Downtown Norfolk Historic District (Boundary Increase)

This 25-acre area north of Norfolk's original historic district takes in much of the city's early twentieth-century downtown. It includes 45 contributing and 13 noncontributing buildings, among them two already listed individually. The earliest, the Groner House of about 1872 on College Place, recalls a time when Granby Street was largely residential. Later buildings show commerce taking over: tall classical office buildings with terra cotta, stone and brick ornament, hotels built for the 1907 Jamestown Exposition, department stores, banks and theaters. The 1930s are represented by Art Deco and Moderne buildings influenced by the U.S. Post Office and Federal Building, a WPA project designed by Benjamin F. Mitchell with the Norfolk firm Rudolph, Cooke and VanLeeuwen. The Showcase Building at 500 Granby Street was enlarged and remodeled in 1935. The area was added because many of its buildings had modern facades or were too recent when the original district was listed in 1986.