In February of 1885, two lots on Jefferson Avenue—one owned by J.B. Harrington (131) and the other (125) by his wife—went up for auction. Mr.  Harrington, it seems, had taken out a loan with the Cottage Building Fund Association and had defaulted. Harrington had owned the properties since at least 1877, since the lots (then undeveloped) appear with his and his wife’s names on them on the Beers Map of that same year. The loan in question was taken out in 1879, and so it is possible that the funds were secured for the purpose of building the homes which stand there today.

John Benjamin Harrington was born in Petersburg, Virginia in 1838 to John and Mary Harrington. He arrived in Danville around 1857. During the Civil War, he served with the Eighteenth Virginia Regiment and remained in service from 1861 until 1865. At the time of Lee’s surrender, Mr. Harrington was incarcerated in a northern prison. He married Isabella “Bella” F. Burns prior to the war in 1860, and the couple had three children. Mr. Harrington was a confectioner, baker, and restaurant owner with premises on Craghead Street. In 1894, Mrs. Harrington died, and six years later her husband followed, having suffered a heart attack in his Craghead Street restaurant, where he collapsed and died unexpectedly.

When the Harrington’s Jefferson Avenue property went up for auction in 1885, both lots were purchased by James Wood. Not much is known about Mr. Wood. He was born in 1831 in Virginia and married Caroline Chambers on the 9th of January 1854 in Culpeper, Virginia. The couple had five children. James, who resided at 131, was a tobacco buyer and had offices at 125 under the title Wood & Son. Mr. Wood died in 1886, just months after acquiring the home. His widow remained, and when she died in 1898, a squabble ensued as to the division of the estate. The youngest child, Lizzie, took her brother to court over the matter, and in 1899, the house was sold at auction and purchased by Bettie M. Douthat. The Douthat family figures heavily in the development of the Old West End, and we have discussed them many times before. Anderson Wade Douthat, brother of Bettie, was owner and founder of Douthat Riddle Coal Company. He is responsible for building the homes at 503 and 507 Holbrook Avenue, while his brother, Fielding Lewis built the home at 133 Holbrook, while next door, at 135 Holbrook Avenue, a home was constructed for their four accomplished, educated, and unmarried sisters. Another sister, Mildred Riddle, lived on the 700 block of Holbrook Avenue in a house that no longer stands (though she also lived for a time at 941 Green Street). The Douthat family arrived in Danville about 1895 from Charles County. Whether they ever lived in the Jefferson Avenue house is unclear. Records suggest it was used as a boarding house.

In the mid 1900s, the Douthats suffered a number of financial reverses, and in 1906, the Jefferson Avenue home was levied twice, once on February and again in December, to pay debts. The guarantor was W.E. Peters. In 1912, unable to pay the loan, the house was sold, and thereafter (and indeed for a few years previous) the house was home to a series of renters. Among the residents in 1910 was Silas Robinson, a dry goods dealer and his wife Florence.

In 1912, unable to meet the terms of the loan, and with debts mounting, the house went once more up for auction to be acquired by Patton, Temple, and Williamson, real estate investors. In 1919, the house was sold again, this time to be purchased by W.J. Hutcherson who is identified by the city directory as having lived here in 1927, though census records identify renter Rufus Robinson as residing here as well as early as 1920. Mr. Robinson was a life insurance salesman who shared the home with his wife Lucy. Also in residence was a 34 year old architectural draftsman named Howard Bowers and a 46 year old tobacco auctioneer named William Hutchinson (not to be confused with Hutcherson) who lived her with his 27 year old wife Virginia. By 1930, Morris Motley, a tobacconist, was living here with is wife and six children.

In 1937, Mr. Hutcherson died, and the house was once more in chancery. John H. Adams made an offer of $4,200 and thereby acquired the property. Though the Adams family rented out rooms to both “renters” and “lodgers”, they maintained their own residence here for the ten years that followed their acquisition.

John Henry Adams was born in 1907 in Halifax, Virginia. He married Irma Jane Motley in July of 1935. Irma was a native of Danville having been born in 1904.

The Adams sold the home in 1947 when is work as a tobacconist took him to Douglas, Georgia. For the  next forty years, the home would belong to Mariellen Hoffman and her husband Kenneth Weakley. The house was maintained as rental property while the couple resided on Randolph Street. For twelve years in the late 80s and 90s it was owned by the Shields family, real estate investors.

At last, in 2004, it was purchased by Rod Tomlinson and Maria Mejias who moved to Danville from Long Island, New York to restore both Jefferson Avenue house and the Lee Boatwright House at 904 Main Street. The home was featured on the Danville Historical Society’s Holiday Tour in 2004. It has continued to be maintained as rental property since that time.

Sources:
Census and Vital records found at Familysearch.org
Images and vital information, including biographical sketches found at FindaGrave.com
Death notices and other information found in the Danville Register, Danville Bee and other newspaper archives at Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe