Granby Street was named in 1769 to honor Englishman John Manners (1721?–?1770), Marquess of Granby. The orig­i­nal street ran three blocks from Bute Street south to Town Back Creek, a semi-navigable stretch of marshland run­ning the length of today’s City Hall Avenue. Town Back Creek was a bar­rier to devel­op­ment in the north­ern por­tion of the Borough until a bridge was built in 1818 to span the creek at Granby. As it became more acces­si­ble, Granby Street was trans­formed into a res­i­den­tial area of stately homes.

The elec­tric street­car debuted in Norfolk in 1894, and neigh­bor­hoods were estab­lished along the route. Many Granby Street res­i­dents moved to the new sub­urb of Ghent, and busi­nesses of every kind replaced their former homes. By 1910, Granby Street sur­passed Main Street as Norfolk’s busiest shop­ping dis­trict. From 1976 to 1986 part of Granby was closed to vehic­u­lar traf­fic and renamed Granby Mall. Granby Street declined through the 1990s, but with the open­ing of Tidewater Community College and MacArthur Center it has been revi­tal­ized with res­i­dences, the­aters, and restaurants.

Marker is on Granby Street north of Main Street, on the left when traveling north.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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