The land on either side of Green Street was once part of the large estate of Nathaniel Green. George Whitfield Read, a lawyer and member of the Danville bar, acquired a large portion of land from Green comprising several lots on the North side of Green Street. In 1870, a section of this parcel was transferred to Mr. Read’s wife, Charlotte, and to his unmarried daughter, Clara. Clara was a schoolteacher and ran a private school in a building that once stood next door where 858-860 is today. Clara also reportedly used the old Danville Female Academy building at Jefferson and Loyal Streets for a boarding and day school from 1880 to 1886. The Story of Danville by Jane Gray Hagan relates how Clara, upon hearing the reports of the advance of the Union Army following Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, “buried her silver so hurriedly and securely that she could never remember the spot.”
The Read-Clarke House at 862 Green Street was certainly standing in 1873 when it is mentioned in Charlotte Read’s will. Charlotte devised that the house and land should be passed to her daughters Martha and Clara. Martha, however, passed away before Charlotte did, and so the house was inherited by Clara, in 1892, who sold it to Lawrence C. Clarke.
Mr. Clarke was born in Charlotte County in 1861 and came to Danville as a young man. Here he founded L. C. Clarke & Co., a gun and hardware store which later expanded into other sporting goods. Mr. Clarke, along with his wife, Katie, and six children lived in the house until 1912 when it was sold to Peter Louis and Mary S. Booth of the West Main Booths. By 1919 the house was in the hands of Judge Cox Womack.
Mr. Womack was born in Caswell County in 1877. He came to Danville shortly after completing school and operated a shoe store for some 25 years. He was also one of the principal founders of Park’s Spring, a one-time resort between Danville and Yanceyville, North Carolina.
Mr. Womack lost his first wife after only eleven years of marriage. By 1920, he had remarried, and he and his new wife, Mary, had one child together, Sarah Jane, who was born in 1921. Though Mary lived until 1974, it does not appear that she and Mr. Womack stayed together. She is missing from the 1930 Census for this address and, it is in the mid-1920’s that the family began to have some serious financial trouble. Mr. Womack had taken out a series of loans on the house, and in 1930, the home was sold at auction.
It was the Brown family of Brown’s Floral who acquired the property, possibly as an investment, as it’s also about this time that the house began to transform into a multi-family unit with Mr. Womack staying on as its principal occupant at 864 while daughter Florence and her two children moved in with her ageing father.
H.W. Brown was 88 years old in 1930 when he acquired the property for $5,125.00. In 1934, when Mr. Brown passed, the house became the property of his unmarried daughter, Violet Brown and his daughter-in-law, Viola, who, in 1946, sold the house to William C. and Louis McCubbins. The McCubbins family did reside here for a time, even after the property was sold to Charles and Annie Teal in 1950’s, who resided in the house for some twenty years or so. The house stood vacant for many years starting in 1990 and has at last been purchased for restoration by Karen Jaworski.
Sources:
Deed records
U.S. Census records
Genealogical information found at familysearch.org
The Story of Danville by Jane Gray Hagan
Danville by Clara G. Fountain
Park’s Spring photo at nccha.org
Danville Bee
