The Copeland-Graham House, 440 Chestnut Street

On the 2nd of December 1887, the lot on which 440 Chestnut Street now stands was conveyed to W.S. Copeland by J.M. Neal. Neal, like Nathaniel Green and the Griggs family, owned vast swaths of what would eventually become Danville’s Old West End historic district. The large and imposing brick Queen Anne home at 802 Main Street is the home (the second of two) built on that lot for the family of James Mastin Neal.

Walter Scott Copeland, who constructed a much larger home at 145 Holbrook Avenue, seems to have built both homes for the purpose of investment as the family does not appear to have lived in either location. As the smaller home was deeded in his wife’s name, it’s likely 440 Chestnut Street was held in trust for his wife as investment property. When Mrs. Copeland died in 1902, the house passed to thee couple’s daughter, Mary Katherine Copeland who by then had married Lane Lacey. In 1910, the property at last left Copeland hands and was purchased by Ethel A. Graham.

For the first few years of her ownership, Ethel rented the house out to the young family of Thomas B. Fulton. Mr. Fulton, 28 at the time he lived here, worked as a salesman in a hardware store. He shared the home with his wife, Edna, 23, and their 4-year-old son, Thomas, Jr.  The Fulton family kept one servant, a 44 year old cook named Bettie Hairston.

By 1927, Ms. Graham, the owner, was living in the home.

Ethel Alexandra Graham was born in Danville on the 6th of April 1882. She trained to be a nurse at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C., and for a time following her graduation she worked at Walter Reed Hospital. She married Calvin Maurice Flinn in 1913. Mr. Flinn was the namesake of his father who had constructed and briefly lived at 841 Main Street.

Ethel had left her husband by the time she moved into the Chestnut Street house, and she shared the home with her son, also named Calvin Maurice Flinn. To subsidize her income, she rented rooms in the house, and in 1930 was sharing the home with Marion H. Watson, a physician, his wife Alma and their 3-year-old son.

Ethel remained in the house until her death in 1943 of pancreatic cancer. Her son then sold the home to Mattie Jones Carter, and the house became rental property once more.

When Mattie Sue died in 1960, the property transferred to her husband, but by 1967 he was no longer able to maintain it, and First National Bank became trustees. They sold the house to E.B. Gilbert, Jr. and his wife Zelma, who likewise maintained the home as rental property.

In January of 2014, the home, by then sadly dilapidated, was purchased by Lawrence Meder and is presently undergoing restoration.

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