Built in 1880 by Henry DuBois Van Wyck, the Academy of Music was fine of the finest theaters south of Washington, DC. It was designed by John R. Niernsee & Son architects of Baltimore and James H. Calrow of Norfolk was the contractor. Theater was 200’ x 150’, could seat 1,600 in the auditorium. The land for the theater was owned by the Selden estate. Dr. William Selden had purchased it in December, 1843. He died in 1855 during the Yellow Fever Epidemic.

The Academy was destroyed by fire on April 4, 1930.  The remains of the burned out theater was repurposed into the Selden Arcade with construction started in September 1930.

Major Keywords/Search Terms:

Lost Norfolk  |  Norfolk Theaters | Downtown Norfolk | Academy of Music

Sources:

 1)    Primary Sources:

             1)    Books and Pamphlets:

                                 City Directories: (selective)

             2)   Collections, Documents, etc.:

• • • • • Academy of Music Ledger, MSS 0000-183

        • Packet "Block 73", Guaranty Title and Trust Corporation Records

        • "Box 45, Folder 10: Theater - Academy of Music, 1901-1927," Norfolk Ephemera Collection, MSS 0000-NEC

        • Norfolk Newspaper Musical Index, 1800-1971, MSS 0000-135

        • Jane M. Ruffin Scrapbook, MSS 0000-071

        • "Box 9, Folder 7: Papers of Bettie S. West, 1887-1891," Wilson Family Papers, MSS 0000-659

             3)   Maps:

• Sheet 4 - Insurance Maps of Norfolk, Virginia. New York: Sanborn-Perris Map Co, Apr. 1887. 

• Sheet 1 - Hopkins, Griffith Morgan. Atlas of the City of Norfolk, Va. and Vicinity, Including the City of Portsmouth: From Official Records, Private Plans and Actual Surveys. Philadelphia: G.M. Hopkins, 1889.

• Sheet 1 - Sanborn-Perris Map Co. Insurance Maps of Norfolk, Virginia. New York: Sanborn-Perris Map Co, 1898. 

• Volume 1, sheet 3 - Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Maps of Norfolk, Virginia, 1910. New York: The Company, 1910.

• Volume 1, sheet 8 - Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Maps of Norfolk, Virginia. New York: Sanborn Map Co, 1928.

      4)   Newspapers/Magazines/Journals:

• “Fire Rings Down Curtain at Old Academy of Music, One of City's Landmarks,” Virginian-Pilot, April 5, 1930, Front page, page 5, and last page.

             5)   Photographs and Imagery:

• Negative Packet # 114 - Virginian-Pilot Photograph Collection, Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Public Library, Norfolk, Virginia.

• "Norfolk - Theaters," SMC Postcard Collection, Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Public Library, Norfolk, Virginia.

• Mann negative number: MA 67 and MA 693 - Harry Cowles Mann Photograph Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia. 

2)    Secondary Sources:

             1)    Books and Pamphlets:

• Parramore, Thomas C., Peter C. Stewart, and Tommy Bogger. Norfolk: The First Four Centuries. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000.

             2)   Collections, Documents, etc.:

• "Norfolk, VA - Theaters - Academy of Music," Sargeant Memorial Collection Norfolk Clippings Files, Sargeant Memorial Collection, Norfolk Public Library, Norfolk, Virginia.