🔊 Hear The Story

Development of Sutherlin Avenue began in 1890 when Major William T. Sutherlin (right) offered up for sale a portion of his land in order to raise $30,000 to pay a debt. The land for sale was that which is now situated on Sutherlin Avenue and bordered by Chestnut and Green streets. A group of interested parties came together to purchase the 60 lots available and together formed the Berryman Green Trust. In exchange for the property, the trust paid Sutherlin $7,500 “cash in hand” and secured three additional bonds valued at $7,500 each to be paid annually over the next three years.

The lot numbered 18 at 130 Sutherlin Avenue was purchased by Thomas Spencer Williamson (of 1012 Main Street) who held onto it for some time before at last improving it. The home’s date of construction is attributed as 1903, when city land books indicate a significant rise in valuation of the property. It may be of interest to note, however, that the 1900 census identifies Mr. Williamson’s brother, James Pinckney Williamson, as residing at (or very near) the property. While Thomas was associated with a printing firm of Boatwright Brothers Co., where he served as vice president under partner and neighbor William Penick Boatwright of 142 Sutherlin Avenue, James was a merchant in the firm of Patton, Temple & Williamson. Whether or not he lived at 130 Sutherlin is difficult to say as the census does not give an exact street number. We do know, however, that by 1910 he was living with his father at 137 Holbrook Avenue.

The city directory of 1908 indicates that the home at 130 Sutherlin Avenue was the residence of J. Overton Boatwright, brother of James Pinkney Boatwright, and his wife Ella Wooding Boatwright, daughter of Mayor Harry Wooding.

By 1910, as indicated by the aforementioned census of that year, the home was then the residence of Laura Ann Patrick. Mrs. Patrick was the sister-in-law of Major Sutherlin. Laura was born in 1831 in Montgomery County, North Carolina to Col. John Bushrod Crump and Letitia Lindsay Crump. Laura and her sister Henrietta attended and graduated in the first class of the Greensborough Female College (now Greensboro College). In 1850, Laura married Dr. M. Thomas Jefferson Patrick, the brother of Jane Erwin Patrick Sutherlin.

Mrs. Patrick organized the ladies of Danville to care for the sick and wounded soldiers during the Civil War. Later, she organized the “Ladies’ Benevolent Society” which founded the “Danville Home for the Sick” on Jefferson Avenue in what would become Danville General Hospital. Mrs. Patrick served as President of the organization, a position she retained until shortly before her death in 1921.

Mrs. Patrick (whose daughter, Mae Talley lived on Chestnut Street) was probably not in the Sutherlin Avenue house long, as it was sold by Mr. Williamson in 1912. The property was purchased by Dr. Harry and Lula Koons. Dr. Koons, a family physician, and his family were only in the house about three years before they relocated to Indianapolis. In 1917, a fatal accident took both their sons when one fell into a river and his brother jumped in after to rescue him. Both boys were drowned. By 1920, Dr. and Mrs. Koons were living in Danville, Illinois.

Mr. and Mrs. E. Walton Brown were the next to own the house, having purchased it in 1915. Mr. Brown was an attorney, a partner in the firm of Withers, Brown & Leigh. Mr. Brown, too, lived there only about three years before the home was sold again, this time being purchased by Jechonias Lovelace and Rosa Bagby whose family would occupy the home for the next forty years.

J.L. Bagby was born in Halifax County in 1874. In 1900, while still living in the Red Bank district of Halifax County, Jechonias was working as a music teacher. He met Rosa Ballou about this time, and the couple married in 1907. Born in Bannister, Virginia (Halifax County) in 1876, Rosa was the youngest of five children born to Edward Branford and Josephine Keith Wilson Ballou. Her father, Edward, and Charles Anderson Ballou who gave us Ballou Park were brothers. The Ballous and the Patricks were connected through marriage, as we have discussed before, as Charles Ballou was married to Anna Page Talley, the sister of Billy Haskins Talley, Mae’s husband, whom she had already divorced when Major Sutherlin built her her home at 126 Chestnut Street. However circuitously the two families were connected, Danville was then, as it is now, a small town, and everyone knew each other.

By the time of the 1920 Census, Mr. and Mrs. Bagby were in residence, and Mr. Bagby was working as a teller for the First National Bank, later becoming a clerk for the same firm and remaining faithfully employed there for 45 years. Rosa died in 1957 of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by hypertension and heart disease. Mr. Bagby passed just four years later leaving the home to be disposed of by their two sons, James Lovelace and Edward Ballou Bagby.

Gilbert S. Guinn and his wife were next to own the home, but they were not there a full year before selling it to the trustees of St. Peters Greek Orthodox Church, where it became home to their minister, Reverend George Georgiades.

In 1975, the property became the home of Steven and Ella Weber. Mr. Weber, a professional mechanic, began a full restoration of the aging home and installed the iron fencing and brick walkway. In 1984, the house was purchased by John and Lisa Vine who owned the home for three years before Fred Meder and his first wife Vicki purchased the home. Fred’s talents are still evident in the home’s clever and elegant landscaping. The Meders sold the home in 1996 to Parker and Sarah Perkins, newlyweds who enjoyed the house as their first home.

The house is presently the home of Elaine Day.

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 newspaper archives at Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe