Danville, Virginia

Danville is an independent city in Virginia, bounded by Pittsylvania County, Virginia and Caswell County, North Carolina. It was the last capital of the Confederate States of America. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Danville with Pittsylvania county for statistical purposes under the Danville, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. Danville is also called the city of churches because it has more churches per square mile than any other city in the state of Virginia. The population was 48,411 at the 2000 census. It hosts the Danville Braves baseball club of the Appalachian League. Dan River Industries, formerly one of the world's largest textile mills, recently closed leaving a large number of Danvillians without jobs.

Today Danville's population is estimated to be 45,700, according to the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia. The population decrease since the 2000 Census is attributed mostly to migration.

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 Transportation
- 3.1 Railroad
- 3.2 Highway
4 History
- 4.1 Civil Rights Movement in Danville
- 4.2 Millionaire's Row
5 City Government
- 5.1 Danville City Council
  - 5.1.1 Terms Expire on June 30, 2008
  - 5.1.2 Terms Expire on June 30, 2010
- 5.2 City Manager
6 Notable Danville natives
7 Newspapers distributed in Danville
8 Colleges and universities
9 Notable businesses
10 References
11 External links

[edit] Geography

Location of Danville, Virginia

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 43.9 square miles (113.8 km²), of which, 43.1 square miles (111.5 km²) of it is land and 0.9 square miles (2.3 km²) of it (2.00%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there were 48,411 people, 17,607 households, and 12,941 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,124.2 people per square mile (434.1/km²). There were 23,108 housing units at an average density of 536.6/sq mi (207.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 53.86% White, 44.11% Black or African American, 0.17% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.45% from other races, and 0.78% from two or more races. 1.26% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 20,607 households out of which 26.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.2% were married couples living together, 19.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.2% were non-families. 33.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.89.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.3% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 23.6% from 45 to 64, and 19.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 83.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.4 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $26,900, and the median income for a family was $36,024. Males had a median income of $29,620 versus $21,384 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,151. About 15.9% of families and 20.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.9% of those under age 18 and 12.3% of those age 65 or over.

The crime index for the city in 2006 was 4914.7. The violent crime index for the Danville MSA was 247.5, ranking 259th of 311. Danville's unemployment rate of 6.6% is highest in the state.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Railroad

Amtrak's Crescent train connects Danville with the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham and New Orleans. The Amtrak station is situated at 677 Craghead Street.

[edit] Highway

U.S. Route 58 Business (Riverside Dr/River St) parallels the north bank of the Dan River traveling east/west through Danville's main commercial district while the US 58 Bypass route bypasses the city's center to the south via the Danville Expressway. U.S. Route 29 splits into a business route and a bypass at the North Carolina/Virginia border. The business route enters the heart of Danville via West Main Street and Memorial Drive and exits via Central Boulevard and Piney Forest Road; US 29 Business travels relatively north/south. The bypass (future Interstate 785) takes the eastern segment of the Danville Expressway and rejoins the business route north of the city near Chatham, Virginia.

North Carolina Highway 86 becomes State Route 86 once it crosses the state line into Danville as South Main Street. It continues north to its terminus at US 29 Business/Central Boulevard.

State Route 293 was created in 1998 to mark the route of old US 29 Business, which was rerouted to the west. SR 293 enters Danville's downtown historic district as West Main Street, then Main Street, and then crosses the Dan River to meet US 29 Business as North Main Street.

State Route 51 parallels US 58 Business as Westover Drive from its western terminus at US 58 Business at the Danville's corporate limits to its eastern terminus at US 58 Business near the Dan River.

[edit] History

Wreck of the Old 97, Danville, Virginia, 1903

In 1728, William Byrd headed an expedition sent to determine the true boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. One night late that summer, the party camped upstream from what is now Danville, Byrd was so captured with the beauty of the land, that he eloquently prophesied a future settlement in the vicinity, where people would live “with much comfort and gaiety of Heart.” The river along which he camped was named the “Dan”, for Byrd, supposing himself to be in the land of plenty, felt he had wandered “from Dan to Beersheba”.

The first white settlement (numerous Indian tribes had lived in the area) occurred downstream from Byrd’s campsite in 1792, at a spot along the river shallow enough to allow fording. It was named “Wynne’s Falls,” after the first settler. The village has a “social” reason for its origin, since it was here that pioneering Revolutionary War veterans met once a year to fish and talk over old times.

The establishment by the General Assembly of a tobacco warehouse at Wynne’s Falls in 1793 was the beginning of “The World’s Best Tobacco Market.” Virginia’s largest market for bright leaf tobacco. The village was renamed Danville by act of the Virginia Legislature on November 23, 1793. A charter for the town was drawn up February 17,1830, but by the time of its issue, the population had exceeded the pre-arranged boundaries. This necessitated a new charter, which was issued in 1833. In that year, James Lanier was elected the first mayor, assisted by a council of “twelve fit and able men.”

The outbreak of the Civil War found Danville a thriving community of some 5,000 people. During those four years of war, the town was transformed into a strategic center of activity. It was a quartermaster’s depot, rail center, hospital station for confederate wounded and a prison camp. Here six tobacco warehouses were converted into prisons, housing at one time more than 5,000 captured Federal soldiers .

Starving and dysentery, plus a smallpox epidemic in 1864, caused the death of 1,314 of these prisoners. Their remains now lie interred in the Danville National Cemetery.

Danville became the Last Capital of the Confederate States of America within the space of a few days. Jefferson Davis and the temporary Capital moved to the palatial home of William T. Sutherlin on April 3, 1865. It was in the Sutherlin home that Davis' issued his final Presidential Proclamation. The final Confederate Cabinet meeting was held at the Benedict House(destroyed) in Danville. Davis and members of his cabinet remained there until April 10, 1865 When news of Lee’s surrender forced them to flee southward. On the day of their departure, Governor William Smith arrived from Lynchburg, to establish his headquarters.

On July 22, 1882, six of Danville’s enterprising citizens founded the Riverside Cotton Mills, which today is known the country over as Dan River Inc., the largest single-unit textile mill in the world.

Here occurred the most famous wreck in American rail history. On September 27, 1903, “Old 97.” The Southern Railway’s crack express mail train, was running behind schedule. Its engineer “gave her full throttle,” but the speed of the train caused it to jump the tracks on a high trestle overlooking the valley of the Dan. The engine and five cars plunged into the ravine below, killing nine and injuring seven, but immortalizing the locomotive and its engineer, Joseph A. ("Steve") Broadey, in a now well-known song. A marker is located on U.S. 58 between Locust Lane and North Main Street at the train crash site. A mural of the Wreck of the Old 97 is painted on a downtown Danville building in memory of the historic wreck.

On March 2, 1911, Danville Police Chief R. E. Morris, who had been elected to three two-year terms and was running for a fourth term, was arrested as an escaped convicted murderer. He admitted that he was really Edgar Stribling of Harris County, Georgia, and had been on the run for thirteen years.^[3]

Danville was home to both Nancy Langhorne, Viscountess Astor, the first woman to serve in the British House of Commons, and Irene Langhorne Gibson, the inspiration for "the Gibson girl". It is also the home of the very first and only black man truly in NASCAR's history, Wendell Scott, and the birthplace of "Battling Jim" Johnson (b. ca. 1883), a boxer who fought heavyweight champion Jack Johnson to a draw in Paris, France in 1913.

APVA Preservation Virginia President William B. Kerkam, III, and its Executive Director Elizabeth S. Kostelny announced at a press conference held in Danville (2007) at Main Street Methodist Church, a building not designated to the list but nonetheless at risk, that the entire city of Danville has been named one of the Most Endangered Historic Sites in Virginia.

[edit] Civil Rights Movement in Danville

A series of violent episodes of the Civil Rights Movement in Virginia occurred in Danville during the summer of 1963. On May 31, representatives of the black community organized as the Danville Christian Progressive Association (DCPA) demanded an end to segregation and job discrimination in Danville. A boycott of white merchants was declared, and a march to City Hall followed. Most of the marchers were high school students. They were met by police and city workers armed with clubs. The protesters were sprayed with fire hoses and hit with clubs. Around forty protesters needed medical attention. Marches and other protests continued for several weeks.^[4] Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Danville and spoke at High Street Baptist Church about the brutality of the police force. He called it the worst police brutality he had seen in the South.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) sent organizers to Danville to support the DCPA. They helped lead protest, including demonstrations at the Howard Johnson Hotel and restaurant on Route 29. The hotel was known for discriminating against blacks. A special grand jury indicted 13 DCPA, SCLC, and SNCC activists for violating the "John Brown" law. This law, passed in 1830 after a slave uprising, made it a serious felony to "..incite the colored population to acts of violence or war against the white population." It became known as the "John Brown" law in 1860 because it was used to convict and hang abolitionist John Brown after his raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.

By the end of August, over 600 protesters had been arrested in Danville on charges of inciting to violence, contempt, trespassing, disorderly conduct, assault, parading without a permit, and resisting arrest. Because of the large number of arrest on these charges, often the jails would be over crowded, protesters were housed in George Washington High School located in Danville, VA. The demonstrations failed to achieve desegregation in Danville which remained segregated until passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

[edit] Millionaire's Row

Millionaire's Row is the most impressive area in Danville. It has many fine homes built in the 1800's and early 1900's by descendants of American planters. They are beautiful mansions adorned by trees lining the streets and peppered about the yards of these beautiful homes. The entire area around "Penn's Bottom", the nick name for the part of Main St that experienced heavy growth as the first suburb of Danville during the Tobbaco boom, has been designated as a historic district. The Old West End Historic District, Tobacco Warehouse Historic District, Downtown Danville Historic District and North Main Historic District are going through a period of revitalization. The Many Fine examples of Victorian Architecture are showcased every Holiday season with the Christmas Tour. Also located in this district is the "Sutherlin Mansion" currently known as the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History. This Italinate Mansion was the home of Major William T. Sutherlin a Confederate Quartermaster and was the location of the last "White House" of the Confederacy after the fall of Richmond. The museum, and its grounds currently occupy a complete block in this district. The remainder of the plantation was subdivided to create the surrounding neighborhood.

[edit] City Government

[edit] Danville City Council

"The Danville City Council is the governing body of the City of Danville." ^[5] The City Council consists of nine members elected by the citizens of Danville. The City Council selects the Mayor and Vice Mayor from among its members to serve two year terms. ^[6] The City Council has the power "to adopt and enforce legislative and budgetary ordinances, policies, and rules and regulations necessary to conduct the public's business and to provide for the protection of the general health, safety and welfare of the public."^[7] The members if the Danville City Council are as follows:

[edit] Terms Expire on June 30, 2008

Peter A. "Pete" Castiglione, Jr. (Vice Mayor)
E. Stokes Daniels
John C. Hamlin
T. David Luther
Sherman M. Saunders (Mayor)

[edit] Terms Expire on June 30, 2010

Ruby B. Archie
T. Wayne Oakes
Adam J. Tomer
Gary P. Miller

[edit] City Manager

The City of Danville has a council-manager government in which a City Manager is hired by council to supervise the city government and ensure that the laws, ordinances, and various policies made by the City Council are carried out in an effective manner.