The property on which the house at 639 Holbrook Avenue presently stands was once part of the Green Estate. Nathaniel Terry Green owned a great deal of property in Danville prior to its major development, including property on Main Street, Holbrook Avenue, and, of course, Green Street where his own home was erected. The Green property on Holbrook Avenue occupied the entire block between Colquhoun and Paxton Streets.
In September of 1888 the trustees of the Green estate sold the property, “with appurtenances thereunto” to Luther Wright. A year later, Wright transferred the property to Charles Withers Throckmorton, trustee for his wife Mary Ann Wright Throckmorton, “in consideration of general love and affection” and “with improvements thereon.” It is possible, therefore, that Mr. Wright built a house for his daughter and her husband who had been married two years before his acquisition of the property. It’s unclear if the Throckmorton’s lived here, as census records for this period no longer exist. By the time of his death in 1928, he and his wife were living in Richmond where he had been working as a lawyer for nearly a decade.
In 1900, Mr. Throckmorton, acting as trustee for his wife, transferred the property back to her parents. A year later, the Wrights sold the house to William E. Meade. The Meades are the first family whose records definitively place them as owner/occupants of the property.
William Everard Meade was born in 1858 at The Hermitage in Amelia County, Virginia. William was the ninth of eleven children born to William Everard, Sr. and Mary Overton Steger. William Sr. was the brother of E.B. Meade, one time Danville mayor (and the father of author Julian R. Meade). It was William Sr. who built the Hermitage in 1767. He later served as Major General of the Virginia Militia during the Revolutionary War and was a confidant of Thomas Jefferson. In a letter from William Sr. to Jefferson regarding rumors of revolution in France, William stated:
“I will never believe that man is incapable of self-government; that he has no resources but in a master, who is but a man like himself, and generally a worse man, inasmuch as power tends to deprave him.”
In January of 1915, William Meade, Jr. passed away, leaving the house to his wife, Kate. In October of that year, the Hermitage was destroyed by a fire. Kate remained in the Holbrook Avenue home many years until at last transferring the house to her husband’s nephew, John S. Meade, Jr., in whose hands Mr. Meade’s will had determined the house should fall since the couple had had no children. It was during his residence that the home was turned into apartments.
In 1953, John Meade sold the property to Elizabeth DeJarnett McDowell.
Elizabeth was born in 1905 in South Boston to T.F. Dejarnette and Ora Jennings. She married Cecil Irving McDowell in 1929, and in 1933 the couple arrived in Danville. Mr. McDowell owned and operated McDowell’s Radio, TV, and Refrigeration service until about 1952. For the ten years prior to purchasing the Throckmorton property, the family lived on Paxton Avenue. The family, which included their son Cecil Jr, occupied the first floor apartment while renting out the upstairs. After graduating from Virginia Tech in 1954, Cecil Jr. married Marie Hughes and moved to New Jersey.
Mrs. McDowell died in 1968, and Mr. McDowell then sold the home to Otwa Lee Turner who continued to use the home as rental property until 1998 when People’s National Bank took it over. The house has stood empty for many years and is considered one of the Old West End’s most endangered. The current owner is listed in public records as AYFFA Inc., a local enterprise who took ownership in 2018. Inquiries have been made as to the property’s fate, and we hope to have positive news to report in that vein in the near future.
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
Personal account of Cecil McDowell, Jr.
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe
Yes – I’m so happy to hear it may be taken care of soon.
Hello, Mr. McDowell. Thank you so much for your comment and the additional information. I’ll be very happy indeed to add it to the story. Thanks again!
I am the Cecil Jr. you mentioned in your article. I lived there with my parents although was attending VPI at the time. I graduated college in 1954. Married Marie Hughes in 1954 and we moved to NJ. My parents lived in the home until my mother died. My father taught electronics at Danville Tech (later Community College) until a couple of years after my mother died. He later married Evelyn Vernon of South Boston, VA and moved there. South Boston was where he and my mom were born and raised. My mom and dad married in South Boston and moved to Danville around 1933. For many years, my dad ran his own business i.e. McDowell’s Radio, TV, and Refrigeration service until around 1952. We lived on Paxton from approximately 1941 until they bought the 639 Holbrook place. The first-floor apartment was our residence.
I receive you emails with great interest as you can see, I was brought up there. Attended GWHS. I just passed my 90th birthday. Hope this note may add to your bio for the property