NORFOLK — When the United States banned the production and sale of alcohol in the early 20th century, one Norfolk homeowner said her place was known to serve thirsty locals during the time.
“The house was first built in 1918,” homeowner Raye Elliott, who has lived in the East Ocean Avenue home since 2015, said. “The previous homeowner that we bought it told us that when he was doing renovations down to the studs and that there were actually newspapers insulating the walls that dated back to 1914.”
The four-bedroom 2,795-square foot home faces the the Chesapeake Bay, with its own private walkway to the beach, which Elliott said is unique to homes in that area.
“Even though it’s right on the bay, it actually has a basement, which is kind of odd,” Elliott said. “You can get to it inside the house, but it has two exterior entrances — one on the street side and there’s also an entrance on the beach side.”
According to Elliott, a former caretaker who worked at the home said smugglers would bring liquor in by boat from the beach and use the street entrance to bring the booze to the city during Prohibition.
“We were also told that it was a speakeasy,” Elliott said. “Many told us it was known as the Portsmouth Pleasure House.”
Former Norfolk civic leader and NFL player George Hughes married into the Parker Family, who owned the home since it was built, and kept it in their name, until 2014 — about five years after he died.
“He was sort of a colorful character,” Elliott said. “He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1950s, in the early days of the NFL, and was on the city council in Norfolk.”
The interior features plaster walls, wood, tile and carpet floors, as well as an upstairs room Elliott calls the “sleeping porch.”
“It has a wrap-around porch on three sides of the house, and on the fourth side, at some point in the past, they enclosed it,” Elliott said. “There are beds that are built into the walls, almost like how they are on a ship.”
Elliott said she thinks the room was screened in at some point in its history, so people could sleep in cool temperatures during a time before air condition.
The house features three bathrooms, an upstairs and downstairs porch, a 10-foot deep swimming pool with a diving board, outdoor sauna, detached deck in the backyard, a kitchen with marble countertops, a two-car garage and large windows in most rooms giving bay side and street views.
This home is currently listed for sale through Atlantic Sotheby’s International Realty.
Where We Live is a feature looking at the homes and unique places to stay. Do you have a Southside home — on or off the market — that our readers may be interested in seeing? Let me know at [email protected].
