The Charles Booth House, 243 West Main Street

🔊 Hear The Story

In September of 1912, brothers Peter and Charles Booth purchased two lots on West Main Street from The Mount Vernon Villa Company, on which the two gentlemen built identical homes of granite quarried from Mount Airy, North Carolina. Charles and Peter divided their two lots into four (and then more) and built their homes at 243 and 247 West Main Street, respectively.

Charles Louis Booth was born in Franklin County, Virginia on the 19th of August 1870, the second of four children born to Christopher Silas booth and Susan Elizabeth Wooding. The family moved to Danville in 1872 where Charles attended local schools. He attended Oak Ridge Institute in North Carolina. In 1892, he married Annie Leitch Duncan.

After graduating from Oak Ridge Institute, Mr. Booth went into the baking business. For many years he worked for Commercial Bank, first as a cashier and later as an officer. The bank failed in 1933 during the height of the Great Depression. Upon the closing of Commercial Bank, Mr. Booth accepted an appointment with the city as Registrar, which he held for twenty years. He retired from that position in 1953. During his time as Registrar he became affiliated with First Federal Savings and Loan Association and held a position on their board until his death in 1963 at the age of 92.

Annie Leitch Duncan Booth was born on 17 September 1868 to William E. Duncan and Sallie Holland Duncan, Pittsylvania County natives. Annie attended Roanoke Female College in 1890. The couple had five children. Annie predeceased her husband by fourteen years, passing away in May of 1949 of heart disease after a three weeks’ illness. Interestingly, her death certificate says she also had “cerebral paralysis”, an antiquated term for cerebral palsy, though a diagnosis of said ailment just three months before suggests that perhaps, in this case, it merely indicated some kind of cerebral event, although, according to her doctor, the diagnosis, whatever it was meant to indicate, played no major role in her death.

Two years after the construction of their home, Charles and Peter constructed two more homes on the large lot, dividing it into four. While the house at 233 West Main Street was built in the same manner and materials as the Booth brothers’ own houses, the house at 235 West Main was built of  brick.

After the death of Mr. Charles Booth, the house was left to their youngest daughter, Bernice Camden Booth who had married Robert Lewis Douthat in 1932 and who, in 1963, at the time of her father’s death, was a widow. Bernice sold the home to her sister, Kathleen and her husband Edward Burton Williams.

Annye Kathleen was the eldest of five children born to Charles L. and Annie Booth. Annye, known as Kathleen, was born in 1893 in Danville. She married Edward Burton Williams in 1917, and he passed away in 1971. The couple moved to South Boston, and then to Culpepper, where she worked in education. They returned to Danville upon the death of her father, however, and purchased the family home. Mrs. Williams passed away on the 28th of March 1982 and the property transferred to her daughter and only child, Kathleen Leigh Williams Harwell.

Kathleen was born on the 11th of December 1918 in Danville. After attending public schools in South Boston and Culpepper, she attended WEsthampton College of the University of Richmond. In October of 1941, she married George Puckett Whitley a fellow student at the University of Richmond. That marriage proved unsuccessful, and in 1950 Kathleen married a second time, this time to Dr. George Corbin Harwell, a professor of English at Duke University.

Kathleen and her husband were both retired upon arriving in Danville to take over the family home, and it was here they lived for a number of years, but in October of 1987, Dr. Corbin died suddenly following a stroke. The following June, Kathleen sold the home to Lee and Susan Stillwell.

Both Judge Stillwell and his wife are well known figures in Danville. For many years, Susan was a driving force behind the preservation of many of Danville’s historic homes and the neighborhoods in which they stand. One of our earliest pieces was written as an introduction to this dynamic local figure, and you can read that here.

The Stilwells sold their home to Peter and Summer Barnett who owned the house from 2009 to 2012 when they sold it to Kevan Lee Brown. Today it is the home of Heather Kurashek.

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