Locksmith Services in Norfolk, VA

Homes and locks in Norfolk

Ghent went from farmland to a planned neighborhood in the late 1800s. Smith's Creek was renamed The Hague, marshland was filled to echo Dutch canals, and Mowbray Arch became the favored street for stately houses. The National Register district counts 184 contributing buildings, many of them Queen Anne, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival homes.

Park Place, roughly bounded by Colley Avenue, 24th Street, Granby Street and 38th Street, grew from 1884 as a streetcar suburb. Its historic district has 1,525 contributing buildings: Queen Anne and Shingle Style homes mixed with churches, theaters, shops and industrial buildings.

Colonial Place is a peninsula bordered by 38th Street on the south and by the Lafayette River on its other three sides. It was built mostly between 1903 and 1941, largely single-family homes with a few apartment buildings, and many large houses front the water.

Near downtown, East Freemason holds buildings from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s, including the Moses Myers House. West Freemason was the first Norfolk historic district listed on the National Register.

Where an original door is worth keeping, lock rekeying changes which keys work while the existing lock and door stay in place.

Businesses and buildings

The Downtown Historic District, centered on Granby Street, is the city's oldest and longest-occupied commercial quarter. The Norfolk & Western Railroad Historic District holds commercial and light industrial buildings from the 1880s onward around the Lambert's Point rail spur.

Several city landmarks are industrial: the 1908 First Colony building, first a peanut storage warehouse and later a coffee warehouse, the 1918 Linde Air factory and the Tidewater Supply Company warehouses. For shop, office and warehouse doors, see commercial locksmith.

Car trouble in Norfolk

The city's flood parking strategy opens designated garages to residents' cars when tides are forecast to reach 4.5 feet or higher at Sewells Point and the Office of Emergency Management activates it.

For the September 2026 activation, the notice listed the York Street Garage at 215 W. York St. through 5 p.m. Friday, September 25, and the Constant Center 43rd Street Garage at 1067 W. 43rd St. through 11:59 p.m. that night, ahead of a Saturday football game at Old Dominion University. Vehicles left past the posted times are subject to citation and towing at the owner's expense. The same notice warned of tidal flooding on parts of Hampton Boulevard and Brambleton Avenue.

If keys end up locked inside a car parked in a flood garage, a car lockout request should name the garage, the level and the move-out deadline.

Local rules worth knowing

Code of Virginia § 15.2-2306 lets a locality delineate historic districts by ordinance, and that ordinance may provide that no building or structure, including signs, be erected, reconstructed, altered or restored in a district unless the review board, or on appeal the governing body, approves it as architecturally compatible.

In Norfolk, the Architectural Review Board reviews development and alterations in the Downtown, East Freemason, West Freemason, Ghent and Norfolk & Western Railroad districts. Before replacing an exterior door or visible hardware in one of those districts, check whether the change needs the board's approval. This is general information, not legal advice.

Requesting service in Norfolk

Virginia Locksmith Pros takes service requests from homes, businesses and drivers in Norfolk. Include the neighborhood and nearest cross streets, whether the property is in a local historic district and, for an apartment, how to get through the building entrance. See house lockout, the Virginia page, or nearby Virginia Beach.