Demolished More coming soon.

  The lot upon which the home at 238 Jefferson Avenue was built was acquired by Lizzie Wood in October of 1903. She paid $800 for the lot of land. A short time after her purchase, a house was erected here. Elizabeth Slaughter Wood was born on the 5th of February 1868 in Danville to James and Caroline Chambers Wood. She was educated at “the Old Baptist College”, what her obituary indicated to be the present day Averett University. She was an educator, and taught in the Schoolfiled schools. The Wood family resided on Green Street before the turn of the century, but by 1900, Lizzie was living nearby with…

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,…

This, our fourth in the “Now and Then” series, focuses on the even-numbered homes on the north side of Main Street’s 1000 block. Few of Danville’s downtown blocks have changed as much as this one has. Beginning at the corner of Main and Holbrook Streets, where the Wednesday Club at 1002 Main Street presently stands, there were two houses. 1002 Main Street was the home of Dr. Benjamin Walker and was built sometime in the 1880’s. Next door at 1006 once stood a structure built sometime in the first decade of the 1900’s and was the home of John F. Rison, president of the street railway. These two houses were…

Now and Then will appear in the Gazette once in a while — now and then. Aside from a play on words, we’ll show you some streetscapes now and the homes and mansions that once stood in those locations. First up is the intersection of Main and Ridge Streets.  A present-day map of that intersection is shown above.  The 1920 insurance map is shown below.   At present, the north corner is the headquarters of American National Bank.  Its address is 628 Main Street. While this corner has had a long and varied history, two large homes once stood at this location.  Closer to the river at 630 Main (below)…

On Thursday, February 13, 2020, the home at 209 Jefferson Avenue was demolished.  It is always sad to lose a tooth in the Old West End smile.  This house was the only building in Danville attributed to Valentine J. Clutter, an architect who also designed Danville’s first courthouse that survived from 1873 to 1926. This property was posted for demolition over a year ago but was included on the Old West End website to see if there might be an interested buyer.  For over a year, no on showed an interest — perhaps because of its close proximity to the neighboring apartment building. The house was built between 1877 and…

The property upon which 939 Green Street would be built was acquired by A.M. Wheeler by William Diffendall in 1891. Prior to the construction of the circa 1900 house that stood here until its demolition in 2020, another house, as shown on the Beers Map of 1877, was in existence. The Censuses of 1860 and 1880 suggest that the family of John Mills, an African American factory worker lived here, and had done so for at least thirty years. John and Mary had four children in 1860, including John, age 4. It was he who was head of the Green Street household in 1880, along with his wife Alice and…

This house at 861 Pine Street was likely built as an investment – one of at least three homes built on “the Worsham property.”  The house to the west at 871 Pine Street was occupied by William W. Worsham himself.  The house to the east at 855 Pine Street was sold to J. T. Stovall upon its completion in 1872.   However, 861 Pine turned out to be, at least for a certain member of the Worsham family, very convenient. Anna Giles, sister of Mary Worsham, married John W. Cole in July of 1873. In the years just prior to their marriage, Mr. Cole served as a military appointed constable in Henrico…