You have entered the Ghent District, a historic neighborhood in Norfolk that comprises Ghent, West Ghent, and Ghent Square. Here, the reach of Ghent’s commerce spills into nearby Chelsea and along North Colley Avenue, and you can sense the active gentrification pushing into portions of Park Place to the north, a stretch locally labelled "The Railroad District. The neighborhood’s edges are literal: Mowbray Arch and Brambleton Avenue mark the southern line along The Hague and the Neon District; the Elizabeth River holds the western rim; Monticello Avenue defines the east; and the railroad crossing at 22nd Street closes the loop to the north.
Listen to the stories people tell: one commonly referenced tale says that around 1810 a man named J. Moran became owner of a swath of land along the Elizabeth River and, inspired by the end of the War of 1812 and James Madison’s ratification of the Treaty of Ghent, named his estate "Ghent. Another account holds that in the 1830s Commodore Richard Drummond purchased that farmland from Moran, though it was not yet named. Those two founding stories settle here, your attention framed by the streets and river that shape Ghent.