School History

In 1921, the first school building to be called “Norview” was a farmhouse, known as the Harlow house. In 1922, Norview students and their first principal, H.C. Barnes, moved into a new high school, on the site of what is now Norview Middle School. In June 1952, the cornerstone was placed for the new Norview High school building located on Middleton Place. The first class to graduate from this building was the class of 1955. At the time of its construction, this building was the largest high school in the state of Virginia, originally built to house 1400 students. The original cost was $3 million to build and $125,000 to furnish. Since then, other additions were made including a girls’ athletic area, guidance complex and 12 mobile classrooms. Air conditioning was added in 1999. Norview High’s community of Norview was part of Norfolk County, not the city of Norfolk. It is for this reason that Norview was the only high school to have its own football stadium, which was built by Norfolk County.

Until the mid-60’s, the “home” side of Chittum Field was the side nearest Chesapeake Boulevard. For want of more seating capacity, the bleachers opposite the traditional “home” side were made larger along with a larger press box; thereafter, this larger side became the “home” side. Chittum Field was modified again in 1981. This Norview has seen only three principals: Mr. C.W. “Bolo” Perdue, who used to coach Norview’s football team in the late 40’s was principal until 1982 and was succeeded by Mr. Claude Sawyer, who was principal until 1992. Mrs. Marjorie Stealey, the current principal, was appointed in 1992 and was the first woman to serve as a high school principal in Norfolk.

 At a cost of $31.7 million to build and $4.7 million to furnish, the new Norview is open to students. At approximately 288,000 square feet, it is twice the size of the building it replaced and is designed for 1800 students. The groundbreaking took place in June 2002 in the middle of the football field where the construction process started. The facility is now complete, including a new stadium adjacent to Sewell’s Point Road. Our school mascot, the “Pilot” biplane, has an interesting origin. One of the early principals enjoyed amateur flying and often practiced in a field near Norview. Norview “Pilots” became the accepted mascot and the most unique; as it is unlikely that there is any other school whose mascot is the “Pilots”. The alma mater was written by Arch “Pop” Manning…