The Bright Leaf Trail
Perhaps you’ve seen them, the tobacco leaf medallions embedded in the sidewalk around the Old West End and on Holbrook Street and Broad Street. They are the result of the collaborative efforts of Joyce Wilburn, creator and guide of the area’s three guided walking tours, and Fred Meder, local preservationist, neighbor, and owner/operator of Outdoor Designs Inc. The leaves mark the paths of the Millionaires Row Tour and the Holbrook Street Tour. They are numbered and lead to the gathering area on the side lawn of the Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History where the tours begin and end and where the granite information signs are located.
During Fred’s travels, he noted how other cities commemorate their historic landmarks, and he felt that Danville could do a lot more. Joyce, too, had seen the need for something more permanent and immediately available, as she had witnessed on several occasions visitors walking up and down Main Street and through the historic neighborhood. They would come on weekends, or at times when the Museum wasn’t open and they didn’t have access to the walking tours or any other available information about the sites they were seeing.
The design of the medallions was Fred’s conception. He borrowed the design from the logo once used by the Dibrell Brothers Tobacco Company (see featured image). The original medallion used to adorn the viaduct on Bridge Street and which was taken down when the name changed to DIMON (the acronym for Dibrell and Monk).
The medallions are numbered, and though they don’t mark specific landmarks necessarily, they do provide a numerically guided path through some of the most significant parts of the Old West End, Holbrook-Ross neighborhood, and Broad Street.
The first medallion was embedded in the center of “the meeting place” a circular cobbled-stone area with granite benches that was placed before the information kiosks on the corner of Sutherlin Avenue and Magruders Alley (the side yard of the Danville Museum of Fine Art and History). Here one can read a little about the outdoor art and oddities, attractions, historical sites, and areas of recreation in town as well as in nearby Pittsylvania and Halifax counties in Virginia and Caswell County in North Carolina. This gathering place, officially known as Learn, Explore, Enjoy, provides a centralized location where visitors can meet for the walking tours. Funds necessary to construct the medallions, as well as the kiosks and gathering area was provided by the Danville Regional Foundation, as well as many other generous donors.
The second medallion on Sutherlin Avenue, just in front of the Temple Beth Sholom, after which the trail continues to the First Presbyterian Church on the corner of Sutherlin Avenue and Main Street and leads a path down Main Street to Jefferson, where it turns around and follows the street southward to Holbrook Street. From there, the path continues to the intersection of Gay and Holbrook Streets, where it crosses the street and returns to Main Street. The last leg of the walking tour goes for another block to the Langhorne House on Broad Street.
For more information about the tobacco leaf trail, and the sites it features you can schedule one of the walking tours by calling 434.770.1974 or you can obtain a copy of the self-guided Old West End Historic District Walking Tour, which is available at the Danville Museum of Fine Art and History as well as the Visitor Center at 645 River Park Drive across from Dan Daniel Park.
Learn more about these and other attractions at www.visitSoSi.com.
