City: Norfolk, VA

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (757) 423-2052

Address: 7637 North Shore Rd.

Description: You’ll be amazed at what is packed into this historic house museum off the Lafayette River. The place was built by William and Florence Sloane, who came from New York City to operate textile mills here.They named their home Hermitage and expanded it to 42 rooms by 1936. The couple were art collectors, and Florence Sloane was friends with and a pen pal to many artists. They established a foundation in 1937 and donated the house and its contents, as well as the gardens, to that foundation and opened the Hermitage house museum to the public in 1942. Mrs. Sloane lived in the house until she died in 1953, and her youngest son continued living there and running the foundation until the early 1970s.Today, there are more than 2,800 objects in the Sloane Collection on display throughout the home’s hand-carved oak, walnut, and teak galleries. The range is awe inspiring, from Neolithic jade to American paintings. Even the building furthers their desire to promote the Arts and Crafts movement. The Sloanes employed an English woodcarver named Charles J. Woodsend for more than two decades to hand carve and install the interior paneling. Others came to create the furniture or carve quotations into the lintels. The art is everywhere, from the portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Douglas Volk entitled Breasting the Winds by the stairs, to the Girl with a Shell bronze fountain by Edward McCarten that highlights the 12 acres of formal gardens that are often used for wedding ceremonies. As a special bonus, there’s a free playground for children on the grounds open from sunrise to sunset every day, with equipment, walking paths, and picnic tables to keep the youngsters entertained.The museum is closed on Wed and Thurs as well as most holidays. Admission to the house is $5, $3 for college students, $2 for kids 6 to 18, and free to younger children and active duty military. A Through the Garden Gate guided tour is offered on some summer Saturdays for $6.