John T. West School was built in 1906 in the Huntersville section of Norfolk County. After the annexation of Huntersville into the city of Norfolk in 1911, the school became a combined elementary and high school. As such, it housed the first public high school classes for African Americans in the city of Norfolk. William T. Zepp, who designed five other schools in the Hampton Roads area, designed the original portion. A 1913 addition by the firm of Browne and Lehman doubled the size of the building. High school classes were moved from the building in 1916, and it served as an elementary school from that point until 1980 when the school was closed. The school was named for John T. West, the first superintendent of schools in Norfolk after the Civil War, who was instrumental in having schools built for children of all races. John T. West School was a vast improvement over most schools constructed for African American children in both size and material, and it served as a bellwether for African American educational institutions in the area.
The John T. West School was demolished in August of 2006.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia