In May of 1882, Thomas D. Stokes, executor of the last will and testament of Nathaniel Green, sold a large, undeveloped, triangular lot near the corner of Main Street and Holbrook avenue to M.P. Jordan, trustee for J.H. Schoolfield. A year later, Mr. Schoolfield sold the property to B.J. Reynolds who immediately sold it back to Schoolfield, it seems, in order to procure a loan to develop the land. It may be about that time, in 1883, that the first iteration of the house that stands there now was erected. In December of that same year, Mr. Reynolds sold the property “with its appurtenances” to Green Penn and his wife who were the first to call the address, then 138 Holbrook Avenue, home.

Greenville Penn was born at Penn’s Store in Patrick County, Virginia the 31st of December 1843 to Thomas Jefferson Penn and Catherine Mundy Rucker Penn. He spent his childhood at Penn’s Store and was educated by private tutors. Green, as he was known, attended Randolph Macon College in Boydton, Virginia (whose ruins can be seen today) and was there for just one year before the war broke out. He volunteered his services “to the Confederate cause” and joined the Patrick-Henry Greys. Green served the entire four years of the war and was wounded four times. At Cedar Run he received a bullet wound to the shoulder.  On the 3rd of May 1863, at the battle of Chancellorsville, while corporal of his company, he was pierced through his body and nearly died. He was taken as a prisoner of war at Fishers Hill on the 22nd of September 1864 and confined at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, before being transferred to Fort Delaware on September 27th of that year.

When the war was over, Green returned home to Penn’s store where he entered into the tobacco business. In November of 1865, he married Kate Rucker of Lynchburg. Kate was the eldest daughter of George Henry McDaniel Rucker and Catherine Mundy Pettyjohn. The couple, according to historical records, are believed to have had seventeen children, though that number is difficult to verify, and the couple lost several of their children at early ages.

With the tobacco boom well in swing in Danville, Green relocated his family here in 1883, forming Penn and Sons which he eventually operated with his children once they were old enough to help him.

183 Holbrook Avenue was the Penn’s home for forty years, from 1883 until 1923, and here their last five children were born. Sadly, those children did not survive childhood.

In 1923, the Penns sold the Holbrook Avenue home to E.W. Arnett and Perdita B. Butler.

Eugene “Willard” Arnett was born December 13, 1882 in Danville to Eugene Samuel Arnett and Mamie Dixon Arnett. He was educated at Danville Military Institute and then at Randolph Macon Academy and was employed in Danville as a real estate agent and developer. In 1909 he married Perdita “Perdie” Butler, a native of Mountain City, Tennessee. The couple had six children.

In 1927, while residing at 138 Holbrook Avenue, Mr. Arnett purchased the neighboring home at 169 Holbrook Avenue. He would later divide the property to build the Arnett Apartment Building at 944 Green Street. He also divided the house at 169 into apartments and, upon moving to that location, began taking boarders there, including his newly married son, Eugene W. Arnett, Jr. and his wife Mary. You can read more about the Arnetts and the Daniel A. Overbey house here.

In 1929, the Arnetts moved out of 138 Holbrook Avenue and sold the property to WW. and Mattie C. Williamson.

The 1930 Census shows that the house, by this time, was divided into three apartments, all addressed as 132 Holbrook Avenue. As one of the tenants was T. Miles Puryear and his wife Mary Elizabeth Arnett Puryear (Mr. Arnett’s sister), it may be supposed that it was Mr. Arnett who turned the single family dwelling into a four-plex.

William Whitfield Williamson was the son of Elbert M. Williamson who purchased the house just across the street at 137 Holbrook Avenue from W.J. Dance shortly after the latter gentleman’s death in 1902 and who lived there until his own death in 1935 when his daughter inherited the home.

William Williamson was born in 1867 Charlotte County, Virginia. His father moved the family to Danville in 1876 and he spent the rest of his life here, residing for a time on Union Street. He began his career doing odd jobs for Commercial Bank but soon was elevated to the position of cashier. Later he took employment for the Danville Warehouse Company and stayed with them long enough to become its president. During his long life, he also was employed as president of the Star Laundry Company and became director of First National Bank, the Danville Ice Company, and other local businesses. According to his wife’s 1959 obituary, he was known as a man of insurance and real estate as well.

