Old West End

Around 1890, William T. Sutherlin began selling off portions of his land in order to raise money to pay a debt. On the 1st of April 1890, lot no. 28, fronting Chestnut Street, was sold to Herbert Lee Boatwright. Boatwright soon thereafter commissioned the construction of a home for himself and his new wife, formerly Mary E. Vaughan. Born September 12, 1862 in Buckingham County, Herbert Lee Boatwright was the fifth child of seven born to Dr. John Guerrant and Pattie Pendleton Boatwright. The Boatwright family moved to Danville in 1865, when when “Lee”, as he was called, was just three years old. Lee’s father died in 1874, leaving Lee,…

By all accounts, May Talley was an enterprising woman for her times.  May (she later used the more authoritative Mae) was one of nine children born to Dr. Thomas Jefferson Patrick and Laura Crump Patrick.  A druggist, Dr. Patrick came to Danville in 1853 to work in the tobacco industry.  His sister, Jane, had married William T. Sutherlin, a respected tobacconist and innovator in the industry.  Several years later he gained notoriety in the events surrounding the end of the Civil War. May had a son, Herbert, but divorced the boy’s father in 1886, not something a woman commonly did in those days. In 1889, her aunt and uncle Sutherlin…

The house at 842 Green Street was built on a partition of the lot of neighboring 846 Green Street, the home of George King and Alice Griggs and was probably built by them as income-producing property sometime in the 19-teens. The Griggs family, who owned several hones on Green Street, had been involved for generations in tobacco. Of colonist stock, the Griggs family came to America from England. Four brothers arrived, one settling in Boston, another in New York and later New Jersey. Brothers Michael and Robert settled in Lancaster County, Virginia. Robert Griggs’ will (ca. 1690) left a “Thousand pounds of tobacco to the poore.” After the Revolutionary War,…

In 1907, Mathew Pate Jordan sold to William Bethel Hill an undeveloped portion of his property at 130 Holbrook Avenue. Mr. Hill was born October 18th, 1871, a native of Greensboro, North Carolina. He married Bessie West Miller in 1904. William’s father, William H. Hill was a partner in the foundation and establishment of Dan Valley Mills on the northside bank of the Dan River. William, Jr. became secretary-treasurer of the firm upon the passing of his father, soon after which appointment he became vice-president and served the company for twenty-five years. He was also vice-president of Piedmont Mills in Lynchburg, and later in his career he organized the Vansco…

The timeline of 136 West Main Street begins in 1898, when Eugene Withers, substitute trustee for Thomas B. Doe, sold two tracks of land to M.I. Hessburg of Richmond, Virginia, likely as an investment. In 1909, Hessman sold the latter home nominally to Mattie H. Kaufman, whose husband was local merchant, Julius Kaufman. The Danville Register and Bee of March 28 announced the event. Mr. Kaufman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the 18th of December 1860 to Elias and Babette Kaufman. He spent his childhood in Philadelphia and attended Philadelphia City College with the intention of becoming a lawyer. He was persuaded to quit law school, however, by an…

The property upon which the home at 888 Pine Street stands was once part of the estate of John T. Watson. In 1884 the lot was sold to W.Y. Noell. It was likely he who commissioned the Italianate home to be built there. William Young Noell was born in December of 1854 in Oak Hill, North Carolina, the son of James D. and Virginia Penick Noell. Educated in Halifax, he came to Danville in his twenties and found employment with the dry goods dealer Sol Fleishman. He later took employment with Estes and Wooding, another dry goods business, of which Mayor Harry Wooding was a partner. He eventually quit the…