti-KKK editorials in the earn the Pulitzer Prize.
• 1939 – Aline E. Black sued against Norfolk’s unequal pay for black and white teachers, starting a series of legal maneuvers that eventually toppled similar unequal pay scales throughout Virginia. Black’s lawsuit was replaced by one from Melvin Ol Alston of Norfolk. National civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall represented the black Norfolk teachers as the lawsuit prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1940.
• 1939 -Norfolk City Manager Borland recommends the creation of a Housing Authority. City Council votes unanimously against the proposal.
• 1940 – On recommendation of Manager Borland, Council reconsiders; votes to create Housing Authority so Norfolk can participate in federally funded low-cost housing projects. Louis H. Windholz is named chairman. Authority applies to US Housing Authority for $4 million for 1000 housing units. Ground broken for Merrimack Park, the Authority’s first defense housing project.
• 1941 — World War II, with heightened defense activities and hundreds of families moving into the area, doubled Norfolk’s population. At the end of the war, Norfolk Naval Base and Air Station remained the largest military installation in the world.
• 1941 – USHA earmarks $2 million for slum clearance in Norfolk. The previous year, Nathan Straus, USHA administrator, called a Norfolk hotel-apartment “the worst slum he had seen anywhere in the US”.
• 1941 – First tenants move into Merrimack Park. Three black citizens – P.B. Young (publisher), J. Eugene Diggs (attorney) and the Rev. Richard H. Bowling – are appointed as an advisory committee on housing construction in black slum areas. Construction begins on Oak Leaf Park. Merrimack Park is dedicated.
• 1942 – The Nansemond Hotel at Ocean View served as headquarters of the Amphibious Training Command, Atlantic Fleet until the end of World War II. Troops stationed here participated in embarkation and landing exercises day and night on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Successful assaults on 40 enemy beaches were planned and practiced at the Nansemond, including Operation Torch, the successful invasion of North Africa.
• 1945 – The first black police officers in Virginia are sworn in on the Norfolk force.
• 1946 — The Shriners sponsored the first Oyster Bowl Parade and football game, to aid crippled children. The Granby High School Comets defeated Clifton New Jersey High School 6-0. The last Oyster Bowl game was played in 1995.
• 1946 – Norfolk Housing Authority changes name to Norfolk Redevelopment & Housing Authority.
• 1948 – Norfolk’s last streetcar runs on the Ocean View line, as streetcars are replaced by buses.
• 1949 – Norfolk, with 3000 units and Galveston TX, with 500 units become the first cities in the nation to be assigned an allocation of housing units under the new public housing program now being activated.
• 1950 – The battleship Missouri runs hard aground off Thimble Shoal Light near Willoughby Spit.
• 1950 – Work begins on Norfolk’s first public (non-defense) housing project, across from Oak Leaf Park.
• 1951 – Norfolk’s slum clearance program begins with the demolition of a house on Smith Street.
• 1951 – Four new housing projects in Norfolk named for black leaders - Diggs, Young, Bowling and the late Dr. Robert R. Moton.
• 1951 – The last reunion of Confederate veterans is held in Norfolk.
• 1952 — SACLANT, Supreme Allied Command Atlantic, western arm of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and only international command in the western hemisphere, was established in Norfolk.
• 1952 — The Downtown Norfolk-Portsmouth Bridge-Tunnel opened. A modern engineering marvel, it was followed by the Mid-Town Tunnel in 1962 and a second Downtown Tunnel in 1986. Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel opened in 1957, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in 1964 and a second Hampton Roads Tunnel in 1976. In 1992, the $400,000,000 Monitor-Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel opened, connecting Suffolk and Newport News and completing the loop of interstate highways in Hampton Roads.
• 1952 – 1918 Berkley Bridge demolished
• 1954 — The first Azalea Festival, now an annual event, was held to honor NATO countries.
• 1955 — Tanners Creek annexed. Ownership of Broad Creek Village transferred to Housing Authority. Norfolk becomes largest city in state, with a population of 297,253.
• 1955 — Ferry service from Norfolk to Portsmouth, established in 1636 by Adam Thoroughgood, was discontinued. Pedestrian ferry service was resumed in 1983.
• 1955 — Black parents petition Norfolk School Board to reorganize schools along non-racial lines
• 1957 – Cornerstone laid for Norfolk General Hospital’s new wing. Dedicated in 1958.
• 1957 – Calvert Park opens in Norfolk – the last housing project of the slum clearance program begun in 1949.
• 1957 — The International Naval Review, celebrating the sesquicentennial of our nation’s birth, was held in Norfolk.
• 1958 — Norfolk’s Sister City program began with the adoption of Moji, Japan (changed to Kitakyushu in 1963). Additional Sister Cities followed: Wilhelmshaven, Germany (1976); Norwich, Norfolk County, England (1986); Toulon, France (1989); and Kaliningrad, Russia (1992).
• 1958 – Gov. J. Lindsey Almond closed six Norfolk schools to stop their integration, putting 9,950 white children out of school.
• 1959 – Norfolk’s public schools were desegregated when 17 black children entered 6 previously all-white schools in Norfolk. Norfolk Virginian-Pilot editor Lenoir Chambers’ editorials against massive resistance earn the Pulitzer Prize.
• 1960 — Norfolk was one of eleven U.S. cities to receive the All American City Award, granted jointly by LOOK Magazine and the National Municipal League.
• 1961 — The completion of the Public Safety Building marked the beginning of a $15,000,000 Civic Center. A court building and 11-story City Hall were completed in 1965.
• 1961 – Demolition begins on Norfolk’s East Main Street taverns.
• 1962 — Kirn Memorial Library opened in a glass and marble structure in downtown Norfolk, replacing the old Carnegie building on Freemason Street.
• By 1992, there were also 11 branches and a bookmobile.
• 1962 – Norfolk College of William and Mary has its name changed to Old Dominion College.
• 1962 – Brambleton Avenue extension, including the new bridge crossing the Hague, opens to traffic between Colley Ave. and Boush St.
• 1964 – General Douglas MacArthur Memorial opens in Norfolk. Death of General MacArthur.
• 1966 – The Supreme Court outlawed Virginia’s poll tax in a case brought by Evelyn Butts, a Norfolk citizen activist and seamstress.
• 1966 — Norfolk International Terminals are built. This huge complex of one of the most complete and modern operations in the U.S. for steamship, rail and truck carriers serves international cargoes.
• 1966 — Virginia Wesleyan College opened.
• 1967 — The Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, a 12.1 mile long toll road leading from Baltic Avenue in Virginia Beach to Brambleton Avenue in Norfolk, opened to traffic.
• 1968 – Joseph A. Jordan, Jr. in Norfolk and Raymond Turner and Dr. James W. Holley III in Portsmouth, became the first African-Americans to be elected to their city councils in this century.
• 1969 – Norfolk State College, founded in 1935 as a branch of Richmond’s Virginia Union University, becomes an independent 4-year college.
• 1969 — Old Dominion College gained University status.
• 1971 — Donation of major art collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences.
• 1971-1972 — Norfolk’s $30,000,000 convention and cultural center opened; SCOPE, a unique domed convention hall; and Chrysler Hall, a separate theater.
• 1973 — Eastern Virginia Medical School, the hub of a major regional medical and health service center, began. In 1980, the first in-vitro fertilization clinic in the U.S opened at EVMS in a $25,000 lab. The clinic was named the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in 1983 to honor its directors, Drs. Georgeanna and Howard Jones. In 1992, the Institute’s new $25,000,000 home was dedicated.
• 1975 — Professional Opera arrived in Norfolk as the Virginia Opera Association opened its premiere season at the Center Theater. In 1993, the renovated theater was rechristened the Edythe C. and Stanley L. Harrison Opera House in honor of the company’s founders.
• 1976 — Operation Sail began as a tall ship celebration for the American Bicentennial. It developed into the annual Harborfest.
• 1976 – First graduating class of the Eastern Virginia Medical School
• 1979 — Norfolk State College became a University.
• 1980 – Headquarters of the Jacques Cousteau Society move to Norfolk
• 1980 – William P. Robinson Sr. Of Norfolk, the first African-American to head a committee in the House of Delegates when he was appointed chairman of the House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee.
• 1981 — Birth at Norfolk General Hospital of first baby in the United States conceived by in-vitro fertilization (Elizabeth Jordan Carr)
• 1982 – Norfolk and Western and Southern Railways consolidate; the new company, Norfolk Southern, moves its headquarters to Norfolk.
• 1983 – John C. Thomas, a Norfolk native, first black to be a judge on the Virginia Supreme Court.
• 1983 — Waterside opened in Norfolk as a festival marketplace with 120 food and specialty shops. Adjacent is Town Point Park, the scene of concerts and activities for all ages. In 1990, the $8,500,000 Waterside expansion opened.
• 1983 — The World Trade Center was built in Norfolk. This $30,000,000, 9 story, curvilinear office complex is a vital center for international trade.
• 1983 — The U.S Postal Center, in a new $13,000,000 building, replaced the Old Post Office and Parcel Post Annex in Norfolk.
• 1991 — Site preparation began for the $52,000,000 National Marine Center, Nauticus, which opened in 1994.
• 1992 — Ground was broken for a 12,000 seat, $13,000,000 baseball park, which opened as Harbor Park in 1993 and is touted as the country’s finest minor-league stadium.
• 1993 — Tidewater Community College opened a downtown Norfolk center with 100 students in 7 classrooms. A $26.6 million, 185,000 square foot campus with a capacity for 5000 students, opens in the Fall of 1996.
• 1995 — Tolls on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway are removed. Tolls had been removed from the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnels in 1976 and from the Norfolk-Portsmouth tunnels in 1986. The Jordan Bridge, closed for repairs in 1994, reopened in December 1995 with a 50c toll.
• 1996 — Symbolic groundbreaking for MacArthur Center Mall was celebrated on 26 January. The mall is scheduled for completion in 1999.
• 1998 – The Virginia Symphony, under the direction of JoAnn Falletta, performs at Carnegie Hall.
• 1998 – Armed Forces Memorial is dedicated at Town Point Park.
• 1998 – President Bill Clinton participates in the commissioning of the USS Harry S. Truman at the Norfolk Naval Base. The nuclear-powered supercarrier was built at Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia’s largest industrial employer.
• 1998 – Norfolk Southern acquires 7200 miles of Conrail
• From 50 acres of land and a population of 1, Norfolk has grown to 61.86 square miles (39,590.4 acres) and a population of nearly 300,000.