William married Mattie Freeman Clark in June of 1899. The couple had no children, but many nieces and nephews. Brothers Thomas Spencer Williamson (1012 Main Street) and James Pinckney Williamson also lived in Danville.

Mrs. Williamson was born Mattie Freeman Clark in Danville in 1872 to William Thomas Clark and Barbara Jane Freeman Clark. She was educated at Salem Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. According to her obituary of August 25, 1959, “Mrs. Williamson was known as a blithe spirit with a trenchant wit. Her store of anecdotes of Danville’s early life was a rich one.”

In 1948, the Williamsons sold the home to Benjamin O. and Eudora W. Lee.

A year later, Mr. Williamson, after struggling for some time with heart disease, succumbed to a “cerebral vascular accident”. Upon his death, he was found to be worth $1.5 million, which he left entirely to his wife. $200,000 of that wealth was in the form of real estate, and the rest was personal property, but Mrs. Williamson, who had no children, renounced the will and requested that she be considered as if her husband had died intestate, which would have left her, by Virginia law, with about $10,000 and the rest to be divided equally between herself and all their surviving nieces and nephews. She was probably not successful in that renunciation considering that, at the time of her death, ten years later, she was worth almost twice that. Her will left her $2,557,000 mainly to her five nieces and nephews, but she left several thousand to various schools and organizations around the state. She gave a sum of $500 to Winslow Hospital in Almagro to be used for the purchasing of X-ray and other equipment, and she left $155,000 to Epiphany Episcopal Church, with they used to purchase an apartment building on Jefferson Avenue, which they paved and currently still use for parking.

The Williamsons, during their ownership of the home on Holbrook Avenue, actually lived in an apartment building 733 Main Street, where Paths stands today.

Among the residents of the home were names that are somewhat familiar to us: John S. Meade, a tobacconist, and his wife Louise; June McFall, and Harkins McFall, June’s brother-in-law, who worked as a druggist.

About 1935, the house officially became known as Holbrook Apartments with addresses 132, 134, 136, and 138. At this time, leaf tobacco speculator, T.J. Burton took occupancy of the home with his wife Kate and their daughter Anne, who worked for the tobacco trade as a stenographer (perhaps for an auctioneer?) The Burton family maintained residency for at least ten years.

For the next 35 years, the house was home to Betsy Herndon who commissioned her services as a typist.

Also living here was Tucker Florence, a school teacher who taught in the county. She was a single mom of three daughters and a son.

In 1948, the Williamsons sold it to Benjamin O. Lee and Eudora W. Lee who continued to run the home as four apartments with the Lees occupying one unit. Mr. Lee died in 1950 leaving the house to his wife Eudora and their daughter Evelyn Caroline Lee. A disagreement ensued as to what to do with the house, and a chancery suit decided in 1952 allowed the house to be sold to Mary Bell Smith and her husband John J. Smith.

In 1959, Mary Bell Smith and John J. Smith, her husband sold the home to John D. and Lois F. Richardson. Three years later, in 1962, the Richardsons sold the home to Ernest F. Bolton and Pearl W. Bolton.

In 1967 the Boltons sold the home to N. Lee and Annie A. Isenhour who were the first owners to occupy the home since the short residence of the Lees though, according to the directory, it was likely only during the latter years of their ownership. During the 1970s, they occupied the home across the street at 133 Holbrook Avenue, which they called the Isenhour Home for the Aged.

1985 the Isenhours sold the home to Albert E., Jr. and Annie Lee Parsons. The Parsons also lived here while renting out the other units.

In 1991 the Parsons sold the home to Robert E. Beecy Jr. The Beecys were known for restoring, or partially restoring, several houses in the Old West End before relocating elsewhere.

In 2009 Mr. Beecy sold the home to Liz and Frank Russel or Ruswell LLC who own the home today, living in 132 and renting out the other three apartments. You can read more about the Russell family here.

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