Jacob Davis, whose daughter married David Ayres (of a recent post) and who resided next door at 968 Main Street, sold the lot of land at 954 Main Street in 1874 to Dr. Lewis Edwin Harvie, and the home was built shortly thereafter.
Dr. Harvie was born in 1843 in Powhattan County, Virginia, the oldest of eight children born to Doctor John Brockenbrough and Mary Elizabeth Blair Harvie. Dr. Harvie attended Virginia Medical Institute and was a graduate at the time the war broke out. He was given the assignment to drill recruits for the Confederacy and was later captured at Gettysburg and held as a prisoner for two years.
After the war, Dr. Harvie attended the Medical College of Virginia and, in 1871, he came to Danville to set up a practice here. In April of 1868, he married Martha Winston Rutherford. Martha was born on Valentine’s Day in 1845 and was educated at Mrs. Mary Pegram’s School in Richmond. The couple built their home on the lot of land opposite the museum, and it was from his residence Dr. Harvie also set up his medical office in the basement, maintaining a successful practice on the premises for 45 years.
In February of 1918, they celebrated their Golden (50th) wedding anniversary. Just four months later, Dr. Harvie died of heart disease. Mrs. Harvie continued to reside in the Main Street home. In 1936, after a series of strokes from which she seemed determined to survive, she died of pneumonia with eight of her ten children gathered around her. One of her children was living in Kentucky and could not make the journey. Frances, pictured left, had predeceased her, having died suddenly in 1920 at the age of fifty. “Fannie,” as she was known, was the wife of J. Pinckney Williamson of 137 Holbrook Avenue.
In 1938, son John B. Harvie sold the property to Sue Nora Moseley who resided next door. Still, the Harvie family continued residence in the home (along with another family who rented rooms in the home) until 1941 when Mrs. Moseley sold the house to George R. Norris. It was Mr. Norris who gave the house a facelift, transforming the mid-Victorian home into one of Neo-classical design. Mr. Norris hired architect J. Bryant Heard to redesign the home’s exterior, while landscape architect Kenneth Higgins, protege of the famous Charles Gillette was retained to design the rear garden. The Norris family maintained the property until 1970, when the Haynesworth family took ownership.
Remarkably, a descendant of the Norris family acquired the home in 2012 and maintains this beautiful property today.
Sources include:
Victorian Danville, Fifty-two Landmarks: Their Architecture and History, Mary Cahill and Gary Grant
Images of America: Danville Revisited, Clara G. Fountain and Gary Grant
U.S. Census and Death (and other) records found at Familysearch.org
Obituary and death notices found at Newspapers.com
