The stately brick Queen Anne home at 150 Holbrook Avenue was built around 1888 for Danville lawyer Landon Carter Berkeley.

Mr. Berkeley was born in Westmoreland County in 1848, one of nine children born to Landon Carter Berkeley, Sr. and Sarah Ann Campbell. In 1880 he married Annie Poe Harrison. During his life he was considered one of the best lawyers in Danville and was well respected and liked by many. For many years he was associated with the partnership of Berkeley & Harrison, his partner being James Pinkney Harrison. (He occupied 169 Holbrook Avenue for some years in the 20’s until his death in 1925).

Mr. and Mrs. Berkeley had four children. Harrison Berkeley, known as “Harry”, the eldest, eventually followed his father into law. Landon Berkeley, Jr., began his career as a bank teller and then later was employed as a clothing store manager. Norborne Berkeley would one day become an executive for Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore, Maryland. Annie Berkeley never married and relocated to New York where she died in 1975.

The Berkeley children were merely teenagers when Mr. Berkeley died in 1904. His death came unexpectedly and, judging by the announcement in the papers, it clearly came as a shock to many. Indeed, Mr. Berkeley had appeared fit enough the day prior when he had been seen walking about town and otherwise conducting his daily business. Early the next morning he collapsed and was found lying unconscious on his bedroom floor by his wife. The doctor was called, but Mr. Berkeley, having suffered a heart attack, was unresponsive. His law partner, Mr. Harrison, was giving arguments before the Supreme Court in Richmond when the news came through, delivered to him by a representative of the Richmond Times Dispatch. He was stunned and found himself unable to deliver the conclusion of his arguments. The hearing ended, and Mr. Harrison boarded the first train for Danville.

Mrs. Berkeley continued to live in the home for many years following her husband’s death. According to the 1910 census, children Landon, then 21, and Annie, 24, were living there with her. They were still there in 1920. By 1930, she appears to have been living there alone. She passed away in 1939.

Mrs. Berkeley’s obituary, published in the Greensboro Daily News on Saturday, February 11, 1939, indicates that her life was extraordinary in her own right. Mrs. Berkeley was born a Harrison, as we mentioned earlier (no apparent connection with Mr. Berkeley’s business partner Mr. James Pinkney Harrison). Her father, Captain John P. Harrison, was a lawyer before the Civil War. He died in 1861 while in command of Company D, 5th Battalion, Virginia Infantry. While encamped near Drewery’s Bluff on the James River, he contracted typhoid and died shortly after returning to the home of his father-in-law in Hanover County where he died.  Later reports claimed he died in battle at Drewery’s Bluff but that is unlikely as the battle took place in 1864 and Captain Harrison died in 1861. The fatherless family witnessed armies from the north and the south converge upon the family home. A young woman, Miss Harrison saw the battle and hid in fear as she listened to the guns booming and the shells falling around her. One shell even struck the home itself but failed to explode.

After the war’s end, Miss Harrison enrolled at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. This new established school for women opened its doors in 1875, and Miss Harrison is said to have been the first pupil to be enroll. (Read more about her here.) According to Wellesley (information secured by Clara Fountain for the purpose of this article), Miss Harrison did not graduate, but left Wellesley to take a teaching position in Alabama. She later relocated to Maryland to accept another teaching position. Shortly thereafter, she met Landon Carter Berkeley, and in 1880 they were married. It was at that time that Miss Harrison, then Mrs. Berkeley, relocated to Danville. Mrs. Berkeley was engaged in many civic movements while living in Danville, including acting as a charter member of the Wednesday Club, whose historians and record keepers were enthusiastically helpful in assisting us in creating this post. Our thanks to them.

After Mrs. Berkeley’s death, the home was purchased by Lawrence Wilson, a teacher and coach at George Washington High School which was then located on Holbrook Avenue, just south of the house. Mr. Wilson was born in Sampson, North Carolina in 1897. He  shared the Holbrook home with his wife, Mary and their three children and remained in the home until his death in 1993.

Sources:
Photograph found with help from Clara Fountain.
Census, vital records, and identifying information found at Familysearch.org and Ancestry.com
Death notices and other information found at Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe