Encompassing approximately 60 acres just outside of downtown Norfolk, the Granby Street Suburban Institutional Corridor historic district is home to some of the city’s most impressive institutional architecture designed by locally prominent architects and firms. Suburbanization of the area began after Norfolk made its largest single annexation in 1923, which added 30 square miles of land and 30,000 additional residents into the city’s jurisdiction. The Institutional Corridor developed in the mid-20th century after the emergence of a nationwide trend to create self-sustaining communities in large cities where residents could live, learn, worship, and gather without having to travel downtown. The buildings within the corridor, in their current and historic uses, represent the diversity of the surrounding Greek, Jewish, and African American communities and their respective histories. Home to the oldest Masonic Lodge in Norfolk (and one of the oldest in Virginia), the district is also associated with historic fraternal organizations and elderly care institutions that moved to the suburban corridor to better serve their members and to provide residents easier access to services. Several forms of high-style architecture feature prominently in the district, including Colonial and Classical Revival, Moderne, and New Formalism. Historic buildings within the corridor include Granby High School, Temple Israel, Greek Orthodox Church and Hellenic Community Center, Mt. Zion AME Church/Mt. Zion Baptist Church, and Talbot Park Baptist Church, to name a few.