The brick Georgian Revival apartment building situated at 944 Green Street was built around 1929 on land that was once part of the property of E.W. Arnett whose home faced Holbrook Avenue (pictured right) who purchased it from the estate of the late James Pinkney and Caroline Rivers Harrison in 1927.

Eugene “Willard” Arnett was born December 13, 1882 in Danville to Eugene Samuel Arnett and Mamie Dixon Arnett. He was educated at Danville Military Institute and then at Randolph Macon Academy. After leaving school, he was employed in the real estate business. In 1909 he married Perdita “Perdie” Butler, a native of Mountain City, Tennessee. The couple had six children.

Eugene died on January 15, 1968 in Memorial Hospital of a “cerebrovascular accident” following a brief illness. Three weeks later, on  February 9th, Perdie died peacefully in her sleep from causes unknown. The apartment building, as well as the house at 169 Holbrook Avenue, was left to Eugene Arnette, Jr.

Eugene Arnett, Jr. was born June 13, 1912 in Danville. He attended the College of William and Mary and then the University of Virginia, where he earned his medical degree. He served his internship at Duke University before setting up practice in Danville. He was married twice, first to Mary Ellis Slaughter in 1937, and then to Viola Kendrick in 1960. It’s unclear what happened to Mary. The couple did have one child in 1939 who took Mary’s name and whom they called “Bootsy”. Shortly after installation in the Holbrook Avenue home, Eugene, Jr., signed up for active duty in the Air Force and served as a surgeon during World War II. He was stationed at various military bases in the United States, and then in December of 1943 he sailed to Hawaii and then to Saipan followed by Ie Shima (Iejima). He returned home having been honorably discharged in August of 1945 after serving for three years.

It seems that Mary Ellis left Eugene shortly after his return. There are no accounts of her after 1945. According to the Social Security Death Index, she eventually moved to Pasadena, California, where she died in 1996.

For more about Dr. E.W. Arnett’s more colorful history and the reasons Mary may have left him, see the post on the Overbey House, 169 Holbrook Avenue.

In 1960 Dr. Arnett married his second wife, Viola Kendrick. After nineteen years and several arrests (his arrests not hers) she divorced him.

Though the building contained ten apartments, the only name we know for certain of the renters there was Charles Robert Willeford who, in 1945, was mentioned in the Danville Register and Bee as having arrived in Norfolk, Virginia, a Technical Sergeant and one “among 3,473 troops who arrived from Europe at Norfolk yesterday”.

Mr. Willeford, who went by his middle name, Robert, was born on the 13th of March 1919 in Danville, the son of Thayer Soule Willeford and Jessie Perkinson Willeford Williams. He was married twice, first to Mildred Brown who predeceased him in 1981. He married again, just four months later. His second wife was Anna Bowles, who survived him. Mr. Willeford worked as an insurance agent and real estate appraiser and was associated with Patton, Temple & Williamson Insurance Agency before establishing his own independent firm known as the Willeford Insurance Agency. In the years just prior to his death, he lived on Virginia Avenue. He passed away on the 5th of April 2000.

In 1969, Dr. Arnett and Viola sold the apartment building to Charles and Carolyne Thomas. When they divorced in 1985, she took sole possession of the building. Ten years later, it was sold to James and Christine Thomas.

Today the building is owned by Nathan and Reilley Jones who are restoring the building for future use as the Spectrum Hotel. Reilley is a local artist whose work has been featured on the Old West End Art Walks and in Evince Magazine. You can see her work here on her website.

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
Rootsweb