Hermitage Museum

Norfolk, Virginia

McPherson Design Group assisted with the design of renovations to the Hermitage Museum. The Hermitage Museum and Gardens consists of an early 20th century historic house museum with a world-wide art collection and contemporary exhibition galleries, surrounded by twelve acres of formal gardens and natural woodlands; educational wetlands; a Visual Arts School; and a Studio Artists Program. The house was built by William and Florence Sloane, wealthy New Yorkers who came to Hampton Roads in 1895 to operate textile mills. Named “Hermitage,” the house began in 1908 as a five-room summer home but soon became the Sloanes’ principal residence. Under Florence Sloane’s active direction, the Arts and Crafts style house was reoriented and expanded to its final forty-two rooms by 1936. 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 permanently in 1942, following a short closing after the death of her husband in 1940. Florence Sloane remained in residence at the Hermitage until her death in 1953, while her youngest son, E.K., lived in the house and lead the Hermitage Foundation until the early 1970s. The house and décor reflect the period when the Sloanes, a family with two boys, large Russian wolfhounds, horses, and sheep on the greensward, lived at the Hermitage. A tour gives the 21st century visitor a sense of the life and artistic interests of a wealthy family during the first half of the prior century. Today, the Hermitage actively supports arts and culture, maintaining and operating the house and grounds as a museum open to the public. In addition, the Hermitage offers a Visual Arts School, Studio Artists Program, twelve acres of gardens including an educational Wetlands Restoration program, and events and programs year-round.