The Burton Double House, 149-151 Holbrook Avenue

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After the death of F.X. Burton in 1904, his wife, Alice, became sole executor of his property and a real estate magnate and philanthropist in her own right. In 1910, she sold the double house at 149 and 151 Holbrook Avenue to Powhatan Fitzhugh Conway who lived at the time at 157 Holbrook Avenue.

Mr. P. F. Conway was born 1867 near Danville. According to his published biography, he spent much of his youth in poor health and consequently was forced to quit school at a young age. He took his first job at seventeen for Messrs Bass, Brown & Lee who, at that time, operated the largest coal, wood, and manufacturing business in Danville. Four years later, in 1890, Conway left Bass, Brown, & Lee and formed a partnership with F.L. Walker to establish their own manufacturing enterprise. In 1896, Conway’s firm bought out Bass, Brown, & Lee, consolidating with Anderson & Co. and incorporating under the name of Danville Lumber & Manufacturing Co. Bass, Brown, & Lee, in the years leading up to Conway’s acquisition, had expanded into the business of building homes, including a number of homes on Sutherlin Avenue. The Conways never lived here, but maintained the house as investment property.

In May of 1920, Mr. Conway sold the property to W.W. Robertson. For the first several years of Dr. Robertson’s ownership of the property, he used it as rental property. During this time it was home to James Harrison who lived there with his wife Mary and their three children. Mr. Harrison was undoubtedly a relation of the many other Harrisons who lived in the neighborhood, ie: Sara Harrison at 941 Green Street, Dr. Harrison at 507 Holbrook Avenue, and Anne Poe Harrison Berkely across the street at 150 Holbrook Avenue.

By 1927, Dr. Robertson took occupancy of 149 Holbrook Avenue where he lived with his wife Ethel.

William Walker Robertson was born on the 14th of December 1866 in Pittsylvania County, the son of Dr. William S. Robertson and Ann Law Robertson. He received his education at Wake Forrest and Columbia University in New York city. For many years he was known as the “country doctor” who practiced in Mount Hermon, but in 1921 he relocated his business to Danville.

Ethel was the daughter of Danville real estate developer William E. Boisseau, whose name appears on so many of Danville’s early deeds. Shew was born in Danville in 1873. When, in 1932, she suffered a sudden stroke, and with Dr. Robertson’s health in decline, their only child, Edward Boisseau Robertson, also a doctor, moved into the house. In 1938, Edward married Frances Vaiden, and she too moved in. In 1940, Dr. Roberston deeded the house to his son. He passed away after a long illness in 1953.

Edward Robertson was born on August 2, 1902 in Danville. He attended school at the Danville Military Institute and then college at the University of Richmond. He later went on to study medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.  Upon completion of his studies in 1929, he returned to Danville where he practiced medicine until his retirement in 1964 except for  a stint in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1942-1946.

Sometime after 1950, the couple moved out of the house. They were living at 231 Hawthorn Drive at the time of Dr. Robertson’s death in 1969. The house subsequently passed to his wife who maintained the double house as rental property until 1977 when she sold it to Henry H. and Mildred C. Hogan.

During the Robertsons’ ownership, the home was rented by the families of Arthur Fulghum, manager in a tobacco warehouse and John L. Tucker, also employed in a tobacco warehouse.

The Hogans owned the house for eight years before selling the half addressed as 149 Holbrook Avenue to Yvonne Flora Davis in 1985. In 1989, 151 was sold to John and Richard Sweeney. The property changed hands several times over the next three decades, and in 2019 was at last reunited as one property when it was purchased by Mahesh Srinivasaiah and Sangeetha Srinivasalu who maintain it as rental property today.

 

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