African-American History in Norfolk, Virginia

Brown Savings & Banking was organized in 1909 by a group of African-American businessmen in Norfolk, with E. C. Brown serving as the first president. In 1922, the bank merged with Tidewater Bank & Trust Co. and moved into a new bank office building at 700-702 Church Street, reopening under the name Metropolitan Bank & Trust. The bank was in business until 1933. Shown here, the Metropolitan Building as it appeared in 1965.

The Church Street Bank was organized in 1915 at the corner of Church and Freemason Streets, changing its name to American Exchange Bank in 1920. In 1924, Virginia National Bank of Norfolk took over the deposits of the American Exchange Bank and thereby acquired this branch office on Church Street.

Church Street at Nicholson Street, looking south, in 1965.

Just hanging out at the neighborhood soda fountain, at the corner of Church Street and E. Olney Road, c1965

The United Order of Tents, one of the oldest lodges for African-American women in the country, was founded in Norfolk. It was secretly organized by two slave women, Annetta M. Lane and Harriet R. Taylor; and two abolitionist, Joliffe Union and Joshua R. Giddings as a part of the underground railway, assisting slaves to escape to the north. It was formally organized and publicly recognized after the end of the Civil War.

[photo from the collection of the Library of Virginia].

Norfolk's first hospital opened in 1856 at the corner of Church and Wood Streets, in the home of the late Miss Ann Plume Behan Herron. Miss Herron, who died of the yellow fever in 1855, left her entire estate to the Order of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul for the purpose of founding a hospital. The original building burned in 1899 and was rebuilt two years later on the same site, serving as a hospital until the present De Paul Hospital opened on Kingsley Lane in 1944. The basement and annexes of the old hospital housed classes for the Norfolk Division of the Virginia State College (now Norfolk State University) until 1958.

The Blyden Branch of the Norfolk Public Library opened in 1921 in a room in the Booker T. Washington High School building on Princess Anne Road. It was the first library for black citizens to be supported by a municipality in the state of Virginia. It was at the location pictured here (1346 Church Street) from 1938 until 1957.

The Attucks Theater was named to honor African-American Crispus Attucks, who was the first American to lose his life at the beginning of the American revolution. The theater was designed by local architect Harvey Johnson, and opened in 1919. It was used for movies, plays and vaudeville until 1934.

Businesses at the corner of Church Street and Brambleton Avenue in 1949. The Queen Confectionary takes its name from the original name of Brambleton Avenue, which was Queen Street.

The southeast corner of Church Street and Brambleton Avenue in 1953. The Southern Bank of Norfolk opened at this location in 1947, making it easier to take out a loan for that special piece of jewelry next door at Rogers Jewelry Co.!

A view of Church Street in 1937.

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