Brochures to highlight historic properties in Danville and Boyle County

Published 3:20 pm Sunday, April 30, 2017

For history’s sake

May is National Preservation Month, and in recognition of that, the Heart of Danville is releasing two brochures to highlight the history of Danville and Boyle County — the Downtown Danville Walking Tour and Landmarks to Watch.

“We do them to try and educate the public on a couple of different things,” said Nick Wade, executive director of the Heart of Danville Main Street Program, part of the Danville-Boyle County Economic Development Partnership.

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Both brochures will be available at Grayson’s Tavern (the Visitor’s Center at Constitution Square, off East Walnut Street); at the Heart of Danville office (at the corner of Second and Walnut streets, in Constitution Square); and during Picturing Preservation: An Art Collection of Historic Boyle County Landmarks event, on May 11, held by Boyle Landmark Trust and The Arts Commission of Danville-Boyle County, at Warrenwood Manor.

Downtown Danville Walking Tour

The Downtown Danville Walking Tour brochure has “been in the works for a little over a year,” Wade said.

“It highlights 25 of our historic properties and a downtown map, so you can walk,” he said. “The walking tour brochure is used to spotlight the different resources we have, and in some instances they are buildings that we don’t have anymore, they have been torn down, and we want to make sure that we can remember them.”

“Danville is fortunate to have maintained many of the historic buildings that are so utilized. We want to make sure people — people walk by them every day and not everyone realizes how special they are or the history behind them. we want to be sure everyone knows about that.”

The Downtown Danville Walking Tour brochure is a joint initiative between the Boyle County Public Library, Heart of Danville and Dixon Design.

There will be three walking tours on May 13, in conjunction with the Art-A-Thon, held at the Community Arts Center. Those tours will be at 10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. and will begin on the steps of the Community Arts Center.

Landmarks to Watch

This will be the fourth time for the Landmarks to Watch brochure, which began in 2013 as an “avenue for the organizations that participate to spotlight the buildings or resources that need to be saved and could potentially disappear.”

Some of the properties are privately owned, some are publicly owned, all are deemed in danger of being condemned or demolished.

“We try to spotlight those so that 20-30 years down the road, we’re not where we are now, where we have a bunch of missing buildings that we could have saved at one point,” Wade said, calling it “one of the big ones” in relation to Preservation Month.

In the 2017 Landmarks to Watch brochure, all of the properties are privately owned.

“In 2013, we listed properties that were for sale. When we did our recap for 2014, several of the properties that were listed were actually bought and are currently being restored. That’s one of the positive things that have come out of that brochure.”

The Landmarks to Watch brochure is a collaboration between the Heart of Danville, the Danville Architectural Heritage Board, Main Street Perryville and Boyle Landmark Trust.

SO YOU KNOW

The Downtown Danville Walking Tour and the Landmarks to Watch brochures will both be available at Grayson’s Tavern, the Visitor’s Center, on Constitution Square, off East Walnut Street; at the Heart of Danville office, located on the corner of Constitution Square, at the intersection of Second Street and Walnut Street; and Picturing Preservation: An Art Collection of Historic Boyle County Landmarks event, on May 11, held by Boyle Landmark Trust and The Arts Commission of Danville-Boyle County, at Warrenwood Manor.

Courtesy of Heart of Danville
The front of brochure highlighting a walking tour of downtown Danville, which is being released in May.

Courtesy of Heart of Danville
The front of the Danville-Boyle County Landmarks to Watch brochure, being released in May.

Courtesy of Heart of Danville
The old L&N Depot, at 899 West Walnut Street, was constructed in 1876, and had a frame structure with hipped roof and platform. It was replaced by the current brick depot in 1906. It is featured in a brochure of the Heart of Danville’s Places to Watch.