Danville Historic District (Additional Documentation)

Danville's historic district covers about 110 acres along Main and West Main Streets and the quieter residential blocks to the east. Its buildings span the full range of styles used in the city, from two early nineteenth-century houses to Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Romanesque, Eastlake, Queen Anne and Beaux Arts examples of the early twentieth century. The nomination calls it perhaps the finest concentration of Victorian and Edwardian houses in Virginia. Much of this building followed the post-Civil War tobacco trade, including the auction warehouse method begun by Thomas Neal in the 1850s, and the textile mills founded in 1882 by the Schoolfield brothers and Thomas Fitzgerald. Notable houses include the Penn-Wyatt house of 1876 at 862 Main Street and the Schoolfield-Compson House at 844 Main Street. The Sutherlin Mansion served as Jefferson Davis's last official residence in 1865. Churches, a hospital, a college and offices mix with homes, and many houses remain in use as residences. Historic district zoning protects the area.