Moses Myers House, Norfolk, VA

Moses Myers House, Norfolk, VA

The Moses Myers House is an outstanding example of a late nineteenth-century Federal home with a huge collection of original artifacts which includes: thousands of original documents and letters, several thousand books from the original library, a massive period sheet music collection, and a majority of the original art and furniture.

Moses Myers House, Norfolk, VA | Entry Hall

The house was home to the financially and politically prominent Myers family for five generations from its construction in the late nineteenth-century until 1931. Moses Myers and his new wife, Eliza, became the first documented Jewish residents of Norfolk in 1787 and built their house shortly thereafter. The Myers family’s role in Norfolk as Jews as well as leaders in business, government, and the community is the key to the historical context of the Myers family home. The Moses Myers house is an expression of the traditional culture and role of Jewish society in America from the earliest days of our nation’s history. Myers forged a new life in the otherwise uniformly Christian city of Norfolk while maintaining his status as a practicing Jew.

The Moses Myers House was found to be nationally significant under Criterion A in the area of Social History as the best surviving example of an early American Jewish home in the United States, while also possessing a high level of architectural integrity.