Before the Wednesday Club erected its present building on the corner of Holbrook and Main Streets, their home was in the brick, Italianate house that was built around 1884 for Dr. Benjamin Walker.

Benjamin Maitland Walker was born in North Carolina in 1838. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a medical degree in 1858. Though he did not enlist when the war broke out, he nevertheless served in a private capacity. In December of 1861, while stationed at Lee’s Mills in Washington County, North Carolina, the company of Captain Sheridan H. McRae found itself besieged by an attack of measles. The assistance of Dr. Walker was sought, and he attended the company throughout the month of December and into January (a period of about four weeks). His efforts earned him $129.

Three months later, the company of Captain W. Jordan Walker (possibly his brother) of the ‘Clark Skirmishers’ issued the doctor a three-month contract to serve the company as an assistant surgeon while it was encamped at Pamlico and Tar Rivers from March to June of 1862. The company was in “detached service” and therefore had no access to a Surgeon of the Army. Captain Walker wrote in Dr. Walker’s papers of release, “during the time the said Dr. Walker was employed by me, the measles prevailed in my command. I further state that Dr. Walker has been very successful, not having lost a single patient.”

From June to August of that year, Dr. Walker signed a similar contract to serve the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, and at the completion of that service he was ordered to report to the Surgeon General in Richmond who would appoint him officially as the Assistant Surgeon from North Carolina. For the remainder of the war, he served in that capacity, moving from one company to another as needed. In the months just prior to the end of the war he was appointed to the Confederate Army Board of Medical Examiners for Gen. R. Barringer’s Brigade, Belfield, Greensville County, Virginia.

In November of 1871, Dr. Walker married Harriet Elizabeth “Lizzie” Pugh of Bertie County, North Carolina where he practiced until he relocated to Danville in 1877.

In September of 1883, Dr. Walker acquired a parcel of land once belonging to A.Y. Stokes & Co., and shortly thereafter the home was built. Dr. Walker was a well-known and respected surgeon and operated his practice from his residence (across the street from West End Pharmacy once situated upon the lot now occupied by Crema and Vine) until failing health demanded he retire. Among his many patients was the Yates family, of whom the youngest daughter, Augusta, founded The Wednesday Club which later occupied the home.

In 1902, while vacationing in Connelly’s Springs, North Carolina, where he had no doubt gone to rest and attend to his health, he passed away. His wife, Harriet, remained in the house until 1906 when she sold it to Walter Westbrook.

Walter Jackson Westbrook, the uncle of Johnny Westbrook, was born in Danville on September 28, 1866.  Walter was married to Maude Delia Farley, a native of Milton, North Carolina. The couple had three children who lived with them at 1002 Main Street.

Walter Westbrook was associated with the Westbrook Elevator Company of Danville for many years. Examples of his elevators are still existent in some of the city’s warehouse buildings. Though the couple moved to Greensboro in 1919, they are both interred at Green Hill Cemetery. Mr. Westbrook passed away in 1926, and the house was thereafter purchased by The Wednesday Club. They occupied the house until it was razed in 1969 to make way for the new building. The Wednesday Club preserved several important architectural and decorative items from the house including fireplace mantels and surrounds, ceiling medallions, mirrors, and one chandelier.

Sources:
History of The Wednesday Club, and History of Miss Augusta Yates, and other compilations of historical paraphernalia related thereunto by the incomparable Clara Fountain, including histories written by others of the Club’s presidents and historians.
Familysearch.org
Danville Register, Danville Bee archives at Newspapers.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe