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The Albert Griggs House, 852 Green Street
Prior to 1870, the land upon which 852 Green Street now stands was part of the vast estate of Nathaniel T. Green. Mr. Green died just prior to the Civil War, and in 1870, his children began selling off portions of the property, including a large section facing Green Street which was purchased by George Whitfield Read. The large lot extended from the boundary of the Crumpton property at 838 Green Street to that of Dr. T.D. Stokes, who, in 1884, would sell the rear portion of his property (his own home faced Pine Street) to H.W. Brown who would build his large home and elaborate gardens at the at…
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St. Peter’s Greek Orthodox Church, 116 Jefferson Ave
By 1943, with Danville’s Greek population growing, trustees for the congregation of Greek Orthodox worshipers announced the acquisition of a site for the future construction of a church. The lot was purchased as a partition from the lot of the Bruce James home at 803 Main Street and was conveyed to them by Dr. James’ widow, Annie Schoolfield James. The congregation chose architect Robert W. Thompson to design the Gothic revival structure, and Thompson in turn chose to construct the building of stone quarried in Crab Orchard, Tennessee. Prior to the construction of the building, members met across the street in the basement of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany.…
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Spooky Season 2025
It’s that time of year, and the ghosts have come out of hiding and won’t leave (including myself—yes, I’m still here). It’s not very often we hear of new ghost stories in the OWE, but we have one or two new ones and a few old ones to recall and to add onto! Firstly, you will perhaps recall the name of Harry Ficklen, at one time a well-known figure in Danville. The Haunting of Harry Ficklen Harry Campbell Ficklen was born in 1862 and arrived in Danville with his family in 1860. You can read more about the Ficklens here. The Ficklens owned a large tract of land on…
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The Peter Booth House, 247 West Main Street
The home at 247 West Main Street was constructed in 1914 at the direction of Peter Booth who, with his brother Charles, was responsible for the four nearly identical houses on this section of West Main Street. Legend has it that the work was done by four Italian men who placed each of the stones quarried and transported by train from Mt. Airy, North Carolina by hand and that no two are alike. Using a frame of wooden scaffolding they expertly erected the two-foot thick walls, taking two years to complete the work. By 1916 Peter Booth and his family were in residence. Peter Louis Booth was born in Franklin…
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The W.T. Hughes House, 233 West Main Street
In September of 1912, Peter and Charles Booth purchased two lots on West Main Street from The Mount Vernon Villa Company. Two years after the brothers built their identical homes of Mt. Airy granite at 243 and 247 West Main Street, they built two additional houses at 233 and 235 West Main Street. The home at 233 West Main Street, completed in 1914, was constructed in a fashion nearly identical to its cousins (though on a narrower scale) for the purpose of speculation. Starting shortly after the home’s construction, the family of W.T. Hughes took occupancy as renters. Two years later, they purchased the home. William T. Hughes, a native…
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The First Peatross House, 864 Pine Street
The brick Italianate home at 864 Pine Street was built by Richard Warner Peatross who purchased the land in 1877 from the Worsham estate. The house was likely built that following year. Richard Warner Peatross was born on the 28th of October 1839 in Caroline County on the farm his grandfather homesteaded upon emigrating from Wales in the late 1700’s. The sixth child of ten born to Robert Sale Peatross and Anna Elizabeth Scott Peatross, Richard spent the early years of his education at home before going on to Emory and Henry College. He graduated in 1861 and shortly thereafter joined the cause of the Confederacy. He was present at…
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The James Pritchett House, 108 West Main Street
When James Pritchett, Jr. purchased the property at 108 West Main Street from A.W. Traylor in 1910, a wood frame home stood there designed in the traditional Victorian Queen Anne style. Twelve years later, about 1922, the home was razed and the Tudor Revival house that stands there today was built. James Ira Pritchett, Jr. was born in Danville on the 7th of September 1883 to James I. Pritchett and Eleanor Hickson Pritchett whose home at 992 Main Street was raised to make way for the realignment of Holbrook Street with Holbrook Avenue. Mr. Pritchett owned and operated the Dan Valley Flour Mills located about where the new YMCA…
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The Charles Booth House, 243 West Main Street
In September of 1912, brothers Peter and Charles Booth purchased two lots on West Main Street from The Mount Vernon Villa Company, on which the two gentlemen built identical homes of granite quarried from Mount Airy, North Carolina. Charles and Peter divided their two lots into four (and then more) and built their homes at 243 and 247 West Main Street, respectively. Charles Louis Booth was born in Franklin County, Virginia on the 19th of August 1870, the second of four children born to Christopher Silas booth and Susan Elizabeth Wooding. The family moved to Danville in 1872 where Charles attended local schools. He attended Oak Ridge Institute in North…
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The Burton Double House, 149-151 Holbrook Avenue
After the death of F.X. Burton in 1904, his wife, Alice, became sole executor of his property and a real estate magnate and philanthropist in her own right. In 1910, she sold the double house at 149 and 151 Holbrook Avenue to Powhatan Fitzhugh Conway who lived at the time at 157 Holbrook Avenue. Mr. P. F. Conway was born 1867 near Danville. According to his published biography, he spent much of his youth in poor health and consequently was forced to quit school at a young age. He took his first job at seventeen for Messrs Bass, Brown & Lee who, at that time, operated the largest coal, wood,…
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The Bouldin-Bagby House, 130 Chestnut Street
On the 5th of January 1904, F.X. Burton sold the undeveloped lot at 412 Chestnut Street (now addressed as 130 Chestnut Street) to James W. Bouldin, “upon which lot said Bouldin built improvements”. By 1909, when Mr. Bouldin sold the property to J.L. Bagby in order to pay a debt to Ida Myer, the house had been constructed. James Wood Bouldin was born in Danville on the 15th of November 1871, the eldest son (of eight children) born to Edwin Edmunds Bouldin and Lucy Lyne Edmunds Bouldin (his parents were second cousins). He was educated in private school locally and then went on to attend Eastman National business College and…