But perhaps Norfolk’s greatest strength is its neighborhoods.  There are more than 120, with a head-turning character all their own.  They draw tourists who seek a glimpse of Norfolk’s everyday life; attract new residents who long to put down roots in established neighborhoods; entice military retirees to stay or return; and hold families here for generations.  From charming starter homes to grand residences, from downtown lofts and town homes to brand new developments along the Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk offers a range of architectural styles and prices.

Norfolk has marked achievements in restoring and redeveloping many of its older neighborhoods.  At the same time, we have reclaimed land once used for commerce to build new communities.  The City’s best measure of success, however, is the growing number of people who have “come home to Norfolk.”

So join us, won’t you?  Pull up a porch swing, talk to neighbors and welcome to Norfolk.  There’s much to celebrate!

Norfolk Neighborhood Histories

East Freemason

The area that is being called East Freemason is part of the original 200 acres granted to Captain Thomas Willoughby in 1636.  By 1736 Samuel Boush held title to 98 of the original 200 acres.  The Samuel Boush Plan subdivided the land into 160 lots by 1762.

In 1728 the land that is now the site of the Chamber of Commerce was conveyed to the Norfolk Borough authorities for the purpose of constructing a school.  The school was first called Norfolk Academy in 1787 and was incorporated by the General Assembly in 1804.  The existing building was constructed on this site in 1840.

The Moses Myers house was constructed in 1792 on land that fronted on Freemason Street and covered the entire block between Catherine (now Bank) and Brewer Streets.  In 1794 construction began on the Willoughby-Baylor House on the former site of Norfolk’s early Masonic Hall.  The Masonic Hall, which gave its name to Freemason Street, was destroyed on January 1, 1776 when Lord Dunmore attacked the city.

The land uses in the East Freemason area remained primarily residential thorough the 1800’s with exceptions being Norfolk Academy and various churches.  As previously stated, the Norfolk Academy, now Chamber of Commerce, was constructed in 1840.  Freemason Baptist Church, the only remaining church in the area, was dedicated in 1850.

Residential uses became more dense in the 1900’s, and commercial activities had begun working their way north.  By 1930 there was commercial activity on the block north of the Moses Myers House.  The area declined in the late1950’s and in the 1960’s most of East Freemason and the area to the south were cleared as part of an urban renewal project.

Ghent

PRESENT AND ORIGINAL PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

The Ghent Historic District in Norfolk is a small residential neighborhood located within walking distance of Norfolk’s central commercial core. Part of a late 19th- and early 20th-century suburban land development, the district encompasses approximately eighty acres in size. Since the early 20th century, the western arm of Smith’s Creek has been traditionally referred to as the Hague.

Streets are regularly laid out, blocks north of Pembroke Avenue follow a simple grid plan. Blocks south of Pembroke Avenue lie in a semicircular pattern    conforming to the curve of Smith’s Creek. Two minor diagonal streets, Drummond Place and Mill Street, serve to connect the inscribed semicircular streets. Beechwood Place, a small park set on axis with Colonial Avenue, is at the core of the district.

Southeast of the district, the new Ghent pedestrian bridge (erected by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority), replaces an earlier vehicle crossing of 1890. Metal and wood benches and electric lamps based on Colonial designs line the center of the bridge. Though historically incorrect, similar lamps are placed throughout the district in a lighting scheme sensitive to the character of the neighborhood. Streetscapes are relatively free of aboveground utility wires and allow unimpeded views of Ghent’s distinct architecture.  

Land use within the Ghent Historic District is primarily residential. Hospital facilities are located to the west between Fairfax Avenue, Botetourt Street, and Mowbray Arch (Sarah Leigh Hospital and Eastern Virginia Medical College). The District’s only church is the Unitarian Church of Norfolk (formerly the Second Presbyterian Church) at 737 Yarmouth Street. The Garrison-Williams School (419 Colonial Avenue) is the only private educational facility and is located in a rehabilitated residence. The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk’s prestigious art museum, is located at the northeast corner of the district at the east head of Smith’s Creek.

Although most houses in Ghent were designed as single-family dwelling units, many have since been divided into duplexes and apartments. Three large apartment houses were’ built during the first quarter of the 20^th century: (545 Warren Crescent, ca. 1925); the Holland (Drummond Place and Botetourt Street, 1904), and the Mowbray (714.Botetourt Street, ca. 1914).

Ghent is a richly landscaped neighborhood.  In addition to tree-lined streets (including plantings from circa 1890 and 1970), most residences are fronted by shrubbery, neat lawns, and small flower gardens. Large trees with full branches line both grass banks of the Hague providing color and shade and adding to the park-like setting prevalent through most of the district. The banks are partially lined with park benches and are a popular recreational site for–residents, picnickers, and joggers.  Terminating both north ends of the Hague and Smith Creek are stone and cement sea walls (1919, 1922). The northwest end of the Hague hold’s a small park lawn and benches, the whole set off by low stone walls. Completing, the green belt around the Ghent district, park lawns extend along the entire southern edge of Olney Road. Beechwood Place is the remaining public green in the district; unfortunately it stands neglected and overgrown, surrounded by an ivy-covered chain link fence.  

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The decades between 1890 and 1930 were a time intensive land speculation across America as witnessed by the large number of newly planned residential suburban developments. These suburbs range in size from five or ten blocks of residential development to completely planned suburban communities providing commercial, recreational, and educational facilities. Popular plans in this period include based upon romantic landscape theories of A. J. Downing, Alexander Davis, and Fredrick Law Olmsted (i.e., the exploitation of the natural landscape, subdivision of land into large building sites and the laying of roads in curvilinear patterns which appears to follow the natural contours of the terrain); the continuation of the existing grid plan with provisions for tree-lined avenues and regularly placed parks; and, after the Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893, City Beautiful plans based upon Beaux Arts theories ‘(i.e. grid plan diagonally cut by broad avenues visually terminated by civic buildings and monuments).  By 1910 virtually every major American city could claim at least one such suburban development.  

The Ghent suburb of Norfolk, Virginia, began its development in 1890 with most construction occurring between 1892 and 1907. Located blocks west of Norfolk’s present commercial core, Ghent originally covered approximately 220 acres.  Although most of Ghent was laid along a standard grid plan, the citing of the south section of the suburb by Smith Creek, and a “Y” shaped inlet off the Elizabeth River, suggesting a different planning approach.  Marshlands at this area were filled and the shoreline given a semicircular shape.  The resulting street, Mowbary Arch, soon became the favored location for the stately houses of Norfolk’s middle and upper-middle class residents.  Ghent’s plan was not particularly innovative, but it successfully exploited the area’s strategic waterfront location, providing views over the creek to the grass banks on the opposite shore.  While Ghent originally covered more than thirty blocks in area, the Mowbary Arch section displays the highest concentration of houses built during the late 19^th century.  This area is contained by Smith’s Creek and Onley Road, a four-lane traffic artery connecting the two arms of the creek and providing east-west access to downtown Norfolk.  

Before its late 19^th century development, Ghent was large farm taking in what was known as Pleasant Point.  In 1810, William Martin deeded his land to Jasper Moran.  Tradition states Moran soon renamed the areas “Ghent” to commemorate the signing of the famous treaty ending the War of 1812.  The conclusion of the war was great economic significance for Norfolk, resulting in the reopening of sea-lanes after years of embargo.  In 1830, two years following Moran’s death, Commodore Richard Drummond purchased the plantation, retaining its name Ghent.  The area remained farmland until 1890 at which time the Norfolk Company, a newly formed land company, purchased Ghent as a speculative venture.  

The choice of Ghent by the board of directors as the site for their investments was largely determined by three factors: 1) the projected expansion of trolley car routes west of Smith’s Creek; 2) the recent construction of a toll bridge across Smith’s Creek north of Duke Street (completed in 1887); and 3) the annexation in 1890 of Atlantic City site of Ghent farm as the sixth ward of Norfolk.  As an added incentive for development of this area, the annexations legislation specifically allowed for deviations from the Norfolk building code.  

John Graham, a civil engineer from Philadelphia, was contracted by the Norfolk Company to lay out the new suburb. 8 His plan offered such modern amenities of urban life as sewers, gas pipes, water mains, paved streets, and granolithic sidewalks.  The street layout was conservative, following a grid plan across the site. Only in the Mowbray Arch section (the historic district) did Graham deviate from the grid to exploit the aesthetic land-water relationship. The entire subdivision was traversed by Colonial Avenue, which along with Mowbray Arch, was considered to be one of Norfolk’s most prestigious residential streets. All streets were landscaped with silver maples and magnolias, though these have mostly been replaced by water oaks and sycamores.  

Work on laying the streets, filling the marshland, and shaping the shoreline of   Mowbray Arch into a smooth semicircle continued from 1990 through 1907. The first house completed is said to have been built by John Graham in 1892 at 502 Pembroke. By 1893 only ten buildings had been finished or were under construction. Among these are the Hardy-Twohy residence (442 Mowbray Arch ca. 1893), the Richard B. Tunstall residence (530Pembroke Avenue, ca. 1892-93), the Fergus- Reid residence (325 Colonial Avenue ca. 1892-93), and the William H. White residence (434 Pembroke Avenue, ca – 1892-93).  Lots in the Mowbray Arch area sold for $2,500 each in 1892 and 1893. Houses sold for up to $20,000.  With the expansion of trolley car routes to the suburbs in 1894, building in Ghent accelerated. By 1900 two trolley lines serviced the area and. over one hundred houses had been completed within the Mowbray Arch district alone.  Numerous churches had been or were being erected along nearby Stockley Gardens, and new public schools were being planned. By 1905, development of Ghent was virtually complete.  

The majority of buildings erected in Ghent were detached, single-family dwellings, although attached town houses stand at 510-516 Colonial and 340-346 Fairfax avenues and scattered in the 400 block of Mowbray Arch. In addition to private dwellings, three apartment buildings appear in the Mowbray Arch area. The Holland Apartments were constructed in anticipation of housing workers associated with the Jamestown Exposition of 1907. Later apartments include the Mowbray (ca. 1914) and the Warren (ca. 1930). The Leach-Wood Seminary was the first private educational facility in the Mowbray Arch area, moving there in 1900 (apparently located at 411 Fairfax Avenue). The erection of the Sarah Leigh Hospital (Beaux Arts) on Mowbray Arch in 1902 is further evidence 6f Ghent’s prosperity. A fourth story and two wings have been added to the hospital, which has remained in continuous operation to the present day.  

The genealogy of the Norfolk Company appears complex. The Norfolk Company was   a subcorporation of Blake, Boissevain and Company, itself a merger of Dutch, New York, and London interests. While the primary activities of Blake, Boissevain and Company concerned the financing of railroads in America it formed three subsidiary land companies to develop land and industrial subcorporations. A major objective of these subsidiaries, the Virginia Land Company, the Virginia Investment Association, and the Consolidated Coal, Iron add Land Company, was to develop lands from Norfolk, Virginia, to Columbus, Ohio. In Norfolk, the local- subsidiaries were the Norfolk Company, the Ghent-Norfolk Company and the Portsmouth Company.  Local members of the founding board of directors of the Norfolk Company were Richard B. Tunstall, Alfred P. Thom, Fergus Reid, C- G. Ramsay, Walter R. Taylor, and N. M. Osborne, most of whom built houses for themselves and their families in the new Ghent suburb.  

The developers retained the farmstead’s name of Ghent because of its historic and romantic European associations. Though no architectural controls existed at this early date, many builders picked designs thought to be suggestive of European architecture. Architects of Ghent’s Queen Anne houses undoubtedly       took inspiration from drawings by the English architect Richard Norman Shaw, reproduced in popular architectural publications.  Further attempts to solidify ties between Ghent, Norfolk, and its European namesake occurred in 1897   when the western arm of Smith’s Creek was christened “The Hague.”  Ceremonies at the renaming celebrations paid honor to the Dutch roots of the Norfolk Company (i.e., Boissevain) and the parent company’s early representative to Norfolk, J. P. Andre Mottu. Even as late as 1911, promoters sought parallels between Ghent and.  European prototypes. Referring to a proposed extension of water vistas of the Hague the Norfolk city beautification commission observed. “Already the driveway which is to be built on both sides of the water has been christened ‘Norfolk Way,’ and in a few years it ought to rank with Queen’s Road of Bombay or the grand boulevards of European cities where water and land have been made to meet so attractively.  

The 400 block of Mowbray Arch presented the most romantic view of Ghent at the turn of the century.  Embodying the suburb’s most appealing characteristics of water, greenery, and European-inspired architecture, this view of Ghent was seized upon by local land promoters, the board of trade, and the Chamber of Commerce in their city booster efforts. This block was reproduced on post cards and numerous trade and souvenir publications for tourist and promotional consumption as representative of Norfolk’s modern housing.  Accompanying these views were captions extolling the area’s beauty and the modernity of the city’s new sewer, gas, and water systems.  

Contemporary descriptions of Ghent note the area possessed, “Norfolk’s brand-newest, tastiest and costliest, most stylish and attractive homes .  The streets in this quarter, unlike those of its older parts, are wide. The mansions, many of them, are palatial, and the grounds, as a rule, are spacious and handsomely adorned with shade trees and shrubbery . . . “ Elsewhere this article boasts, “’Ghent’ is the new swell district of Norfolk.”  

As such, the suburb attracted Norfolk’s middle- to upper-middle-class residents–its civic leaders, professionals, and businessmen. The Mowbray Arch section was a favored location by members of the bar, with over eighteen lawyers residing there by 1905. Most prominent among these was Robert W. Hughes, United States District Court Judge from 1874 to 1898 and a noted Norfolk lawyer. Among Ghent residents active in Norfolk’s political and administrative scene were James G. Womble (Common Council, member of the Board of Directors of the City Gas Company, Sinking Fund Commission), W. W. Vicar (Select Council), W. P. Obendorfer (Select Council), T. S. Southgate (Common Council, 1st Vice President State Board of Trade), George Arps (Common Council), Robert B. Tunstall (Common Council, Sinking Fund Commission), William H. White (Vice President City Gas Company), and Edward R. Baird (Sinking Fund Commission).  

Railroad interests were strongly represented. Peter Wright, Edwin C. Hathaway, and Walter H. Doyle were all associated with the Norfolk Railway and Light Company. Edwin T. Lamb, manager of the Norfolk and Southern Railroad Company, lived at 423 Fairfax Avenue, and William M. Whaley, president of the Roanoke Railroad and Lumber Company, resided at 317 Colonial Avenue. Other prominent residents of Ghent include Fergus Reid, president of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Cotton Exchange; Frank S. Royster, president of the Atlantic Guano Company and the Frank S. Royster Guano Company; Charles M. Barnett, consul for Nicaragua, Colombia, and Costa Rica and director of both the Virginia-Carolina Trust Company and the National Bank of Commerce; Severn S. Nottingham, editor and publisher of the Norfolk Landmark; and Herman L. Page, a leading Norfolk realtor.  

Though the majority of dwellings in Ghent were completed by 1907, improvements continued on the Hague and Smith’s Creek. In 1909 the city appropriated three thousand dollars to purchase stone for the continuation of the western arm of the Mowbray Arch sea wall. The western bulkhead of the Hague was completed in 1919. The semicircular sea wall to the east was finished three years later.  The last major project in Ghent evidencing its continuing prestige was the erection of the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences in 1933 (Peebles and Ferguson; and, Calrow, Browne, and FitzGibbon, Architects).

Developed in less than fifteen years, Ghent possesses a unique image of consistent, well-designed architecture placed within an attractively landscaped environment. Stylistically a ‘wide variety of late 19th-century architectural styles appear with Dutch Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Shingle Styles dominating. Buildings generally conform to a uniform scale of 2.5 stories and are of brick construction with occasional stone facades or brick with shingled upper stories. Residences range from builder town houses to large, detached architect-designed dwellings. Though presently only a few buildings in the Ghent Historic District can be attributed to the hands of a specific architect, it is believed many of the designs came from the offices of the following Norfolk architects: Peebles and Ferguson; Carpenter and Peebles; Charles M. Cassell; James Calloway Teague; G. B. Williams; and George C. Moser.  

Specific buildings displaying noteworthy designs include the Fergus Reid residence (325 Colonial Avenue, 1892); the Frank S. Royster residence (303 Colonial Avenue, ca. 1900-02); the William H. White residence (434 Pembroke Avenue, ca. 1892); the Richard B. Tunstall residence (530 Pembroke Avenue, ca. 1892); the Robert M. and Robert W. Hughes residence (418. Colonial Avenue, ca. 1895-1900), and the William Tait residence (436 Mowbray Arch, ca. 1895). A large Colonial Revival house from the 1930s is found at 535 Fairfax Avenue.  

Following a period of decline after World War II, Ghent began to stabilize during the early 1970s. The city declared Ghent as a code enforcement area in 1962. Two years later Norfolk City Council recommended that the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority declare Ghent a conservation area. Since this date planning reports concerning the future development of Ghent were filed by Harry Weese and Associates (Ghent: Guidelines for Redevelopment, Chicago, 1974) and the Norfolk Department of City Planning (Ghent: Proposed Zoning for Historic and Cultural Conservation Zoning.) Norfolk, June 1.975 May 1976).  

Efforts by the Ghent Neighborhood League and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority have assisted in the rehabilitation of numerous houses. Unfortunately in some rehabilitation cases, porches and facade details were removed and aluminum siding installed. Several houses divided into apartments during the mid-20th century have been returned to use as single-family dwellings. Recent landscape improvements include the planting of new trees along residential streets and of new flower gardens fronting individual houses. Houses along Olney Road were razed as part of the redevelopment project. The lands they   occupied have been grassed and provide recreational park facilities.  

No longer functioning as a suburb, today Ghent provides intimate in-town housing within walking distance to Norfolk’s commercial core. Its period architecture, tree-lined streets, and attractive waterfront location combine to provide residents of Ghent with one of Norfolk’s most appealing residential environments.  

DESCRIPTION

Contributing to the neighborhood character, most dwellings observe a common setback line from the street. Residences tend to be of brick construction, occasionally with stone facing on the front façade.  Uniform scale is found across Ghent with 231 stories being the average height. Notable exceptions are the Eastern Virginia Medical College (four stories), the Sarah Leigh Hospital (four stories), the Holland Apartments (three stories on a high basement), and the Mowbray Apartments (four stories on a high basement). Of these only the Eastern Virginia Medical College and additions to the Sarah Leigh Hospital break from the pervading, turn-of-the-century character of the district. This break is due not so much to their height as to their large mass and lack of historic detailing–elements incongruous with their more distinctive neighbors. Similarly, buildings located across from Cheat on the outer banks of Smith’s Creek break from the scale and character of the district.  

Stylistically, late Queen Anne Colonial Revival, and Shingle styles dominate.  Colonial Revival interpretations range from Georgian Revival to Federal to Queen Anne/Colonial Revival. Gambrel roofs hinting at Dutch Colonial influences are occasionally seen in the Ghent area. Shingle Style houses are second in number to Colonial Revival dwellings. Three Shingle Style houses, possibly by the same, currently unidentified architect, exhibit large porches in a first-story recessed entrance bay.  Typical Shingle Style houses in Ghent are of masonry construction on the first floor with frame construction (shingle sheathing) on the second and attic stories.

Other styles randomly found in Ghent. include English Tudor, English Half Timber, Italianate Town House, and Beaux Arts (Sarah Leigh Hospital).  The remainder of Ghent’s dwellings are-more difficult to classify as any single style. These include numerous builder Colonial Revival houses as well as residences suggestive of Dutch Queen Anne town houses.  

As part of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority conservation area, Ghent receives strong community support in its preservation efforts. Numerous houses have been returned to single-family residences, and the neighborhood has regained much of its earlier character. Houses rehabilitated by the NRHA tend to display the greatest exterior changes. These alterations are usually limited to the removal of porches and the application of aluminum siding, not in keeping with the historic character of the original design. This detriment aside, the Ghent Historic District remains Norfolk’s best preserved, turn-of-the-century suburban development. Fully exploiting its waterside location, the district retains its original street fabric and its cohesive groupings of prodigious middle and upper-middle class dwellings.

Park Place

The selected area known as Park Place in Norfolk, Virginia is a large mixed-used neighborhood located north of the downtown area and North Ghent Historic District, and immediately south of Colonial Place Historic District. The neighborhood is significant to Norfolk because of its close proximity to downtown business and is surrounded by several Historic Districts (Ghent, Riverview, Colonial Place, and Lafayette-Winona and Larchmont at a further distance). The neighborhood includes multi- and single-family residences, and commercial and light industrial buildings. The Park Place neighborhood encompasses several neighborhoods originally known as Park Place, Kensington Place, Virginia Place and Old Dominion Place.

The area is predominately residential. The typical structures are modest frame bungalows and Queen Anne’s. There are also several two- to four-story apartment complexes, which were built in the early 1900′s. Commercial and 1ight industrial buildings are concentrated along the boundaries of the neighborhood, along 35th Street and along Colley Avenue. Monroe Elementary School and Park Place Recreation Center, which includes social services, was built in the 1970′s. Its location is at the point where the grid formation changes, creating a triangular-shaped center for the neighborhood. Many older structures have been demolished, some replaced with newer structures during various eras. Others were demolished and their lots left empty.

To the north of the school between Colley and Colonial Avenues on 34th Street are recently built single-family frame homes. Although these homes are newer, the architecture blends with the original architecture of the neighborhood, as does the landscaping and street lighting.  Mature trees and perennials dominate the landscape of the residential areas. The majority of streets have sidewalks. There is significant open space in the form of play area surrounding the school and a park at 26th and Munson.