The Hermitage Museum consists of an early 20th century residence surrounded by twelve acres of formal gardens and natural woodlands and hidden in a residential neighborhood. Yet it is within minutes of the largest U.S. naval base, the world's busiest coal pier, and a major East Coast container port. The property is bordered on three sides by the Lafayette River, a tributary of the tidal estuary that threads through Hampton Roads.

The Hermitage's house museum itself combines brick, stucco, and timber with New England shingle style, as adapted throughout Tidewater Virginia. The house was built by William and Florence Sloane. The Sloanes were wealthy New Yorkers, but in 1895, they came to Hampton Roads where Mr. Sloane operated textile mills. Named "The Hermitage", the house began in 1908 as a five room vacation home but soon became the Sloane’s principal residence. Eventually under Mrs. Sloane's active direction, the house was reoriented and expanded to its final forty-two rooms. The original architect and builder of the Hermitage was Charles J. Woodsend, who lived in the Cottage and worked in a substantial workshop adjacent to the Water Tower, both still on the Hermitage property.

The house is decorated with hand carving, executed in natural oak and cypress, around windows and doors, on the eaves, and in interior paneling and moldings. Leaded glass windows have inserts of stained glass. Hand-wrought iron objects, both decorative and utilitarian, can be found outside and inside the house. The house combines many styles, cultures, and periods. In addition to carved wood and wrought iron, stone, tile, and plaster abound. Details, including hidden closets and an early residential elevator, are found throughout.

The Sloane's had broad artistic interests and were educated collectors. They were among the leading founders of the Norfolk Society of Arts and the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, now the Chrysler Museum, also in Norfolk. Mrs. Sloane also maintained friendships and corresponded with prominent artists, some of whom are represented in the Sloane Collection.

The Sloanes established the Hermitage Foundation, a non-stock, non-profit corporation, in 1937, as a museum to encourage development of arts and crafts and to promote the arts within the community. Ultimately, they contributed the house and its contents, the Hermitage grounds, and all outbuildings on the property to the Foundation. The Hermitage house museum opened to the public on January 1, 1947, although Mrs. Sloane remained in residence until her death in 1953, and one of her sons lived in the house and lead the Hermitage Foundation until the early 1970s.

The house museum and its contents basically remain as the Sloanes, a family with two boys, large Russian wolfhounds, horses, and sheep on the greensward, lived in and with them. A visit to the Hermitage gives the 21st century visitor a sense of the life and artistic interests of a wealthy family during the 1st half of the prior century. Today, the Hermitage Foundation maintains and operates the house and grounds as a museum open to the public.



© 2006 Hermitage Foundation Museum. All Rights Reserved.

Other Reading:

Miss Lela M. Hine:
An Oral History (PDF)

Virginian-Pilot Excerpt, 1938:
"Sloanes Give Big Estate
To Foundation" (PDF)

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