Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2018.

New Civic Center [Jail Compex] from East Main Street near Church Street, January 1, 1961

Artist Carroll H. Walker (American, 1904 - 1990)

CultureAmerican

Date1961

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 1/2 × 9 5/8 in. (19.1 × 24.4 cm)
Overall, Support: 8 × 9 7/8 in. (20.3 × 25.1 cm)

Credit LineGift of Carroll H. Walker

Object number67.40.148

On View

Not on view

DescriptionPhotograph depicting a scene from Norfolk, VA.

Label TextNew Civic Center [Jail Complex] from East Main Street near Church Street, January 1, 1961, 1961 Gift of Carroll H. Walker 67.40.148 New Virginia Bank Building, August 5, 1966, 1966 Gift of Carroll H. Walker 67.40.164 Brambleton Avenue and St. Paul’s Boulevard, ca. 1960 Gift of Carroll H. Walker 67.40.45 Norfolk residents were divided over where to put the new jail. Some complained that “No architectural design can make a municipal jail…attractive” because it housed “the most depressed and deteriorated individuals.” One editorial claimed, “To put a new city jail in the midst of a downtown business development would be to deteriorate values.” The city planners, on the other hand, asserted that a modern building made of steel, concrete, and glass would be an iconic feature of downtown renewal. They designed a building that could house 400 prisoners, the police headquarters, courts, and other municipal offices, and they located it within a 17-acre Civic Center complex near the ramp for the Berkley Bridge—an area that had been a primary connector to nearby African American neighborhoods. When the $4.5-million structure was opened in 1961, reporters called it “a palace.”