According to Gary Grant in Victorian Danville, it was in December of 1826 that William S. Plumer, a Presbyterian missionary, arrived in Danville. Plumer, a native of New Jersey, was sent by the Missionary Society of the Synod of North Carolina. He was to establish a local church. Missionary efforts twenty years earlier had failed to result in a permanent congregation. A year after his arrival, Plumer was ordained as the first pastor of the small congregation of 34 members.
Prior to 1828 meetings were held at the Danville Academy building, located at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Loyal Street. In that year a building was erected on Jefferson Avenue, just opposite where Patton Street now connects. That wood frame structure was the first church erected in Danville. In 1853, the building was replaced by a larger one of brick, which contained the city’s first pipe organ.
By 1879 the Presbyterians had outgrown their building, and a new one was erected in the same location. An appropriately grand and ornate Victorian Gothic style building with lancet windows and a façade rosette of stained glass, that building remains today.
In 1899 the Presbyterians purchased a grand pipe organ from the M. P. Moller Organ Company. It reportedly cost around $2,500 at the time. This organ is said to be the oldest in Danville still in its original location.
In 1910 the First Presbyterian Church began construction of the Greek Revival building on the corner of Main Street and Sutherlin Avenue. The Jefferson Avenue building was sold to the First Christian Church, which occupied it until 2004.
In July of 1978, a team of organ experts and enthusiasts examined the organ, which had fallen into some disrepair. A donation of $10,000 helped to restore the organ at that time.
When the First Christian Church left the building in 2004, the church was acquired by Homeretta Ayala and her husband Joseph, both of whom were church musicians in Maryland. The couple made improvements to the building, including a new roof, and opened the building up as a sort of concert hall, naming the building “Sacred Spaces”. They also renovated a rear apartment and rented it out in order to offset expenses. The Ayalas, unfortunately, fell short of their ultimate goal of restoring the original 1899 Moller organ, and in 2008 sold the building.
It was Mary Branzei who purchased it and continued mission to restore the building. Mary moved to Danville to be near her daughter, and, as such, lived in the building until the failing health of her parents forced her to move once again. She held onto the church for some time, hoping ultimately to return but ultimately decided to sell it.
In April of 2021, the church became the property of Jeremy DiMaio who is presently renovating the property with the plans of opening it up as an AirBnB. He has affectionately (and somewhat whimsically) dubbed the building the Church of the Perpetual Boogie.
