The Robert Ross House – 225-227 Jefferson Avenue
Reproduced with permission from Victorian Danville – Fifty-Two Landmarks: Their Architecture and History © 1977
While its antiquity and rarity have largely been overlooked, this building is one of the oldest houses in the city. An early nineteenth century double house (two rooms wide) of Late Federal design, it may be a contemporary of the house at 770 Main Street, the Lanier-Wyllie-Newman house erected in 1830.
Earliest records of the house – its date of construction and its first owners and occupants – have yet to be uncovered. The first known owner of the dwelling was Robert Ross, one of Danville’s four original town councilmen. In her History of Old Grove Street Cemetery, Miss Mary Mack noted that Robert and his brother John Ross were natives of the county of Antrim in what is now Northern Ireland. According to Miss Mack they became “proprietors of one of the first two stores in Danville, known under the name of the firm, John Ross and Company.” Their father, James Ross, was received by certificate from his church in Ireland as one of the first two members of the First Presbyterian Church.
Not too far from his brother’s home on present-day Jefferson Avenue, John Ross maintained a house that stood within his large lot, now the 800 block of Grove and Main streets. His three daughters – Sallie, the wife of Thomas B. Doe; Elizabeth, the wife of John B. Turpin; and Catherine, the wife of William S. Patton – were given part interest in the estate of their uncle, Robert Ross, who having never married had no immediate heirs upon his death in November of 1847. According to a deed book at the Pittsylvania County Courthouse in Chatham, the following September Mr. Patton and Catherine, his wife, acquired “the late residence of [her uncle] Robert Ross, deceased, situate on Jefferson Street …” (now Jefferson Avenue), as well as several other properties in Danville and Pittsylvania County for the sum of. $4,432.75.
William Suydenham Patton was the son of an early Danville physician originally from Rockbridge County, Virginia, Dr. James Doddridge Patton, and his wife the former Mary Fearn. According to History of Old Grove Street Cemetery, Mr. Patton, who began his adult life in the mercantile business, joined in partnership with A. Y. Stokes and T. C. Williams shortly after the close of the War Between the States to form the banking and insurance firm of W. S. Patton, Sons and Company. At least two of his sons, J. Allen Patton and William Fearn Patton, who helped in their father’s business, are also known to have lived in the family’s Jefferson Street house as late as 1881. The business continues today under the name of J. D. Ley-Patton, Temple, and Williamson, Inc.
Mr. Patton’s land consisted of lots 153, 154, 155 and 1b6, each fronting ninety-four and one-half feet on Jefferson Street as shown on a “map [of Danville] by Hadley” dated March 4, 1854. His property was adjacent to that of the Danville Female Academy run by the Rev. George W. Dame on the corner of Jefferson and Loyal streets.
In 1863 Mr. Patton sold lots 153 and 154 including his house to James B. Pace, who was engaged in the tobacco business. In his notebook, Jacob Davis mentions the sale of W. S. Patton’s “residence and one acre to James B. pace (Jefferson street) $16,000.00.” At the time of the sale the deed states that the house was occupied by Dr. Thomas Jefferson Patrick. Dr. Patrick, a brother-in-law of Major William T. Sutherlin, later built the house subsequently owned by Mr. and Mrs. James I. Pritchett on the lot at 990 Main Street, now the site of the Doctors Building.
Nearly three years after the sale of the Jefferson Street house, Mr. Patton repurchased it from Mr. Pace and his wife Bettie for $11,000. The property remained in the family until 1885 when it was sold to Mary E. Elliott, who had come to Danville from Charlotte County, Virginia, about 1883. Little is known about Mrs. Elliott except that she apparently lived in the house for several years, as a later deed refers to the house as the “old Elliott home.” By the late 1890s however, city directories suggest that the house was being rented.
James H. Wilson of Caswell County, North Carolina, and Dr. Sumter George of Danville bought the house and 110-foot-wide lot at public auction in 1901. Shortly thereafter it was sold to John L. Pairo, a seafood dealer, and his wife, the former Lucy Osborne. In a later deed the house is called the “old Patton or Pairo place,” making it seem probable that the Pairo family lived here, although no other records have been found to verify their address at the time. Mr. and Mrs. Pairo retained the property until 1904 when it was purchased by Oliver P. Bendall and Rosa A. Bendall “jointly in equal shares,” according to the deed. Mr. Bendall was at one time a tobacco buyer with Bendall Brothers, a leaf tobacco firm.
Two years later Mr. N. A. Fitzgerald bought the house where he and his family lived for over five years. His nephew, Harry R. Fitzgerald, served as secretary-treasurer and later as president of Dan River Mills. Nathan A. Fitzgerald, described in his obituary as a man “with industry, intelligence and probity and tenacity of purpose,” was able to attain success in a number of business ventures. For many years in later life, he ran the well-known firm of N. A. and T. J. Fitzgerald that manufactured bricks and concrete blocks.
Mr. Fitzgerald survived two of his wives, the former Janet Burgess of Richmond, Virginia, and the former Ida D. Abbott. Eighteen months before his death he married Miss Nora Lynn Kennedy. Three of his sons – A. Bledsoe Fitzgerald, A. Sidney Fitzgerald, and Herbert B. Fitzgerald – and a daughter, Mary Fitzgerald, all by his first marriage, are listed as living at this address in a 1908 city directory. After his death in November 1911, local physician Dr. Julian Robinson acquired the property.
In 1919 the house was sold to Max Sonnenberg. He and his family operated The Quality Shop, a ladies’ ready-to-wear store at 405 Main Street. Four years later the house and grounds were divided between Mr. Sonnenberg and his daughter-in-law Mary T. Sonnenberg (Mrs. Isaac Sonnenberg). In all likelihood it was at this time that matching porches were added at each end of the building’s facade.
Two of Mr. and Mrs. Sonnenberg’s daughters, Miss Selma Sonnenberg and Mrs. Samuel (Fannie S.) Mandle, were among the last of the family members to reside here. In 1947 the house was purchased by Mrs. Walter L. (Stuart James) Grant. The following year she sold the property to David V. Spangler and David M. Spangler.
Shortly thereafter Hubert A. Hamilton purchased the house where he and his wife Maggie lived until it was sold to Pearl M. Thornton in 1950. Mrs. Thornton’s late husband Jesse L. Thornton, a recruiting officer with the U.S. Army, served in World War II and in the Korean conflict.
Mrs. Thornton, who still resides in the Jefferson Avenue house, asserts that the building’s substantial walls, eighteen inches thick, make the rooms virtually soundproof. With its Flemish bond brick walls, gable roof, two interior end chimneys, and windows using stuccoed flat arches, this early Danville structure is one of considerable importance to the city. GG
