It’s difficult to say exactly when the home at 151 Sutherlin Avenue was built. The land was first made available as “Lot 24” from the Sutherlin estate when William T. Sutherlin sold off a portion of his property in the late 1890s. The property was purchased and held for investment by several owners before it became part of a large lot owned by Cora Hodges. Cora’s real estate dealings in the first decade of the 20th century are listed in the multiple dozens in the city’s deeds records index. Her 54 feet of Green Street frontage backed up to Sutherlin’s lot 24, and so, presumably as an investment venture, she purchased the land in 1909 and then borrowed against it to secure a sum of $1,800. In the covenants regarding the exchange, those holding the deed covenanted to “keep the building thereon insured against injury and fire in at least the sum of $1,200”, but what building that covenant indicated is unclear, though it may indeed indicate the “tenement” that is shown in the 1910 Sanborn Map (also mentioned in the deed). Whatever the case, she sold the front portion of the lot fronting Sutherlin Avenue in 1910 for $850. Three years later, C.B. Clements sold the property to Walter S. and Anna Covey for $4,300. Certainly by then the present home had been erected. While the house is clearly constructed in a Queen Anne form, it’s softly rounded porch and spare ornamentation could easily place the home among those built in the first decade of the 20th century.

Walter Samuel Covey was born in  Danville on May 27th, 1878 to William Henry Covey and Elizabeth Alice Gaines Covey. Walter Covey was described in his 1930 obituary as “Modest in demeanor and retiring.” He was for many years involved with The Register,  an occupation that commanded most of his focus so that he had few interests or hobbies outside of his duties for the newspaper. He was, however, an active member of the First Presbyterian Church. He married Annie Jeffries Church on the 5th of June 1907. The couple had no children. In 1939, Mr. Covey was seized with a sudden case of acute appendicitis. He was admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery. For the two days following the procedure, Mr. Covey showed a marked improvement, but a week later, he passed away. The home was subsequently left to his widow.

Annie Church Covey was also a native of Danville. Born the same year as her husband, in 1878. Her parents were George W. Church and Josephine McCain Church. Her brother James lived next door at 149 Sutherlin Avenue. After more than thirty years in her home, Mrs. Covey passed away suddenly due to a stroke. When her will was read, it was discovered that she had willed the house to the physician who had been attending her for many years, Dr. Clyde Bailey. Mrs. Covey’s niece, Mrs. Lucile Hite, and brother, Mr. W.B. Church, filed a lawsuit in order to break the bequests of her will, despite the fact that Dr. Bailey had said from the beginning that he had no interest in the house and that it should go to her brother. The case went to chancery court, where it was argued until June of that year when it was at last decided that Mrs. Covey had been of sound mind after all and that the house must go to Dr. Bailey who might do as he wished with it. At the conclusion of the trial, he stated his intention to pass it onto the heir of Mrs. Covey, Mr. W.B. Church, Mrs. Covey’s brother, who had also been devised a third of the residue of the estate. Mrs. Hite may have been bequeathed some minor items in the will which had named over twenty devisees, but she was otherwise overlooked in the matter of her aunt’s home.

Dr. Bailey was true to his word, and in October of 1944, he deeded the house to the heirs of Mr. and Mrs. Covey, namely, Mrs. Covey’s brother, W.B. Church, and Annie C. Motley, the sister of Mr. Covey.

Unfortunately for Mrs. Hite, who borrowed against her interest in the house to contest her aunt’s will, she got nothing. Those who fronted the money then went after Mr. Church, and a lien was placed on the house. It’s possible there were other debts against the house as well as the home went up for auction with all of its contents in November of that year. For the sum of $9,325 cash, Hendricks T. and Eula Brown became the new owners of 151 Sutherlin Avenue.

Hendricks Brown was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia on March 14, 1885, one of 13 children born to Captain William Curtis Brown and Martha Ann Williams Brown. Hendricks married Eula, a native of Ringgold, in 1907. The couple came to Danville in 1919, and Hendricks took employment in the tobacco warehouses, eventually becoming an independent tobacco leaf dealer.  The couple had three children: Edward Taylor, William Curtis, and the eldest, Douglas Rowe who died while serving in France just a few months before the Brown’s occupation of the Sutherlin Avenue house. He was 34 and left a wife and a four year-old daughter. A year after purchasing the house, the Browns acquired the rearmost two portions of the lot and restored it to very nearly the size Mr. Sutherlin had originally intended.

In 1956, Mr. Brown died of cancer. Mrs. Brown remained until her passing in 1962 after suffering a coronary thrombosis. The house then passed to the couple’s two surviving sons and their granddaughter, Carmen, daughter of deceased war hero, Douglas.

In February of the following year, the Brown heirs sold the house to Richard L. Relyea and his wife Betty.  Mr. Relyea was a Baltimore native who graduated from the Medical College of Virginia and came to Danville to practice Ophthalmology. Here he met Betty Cook Donnelly of Danville, and the couple married in 1966. In 1964, Dr. Relyea, along with his colleague, Dr. Baxter Byerly, made headlines for successfully performing a corneal transplant on a Keysville woman who had been waiting for the restoration of her sight after having a previous transplant in her other eye some years prior. The operation succeeded in granting her near-normal vision for the first time since she was 13 years-old. The story was one of triumph for the Lions Club Eye Bank program.

Shortly after his marriage, Dr. Relyea sold the Sutherlin Avenue home to Clara B. and Royal S. Tucker who owned the property for six years before the house fell into foreclosure and was sold again. It was purchased at auction in August of 1976 for $15,000.

Elmer Noel Thompson and his wife Frances Lee Thompson took occupancy of the Sutherlin Avenue home and lived here for several years. Mr. Thompson was born in Chatham, Virginia in 1915. Frances was a native of Danville. The couple married in May of 1939. Mr. Thompson was first employed as an overseer at Dan River Inc and then as a salesman for Sparks-Giles Hardware from which position he retired.

In 1977, Elmer and Frances sold the home to their son Eddie Michael Thompson and his wife of three years, Trudy. The couple owned and lived in the home until 1989 when it was sold to Rufus H. Bush who owned the home for eleven years.

In 2004, the home went into foreclosure once more. Since that time it has changed hands multiple times, was inherited by deed of will, and in 2016 became the home of Danville Museum of Fine Art and History’s Cara Burton who served as director for a time. It is presently owned by Clyde Wrenn who has recently restored the home. 151 Sutherlin Avenue is currently on the market and available for purchase. 

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