This information is taken from the Ghent National Register Nomination form.

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.