Downtown Danville Historic District

Downtown Danville's historic core is a district of 74 resources along Main Street and neighboring streets, with two additional buildings already individually listed, the Hotel Danville and the Municipal Building. Most buildings are two or more stories of load-bearing masonry, built from the 1870s through the early 1940s. They record the prosperity that tobacco and textiles brought to the city after the Civil War. The Pace Building of 1875 is likely the oldest commercial building, and later structures show Romanesque Revival, Neoclassical, Colonial Revival, Art Deco and other styles. Terra cotta is a notable material, seen on the 1927 Hotel Danville, the 1921 Rorer Memorial Building and the 1922 Masonic Building. Tobacco and textile factories, fraternal halls, a post office and a municipal building add variety, and the district also includes sites tied to Black commercial history, such as the Southern Aid Building. The district was listed for its architecture and its role in the city's commerce, government, industry and social life.