6 Ways 1500 Monticello Ave has Changed in the Last 100 Years
A Century of Change
If you’ve driven along Monticello Avenue in Norfolk recently, you may have noticed a transformation is underway. Construction equipment has taken over the 1500 block of Monticello Avenue, the site of what was once Hampton Roads Transit’s (HRT) administrative office building.
For now, the work primarily involves using earth-moving equipment to level and grade the site. However, in the months ahead, the landscape is expected to undergo a significant change.
This particular part of Norfolk has a long and storied past. HRT employees, past and present, along with Hampton Roads residents and history nerds, will enjoy this look back at how the area has changed over the last century.
Our journey down memory lane begins in the 1920s on Monticello Avenue between 13th and 16th Streets.
According to a 1928 Sanborn insurance map, Monticello Avenue was once known as Williams Avenue and was home to multiple automobile dealerships, used car lots, and related businesses.
The City of Norfolk operated an asphalt plant just west of the trolley car barn site and along the northwest wall of Elmwood Cemetery. The site of the asphalt plant is now vacant property located across from Chick-fil-A, adjacent to the main entrance of the HRT campus at 509 E. 18th St.
At the time, the streetcar system was operated by the electric company and lost money continually. The electric company, then known as Virginia Power, had to build substations to power the streetcars. The best known of these is at Lafayette and Chesapeake Boulevards, but there were additional substations at Granby Street by Willow Wood Bridge, and on Hampton Boulevard near the Naval Base. It was also Virginia Power that built the Amusement Park in Ocean View. The original purpose of the park was to increase ridership (and fares) on weekends. They worked with Otto Wells, co-owner of the Wells Theater, to build and operate the park.
Armistead Avenue was created by filling in the former Paradise/Glebe Creek after the yellow fever epidemic of 1855. Interestingly, according to maps from the mid-1800s, Paradise/Glebe Creek was the northernmost branch of Smith Creek. Smith Creek is the body of water that the Tide Light Rail crosses over on a bridge adjacent to Brambleton Avenue by PETA headquarters and the American Red Cross building. The creek ended approximately where HRT Building #4 is located today. That is quite a distance for a creek!
Around 1924, Trant Motor Company constructed a building for its auto dealership on the corner of 13th Street and Monticello Avenue. By 1950, the dealership was operating as Kline Chevrolet. Today, it is the location of the U-Haul facility, and if you walk by and use your imagination, you can easily visualize how the ground floor functioned as an automobile showroom.
Aerial photography from 1937 shows that the area along Monticello Avenue was ever-changing. The east side parcel remained undeveloped, except for a service station on the northeast corner of Monticello Avenue and Princess Anne Road.
Mid-Century Momentum
A 1940 city directory listing shows the east side of Monticello Avenue was now almost completely lined with gas stations, car dealerships, and auto repair shops. The west side was predominantly commercial buildings, interspersed with a few residences.
In 1960, Norfolk Motor Company built a showroom at 1500 Monticello Ave. The rectangular, one-story building, with a 10-bay glass facade, occupied the entire northwest side of the block. The owner had terrazzo flooring imported from Europe. The building also featured a large parking lot, and a small auto repair shop located at the rear.
By 1965, according to the Norfolk city directory, Norfolk Motor Company occupied 1400 and 1500 Monticello Ave. By 1970, the dealership had changed names to Hoff Cadillac/Oldsmobile. If you look closely at the photo of the dealership, you can see a set of stairs that lead up to the second-floor offices.
By the 1970s, the era of car dealerships on Monticello Avenue was ending. The adjoining neighborhoods were changing, and automobile dealers went in search of more land. They relocated to Virginia Beach Boulevard, where many of them can still be found operating today.
The 1979 city directory listed 1400 Monticello Ave. as vacant, and 1500 Monticello Ave. was being leased to the Salvation Army for a warehouse. On January 15, 1980, Tidewater Regional Transit (TRT) purchased the property for $350,000 from Norfolk Motor Company. The purchase was completed with the help of a federal grant from the Urban Mass Transportation Act (UMTA), which is now the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). By then, the original glass-enclosed showroom had been largely enclosed. However, the imported terrazzo flooring was kept intact.
TRT administrative staff moved to 1500 Monticello Ave. in 1981. The location housed a board room for meetings of the Tidewater Transportation District Commission, offices for the President and CEO and other senior executives, a smaller conference room for subcommittee meetings of the HRT Board, and offices for service planning and scheduling, engineering and facilities, procurement, Traffix, marketing and public affairs, as well as other administrative staff. A customer call center was in a small building attached to the main building.
In addition to the offices and conference rooms, directly behind the boardroom was an area that served as the repair shop for the non-revenue vehicles and offices for the mechanics who serviced the non-revenue fleet. There was also a storage area for printed schedules, spare office furniture, and parts. Ironically, when the building operated as a car dealership, this area was where customers brought their cars for service.
If you consider the typical layout of any modern automobile dealership, there is always a section that is separate from the showroom floor and the sales team. This area houses offices for the financing staff and personnel who want you to purchase rustproofing, extended warranties, and protective paint seals. The second floor of the former dealership on 15th Street was the location of those offices, and when TRT moved in, those offices served as the offices for the President and CEO and members of the Executive Team.
On the former showroom floor, a half of a bus was used as an educational tool for visiting school children. It was a very popular destination for school field trips. On any given day during the school year, the agency would host children from schools throughout Hampton Roads. The bus gave children an opportunity to sit behind the wheel and learn about the importance of public transportation.
As the agency expanded, the former showroom floor was converted into additional office space. The bus was donated to the Children’s Museum in Portsmouth, which is still on display today. It’s ironic to think that the former showroom floor, used to sell single-occupant vehicles, was being used to teach young people the value of public transportation.
A Merger and a Move
TRT merged with Peninsula Transit (PENTRAN) on October 1, 1999, creating Hampton Roads Transit (HRT). HRT continued administrative functions out of 1500 Monticello Ave. until May 2012, when staff were relocated to their current location in the 18th Street campus.
After HRT staff relocated to Building #4 of the new complex at 18th Street, the vacant building at 15th Street became a target for vandalism and provided shelter for the unhoused. The building was stripped of anything valuable, including copper piping, bathroom and lighting fixtures, office furniture, electrical conduits, and wiring. Anything that could be removed from the building was removed. The building’s last formal use was as a training center for Norfolk firefighters, who practiced search and rescue operations by punching through the roof as if it were on fire.
HRT selected a development team to construct the new 18th Street campus, and as part of the deal HRT sold the 15th Street property to the developer for $1.7 million in 2016. The developer had plans to build 160 apartments, 10,000 square feet of retail space, and a parking structure for the residents. Unfortunately, the president of the company passed away shortly after the sale, and the plans never materialized. The property sat vacant and was put up for sale and in 2024, it was finally purchased.
The photos below illustrate the condition of the building before HRT demolished it in 2017.
Click here to for expanded view of photos.
A New Chapter Begins
In late 2024, the Norfolk Planning Commission and the Norfolk City Council approved plans to split 1500 Monticello Ave. into three distinct development parcels. The first business to be announced was Raising Cane’s. It will be located on the northernmost corner of the property. For anyone keeping track, that will make three chicken places in a row along Monticello Avenue – Raising Cane’s, Chick-fil-A, and KFC. The second parcel will become home to Norfolk’s first First Watch restaurant. We are still waiting to hear what will be constructed on the southernmost edge of the property.
From our perch at Armistead Avenue, HRT staff watch with anticipation as the transformation along Monticello Avenue unfolds. Fifteenth Street and the surrounding area have witnessed many changes in land use, street names, growth, and even a yellow fever epidemic. At its heart – and mine – it will always be a piece of valuable land that serves the transportation needs of the citizens of Norfolk. I look forward to seeing what the next 100 years will bring!
