J. Thomas Newsome House

J. Thomas Newsome House
J. Thomas Newsome House, September 2012
J. Thomas Newsome House is located in Virginia
J. Thomas Newsome House
Location within Virginia
J. Thomas Newsome House is located in the United States
J. Thomas Newsome House
Location within the United States
Location2803 Oak Ave., Newport News, Virginia
Coordinates36°59′23″N 76°24′18″W / 36.98972°N 76.40500°W / 36.98972; -76.40500
Area0.3 acres (0.12 ha)
Built1898 (1898)
Architectural styleQueen Anne
NRHP reference No.90001831[1]
VLR No.121-0052
Significant dates
Added to NRHPDecember 19, 1990
Designated VLRDecember 12, 1989[2]

J. Thomas Newsome House is a historic home located at Newport News, Virginia. It was built in 1898, and is a 2+1⁄2-story, seven-bay, asymmetrical, frame Queen Anne style dwelling. It features a steeply pitched irregularly composed roof, three sided bay, front Palladian window, and corner tower. From 1906 until 1942, it was the residence of J. Thomas Newsome (1869–1942), an African-American attorney and journalist.[3]

The restored house is open to the public as the Newsome House Museum & Cultural Center, and features exhibits related to African-American art, history and culture.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.[1]

Early history

In 1899, the house was constructed by the Granger family, a prominent African American professional family in Newport News, following their relocation from Oklahoma Territory in 1895. William R. R. Granger, a physician and former public official, built the residence as a permanent home for his family during Newport News’s late-19th-century industrial expansion. [4] [5]

The family’s son Lester Granger, later a nationally recognized civil rights leader and executive secretary of the National Urban League, was born in Newport News in 1896, prior to the completion of the house. The Granger family’s residence reflects broader patterns of African American migration and settlement in industrializing cities of the Upper South during this period. [6]

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ↑ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  3. ↑ Virginia Hamlet (August 1988). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: J. Thomas Newsome House" (PDF). Virginia Department of Historic Resources. and Accompanying photo
  4. ↑ "J. Thomas Newsome House". SAH Archipedia. Society of Architectural Historians. Retrieved December 25, 2025.
  5. ↑ "The Granger Family of Newport News". Ivy50. February 5, 2007. Retrieved December 25, 2025.
  6. ↑ King Institute. "Granger, Lester Blackwell". The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Stanford University. Retrieved December 25, 2025.
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