In 1873, the City of Danville conveyed a large portion of land fronted by Green Street to H.A. Edmunson, “in trust for the use of Sallie R. Tredway” (his sister). She and her husband Moses built a house there at 820 Green Street.
In 1910, the Tredway children sold off the rear portions of that lot. D.P. Tate purchased the property that would become 817 Pine Street, but just a few years later, Tate sold the property to pay off a debt. The Home Building Loan & Investment company purchased it. About 1914 the house and its twin at 819 Pine Street were constructed. This home became the property of William J. and Catherine Reynolds Harris.
William Harris was born in Swansonville (now a community in Dry Fork) in 1885 to Stonewall Jackson and Sarah Elizabeth Boaz Harris. He married Catherine Reynolds in 1906. In the years just after their marriage, and prior to their residence at 817 Pine Street, the Harris family lived with Catherine’s parents, Hugh and Sarah Reynolds, at 814 Wilson Street. Mrs. Reynolds ran a boarding house there, but it seems all her lodgers were family members, including Mr. and Mrs. Harris and their son Garland, as well as Mrs. Harris’s three sisters and several nieces. Mr. Reynolds passed away in 1911 and when the Harrises took occupancy of their home at 817 Pine, Mrs. Reynolds came with them.
Mr. Harris began his career in the tobacco business, but by 1917 was a member of Danville’s police force, with which he was affiliated for many years. He was also a supervisor for a local ice company, though records do not specify which one. (Read more about Danville’s ice delivery businesses here.) By 1927, the couple had moved to Avondale Drive and a new family had taken residence.
The Altice family inhabited 817 Pine Street for the several decades that followed.
Walter Washington Altice and Lavisha “Nettie” Byrd were both born in 1883 in Franklin County, Virginia. They married in 1906 and came to Danville around 1927 to take occupancy of the Pine Street house from their residence in Gretna.
Walter was a telegrapher for the Southern Railway. They had several children, three of whom lived with them at the Pine Street residence. One son, Walter Raymond, was also a telegrapher for Southern Railway, while a daughter, Zadie, worked as a telephone operator.
Lavisha died in 1961, and in 1964 Mr. Altice remarried. When Mr. Altice passed away two years later of colon cancer, his new wife, Hattie Clay Pruitt Altice remained in the house. In 1972 she sold the property to Leonard G. Collins. The house was subsequently rented out and even sat vacant for a number of years before the Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority acquired it in 2014. The home is presently awaiting new owners.
Sources:
Census and Vital records found at Familysearch.org
Death notices and other information found in the Danville Register, Danville Bee archives at Newspapers.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe
