Norfolk and Portsmouth City Directories, 1851-1931

The city directories are great resources of information about Norfolk, Berkley, and Portsmouth from the 1850s to 1931. The older city directories list local businesses and individuals living in Norfolk and Portsmouth. In most cases, individual entries include home, work, and some family information. Business and organizational entries frequently list locations and leadership. The directories are generally divided into four sections: business advertisements, alphabetical listing of people and businesses, reverse street directory, and business/local government directory. The city directories were usually published annually and contain the previous year's information. However, there are instances of multiyear directories or, in rare cases, no directories published for a certain year.

The Sargeant Memorial Collection wishes to thank Joan Dalis for her most generous donation which made this project possible. Also, many thanks to the local history collections in the Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach public libraries for their collaborative efforts to preserve history.

These directories are solely for research purposes. Commercial reprints are prohibited.