Phoenix Bank of Nansemond is a historic

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

building located at

Suffolk, Virginia Suffolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as such has no county. As of the 2020 census, the population was 94,324. It is the 9th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia by boundary land area as ...

. It was built in 1921, and is a two-story, two bay, rectangular brick building. The bank was founded by a group of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

in 1919 and served the black farmers and laborers of Suffolk and surrounding

Nansemond County Nansemond is an extinct jurisdiction that was located south of the James River in Virginia Colony and in the Commonwealth of Virginia (after statehood) in the United States, from 1646 until 1974. It was known as Nansemond County until 1972. From ...

. The bank survived until 1931. an
''Accompanying four photos''
/ref> It was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1991. It is located in the

Suffolk Historic District Suffolk Historic District is a national historic district located at Suffolk, Virginia. The district encompasses 514 contributing buildings, 3 contributing structures, and 3 contributing objects in Suffolk. The district includes a variety of re ...

References

African-American history of Virginia Commercial buildings completed in 1921 Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Buildings and structures in Suffolk, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Suffolk, Virginia Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Virginia 1921 establishments in Virginia {{SuffolkVA-NRHP-stub