Owens-Melvin House

James Edward Owens and Grace Catherine Melvin Owens, the college-educated children of formerly enslaved people, built this Queen Anne-style house ca. 1915. Their son Dr. Hugo Armstrong Owens, dentist and civil rights activist, was born here in 1916. After serving in World War II, Hugo Owens worked to desegregate public facilities in Portsmouth in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1970 he became one of the first two African Americans elected to the Chesapeake City Council. Owens served eight of his ten years on council as the city's vice-mayor. He sat on the Board of Visitors of Norfolk State University and was rector of both Virginia State University and Old Dominion University.