Growing up in Danville, Elecia Chumley was cared for by her grandmother while her mother was at work. During those times, Elecia and her grandmother would watch The Munsters. It was from these early formative experiences that Elecia grew up to have a dual love for old houses and Halloween. From the time she was a small child, she remembers driving through Danville and admiring the old houses. One in particular, the Acree House at 833 Main Street, always stood out to her as particularly interesting in its architecture and detail.

Elecia attended college in North Carolina, and it was shortly after she returned to Danville that she met her husband, Wyatt Lee Carter, after a mutual friend invited them to a cookout. He, too, shares her love of Halloween and old houses and, on Halloween of 2020, the couple were married.

Both Elecia and Wyatt come from a long line of Danville natives. In fact, Wyatt’s first name is his mother’s maiden name. His grandfather, Hugh Wyatt, was a detective for the Danville Police Department in the 1970’s. Senator Landon Wyatt was his great uncle.

Elecia’s family were French Hugonots, among them were the Sublet family who built the original home at 878 Main Street now owned by Tom Belles and Carla Minosh.

Elecia works as a medical laboratory scientist and Wyatt is a science teacher and track coach at Galileo Magnet High School. Since they met, and particularly since they married, they have been keeping their eyes peeled for the perfect historic home. When the Acree house went into foreclosure a few years back, the couple made plans to see it. They instantly felt it ought to be theirs but they were not, at that time, in a position to buy it. They were pleasantly surprised, however, when, not long after, they drove by to find the house being cleaned out in preparation for resale. They visited the house again and they immediately made an offer.

The house, they feel, is really perfect for them. Though it has been used as a boarding house for many years and the rooms consequently cut up and divided, nothing was done to it that could not be easily undone. One of the first things to go was a partition wall in the home’s twin parlors.

As for the floors and woodwork, they are all in good condition and the detailed woodwork in the foyer is particularly well preserved. They were sorry to see that a fireplace mantel has disappeared from the dining room, but they hope to relocate it or at least find one they might replace it with.

Portions of the house have aluminum siding, which they are looking forward to taking off, but as they are aware of the house having suffered two fires, one on Christmas eve of 1935, and again in 1965 when the two neighboring houses were destroyed, they fear there may be some fire damage beneath it and so they intend to wait until they are prepared to deal with whatever surprises the “unwrapping” might present.

Elecia and Wyatt look forward to turning the house once more into a single-family residence. They hope to entertain there and to use it as an anchor to bring more Halloween spirit into the neighborhood. “We want the house to breathe and come back to life and bring that laughter and camaraderie and fun back into its walls,” Elecia says.

Despite its several owners and its many, many inhabitants, the home was not entirely devoid of treasures to be found. By comparing the current floorplan to early Sanborn maps (the colorized versions of which are available at the Library of Congress website) she was able to see how the porch had changed shapes over the years. She decided to do some digging underneath and found part of a water feature that used to be there. In the back yard, near the rear fence was another in the shape of a woman. Also in the back yard is a 100 year apple tree.

Another interesting item which turned up was a photograph of a young man who may have been the son of Powhattan Fitzhugh Conway who lived here, or perhaps it’s an ancestor of the Terrys.

Elecia and Wyatt are really excited to bring their new old home back to life, and they are equally excited about the progress Danville is making in its revitalization. Elecia has travelled quite a bit, particularly around the United States, and in many of the cities she’s visited, whether its New Orleans or Savannah or elsewhere, she has admired the ways in which these cities have preserved their rich history. She’s happy to see Danville at last embracing that spirit.