The Albert Griggs House, 852 Green Street

🔊 Hear The Story

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 corner of Chestnut and Green streets. Soon after acquiring it, Mr. Read divided the land into three lots and transferred it to his wife and two unmarried daughters, Clara and Selma. Clara was a schoolteacher and ran a private school in a building that once stood next door where 858-860 Green Street is today.

 

In 1887, the Reed sisters sold one of their lots to A.B. Griggs, son of George King Griggs. By 1890, a home stood there.

Albert Boyd Griggs worked as a clerk and then later as a depot and freight agent for the Southern railroad, work he likely obtained by the influence of his father who had also worked for the railroad. Born in 1866 in Pittsylvania County, Albert arrived in Danville with his family by 1881 when the elder Mr. Griggs took employment with the Danville and New River Railroad  (later Danville and Western a.k.a. Dick and Willie) in 1881, and by 1886 had risen to General Superintendent, Secretary and Treasurer.

Mr. Griggs had shared the home with his wife, the former Bertha B. Davis whom he had married in 1887. The couple had no children, and subsequent to her death, his own health failing, he moved in with his sister, Lizzie Bruce, at 875 Green Street who was, by that time, a widow. When Mr. Griggs died almost exactly a year following the death of his wife, he left his house to his sister.

In 1919, Mrs. Bruce sold the home of her brother to tobacconist Metteau Comer. Prior to moving to Danville, Mr. Comer was a farmer, but he traded in the rural life for the opportunity to work in big tobacco. Born in 1868, the fifth of nine children, Mr. Comer moved into the house at 852 Green Street with a large family of his own, his wife, Minnie Johnson Wells whom he married in 1895 and their seven children. Minnie died in 1933, and Mr. Comer remarried. Mildred Pauline White Cochran was a recent widow herself, having lost her husband Robert Cochran in the fall of 1932. The couple lived in the house for a few years before relocating to Yanceyville, leaving the family home to their four adult children. Edith worked as an office clerk in the cotton mill. Ruth was a bookkeeper for a  jewelry store. Andrew followed his father’s footsteps in tobacco, as did Philip who worked as a clerk in a tobacco factory.

Edith married Walter Guy Countryman in 1911 and moved to Florida. Phillip married sometime around 1940 and moved out of the home, followed by Ruth, who married Frank Lilburn Browder in 1946 and left home as well. The house was then left to Andrew who remained there with his wife Eloise.

In 1949, Andrew took out a loan and converted the house into three apartments.

In 1960, he sold the house to Jack and Willie Mae Carter who likely maintained the home as investment property. Seven years later, the house was sold to Howard Brown, and in 1977, the house went up for auction.

The property changed hands several times and went up for auction again in 1984. The Danville Historical Society, under the Coy Garbett Revolving Trust acquired the home in 1998, stabilizing the property and preparing it for new owners who would restore it to the condition it deserves. That person appeared in 1906 and has lovingly worked to restore and maintain the property since that time.

 

Sources:
Census and Vital records found at Familysearch.org
Images and vital information, including biographical sketches found at FindaGrave.com
Death notices and other information found in the Danville Register, Danville Bee and other newspaper archives at Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe