Cooperative Living/November-December 2015

Route 360 terminates atDanville, a river city onlyminutes from the North

Carolina border that has longbeen working to find a newidentity with the close of itsfamous textile mills. While one street here may

feature ramshackle Victorianhomes and derelict cottagesbacked up against empty ware-houses, other parts of the cityshowcase beautifully restored19th-century homes, many ofthem part of Danville’s famedMillionaire’s Row, where onecan see some of the best examples of Victorian and Edwardianarchitecture in Virginia. At the turn of the last century, the city was booming, home

to the Richmond and Danville Railroad and the newly con-structed Atlantic and Danville Railway. Much of the city’swealth came from the Riverside Cotton Mills, later known asDan River Inc., the largest single-unit textile mill in the world. The mill has long since closed, however, as textile-industry

work has moved off-shore to benefit from cheaper, foreignlabor. But some of the industry’s architecture remains, includ-

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ing The White Mill, which iscurrently being renovated intoan apartment complex.

NEWCOMERS BRING THEPAST TO THE PRESENTIt was into this milieu of

old and new, decay andprogress, that Jake and ConnieEckman moved 11 years ago,leaving their native home ofNew Jersey to start a new lifein Danville that came toinclude renovating and restor-ing the stunning Victorianhome now known as The II

Georges Inn. “We were looking to relocate to Virginia or NorthCarolina,” Jake says, as he shows me about the inn dressed inhis billowy “chef” pants (he and Connie also operate a trendyrestaurant on Main Street known as Jake’s on Main). “When we found this house, we fell in love with it,” adds

Connie. The two spent three years going back and forth fromNew Jersey on weekends to work on it — painting, wallpaper-ing, decorating. Today the place easily looks as it might have130 years ago with patterned wallpapers, voluminous andgraceful window coverings, beds and armoires of intricately

STORIES FROM THE ROAD

Story and photos byDeborah Huso,

Contributing Writer

3600360

Danville, near the North Carolina border,is today a city establishing a new identity.

Straddling Past and Future on the Banks of the Dan

e endpoint of Route 360, Danville works on a new story in the post-heyday world of railroads and cotton.

31November-December 2015/www.co-opliving.com

carved walnut, and marble-toppedtables dressed in gaily festooned lampshades. The couple plans to returnto serving dinner at the inn as they did when they first opened; at present, they offer gourmet breakfastseach morning in their sumptuous dining room.The Eckmans are jovial and teasing,

Jake standing a good foot taller thanConnie and playfully calling her his“short little inspiration.” Indeed,Connie’s vision was largely responsiblefor the inn’s Victorian glam.The II Georges’ housekeeper,

Gailein Hartford, happens to volunteeracross the street at what is now knownas the Langhorne House, the humble1879 birthplace of Lady Astor, onceNancy Langhorne, who resided in anapartment in the home until age 3.Miss Langhorne’s father eventuallyattained wealth investing in railroads,though he is far less famous than hisdaughters, one of whom, Irene, was thefamous Gibson Girl.Nancy Langhorne’s early adulthood

was not happy, however, according toHartford, who tells me the girl marriedyoung and had a child but thendivorced, living a happy existence onher family’s estate near Charlottesville,never planning to remarry and certainly never expecting to as adivorcee in Victorian America. However, when on a trip to

England with her father and sister,Irene, she met Waldorf Astor and fell in love. At the time, Astor held a seatin Great Britain’s House of Commons;however, when his father died, he tookhis hereditary seat in the House ofLords. Witty, opinionated, and certainlyprogressive, Nancy Astor ran for herhusband’s vacated seat and won, serv-ing in the House of Commons for 26years until the close of World War II.She was the first woman in England tohold a seat in the House and frequentlymade herself a thorn in the side ofPrime Minister Winston Churchill.Purportedly, she once told the cor-

pulent and admired leader of GreatBritain, “Sir, if you were my husband,I’d poison your tea.”Churchill, not to be outdone,

replied, “Madam, if you were my wife,I’d drink it.”

Monuments to Danville’sstoried past, many of the

exquisitely restored homesfound along the city’s

famous Millionaires Rowinclude some of the best

examples of Victorian andEdwardian architecture to

be found in Virginia.

Jake and ConnieEckman (below) left

their native New Jerseyto start a new life inDanville, which has

come to include reno-vating and restoring thestunning Victorian home

now known as The IIGeorges Inn (right and

below, right).

The Langhorne House(right) is the humble

1879 birthplace of LadyAstor, once Nancy

Langhorne, who residedin an apartment in the

home until age 3.

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LAST CAPITAL OF THECONFEDERACYI learn more about Lady Astor as well

as many of the other famous and not-so-famous faces of Danville’s past at theDanville Museum of Fine Art andHistory, where Visitor ServicesCoordinator C.B. Maddox, Jr., providesme a personal tour of the house thatvery briefly served as the White Houseof the Confederacy in the final daysbefore surrender at Appomattox. Maddox, a native of Charlottesville,

moved to Danville 30 years ago.Carefully attired in a three-piece suit,formal in manner, he explains how heonce dreamed of going to YaleUniversity, but his parents quicklyadvised him, “I don’t know why youapplied to Yale; you’re going to UVA.”That was that, and Maddox has, thus,been a Virginian his entire life. The museum for which he serves as

part-caretaker is an Italianate mansionoccupying a large expanse of lawn onDanville’s Main Street. William Sutherlin,once president of the Bank of Danville,purchased the four-acre property for$4,000, built the present house, andmoved into it in 1859. The Sutherlinsowned the home until 1911, with threegenerations of Sutherlin women havingbeen married here. They were the onlyprivate family to own the house, as theCity of Danville took it over in 1916,eventually making it a public library. Itsincarnation as a museum did not comeuntil the 1970s.Many visitors come here to see the

dining room where Confederate

President Jefferson Davisled cabinet meetings in thefinal days of the Civil Warafter fleeing Richmond on

April 2, 1865. It took the Confederategovernment nearly 17 hours to travel toDanville by train. They occupied theSutherlin house for barely a week beforeretreating again to Greensboro, where noone in the city would receive them. Among the special features of this

house is its cupola, which, in the days itserved as a residence, would have beenused to help ventilate the house. Today itprovides an extensive view of the sur-rounding city, which would not havepressed so close upon the house at thetime of William Sutherlin’s ownership.At one time, he owned 700 acres and

IF YOU GO ...Before you head to Danville to do

some exploring of your own, check outthe city’s tourism site at www.danville-va.gov/63/Play. Once in town, the bestspot to get your bearings and begin tounderstand the local history and econo-my is at the Danville Museum ofFine Arts and History (975 MainSt., 434-793-5644, www.danvillemuseum.org). If you’d like to enjoy thegreat outdoors while you’re here, walkor bike some of the DanvilleRiverwalk Trail (www.playdanville-va.com/264/ Riverwalk-Trail), whichlinks downtown with several area parksas well as the Danville ScienceCenter (677 Craghead St., 434-791-5160, www.dsc.smv.org), where youcan explore the universe via the muse-um’s Digital Dome Theater.

Spend the night at The II GeorgesInn (124 Broad Street, 434-793-1119,

www.thetwogeorgesinn.com), where Jakeand Connie Eckman ensure you’ll be cos-setted in Victorian luxury across the streetfrom the house where Lady Astor wasborn. For dinner, hit the restaurant theEckman’s started four years ago, Jake’son Main (215 Main St., 434-792-0123,jakesonmaindanville.com). I recommendthe chicken and Gorgonzola sauce,which features prosciutto, chicken and sun-dried tomatoes over corkscrew pastatopped with a thick and luxurious cheesesauce. Dine al fresco by the fountains, and people watch as pedestrians and bikers pass by on the adjacent Riverwalk.At lunchtime, check out local favoriteMidtown Market (7 Chambers St., 434-793-8211, www.midtown-market.com).Arrive early if you want to sample theirfamous chicken salad made with picklejuice. Locals claim people line up outsidethe doors for it. n

Cooperative Living/November-December 2015

The Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History (left and above) served brieflyas the White House of the Confederacy in the final days of the Civil War.

held more than 60 slaves. When heserved as a delegate to the VirginiaConvention following the attack onFort Sumter on April 12, 1861,Sutherlin recalled the signing of theCommonwealth’s Secession Ordinance:“I saw in the convention strong men,reserved men of years and dignity, signthe Secession Ordinance while tearscoursed down their cheeks.”Fortunately, for its beautiful archi-

tecture, Danville escaped the horrors of the Civil War that ravaged so manysouthern cities. It merely experiencedoccupancy by Federal troops for sevenweeks, standing under martial law fol-lowing General Robert E. Lee’s surren-der of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9. n