Owners of 138 Broad Street once spread their deep front porch with corn meal for dancing on its wide floor. Today its many plants and wicker furniture still invite attention. A son of the original family, C. Brooke Temple, remembers those happy times and also recalls when his mother entertained in her format garden. The present owner stilt spends happy hours there tending her flowers. 

This spacious late-Victorian house gets its character from simple details — a front door with bevelled glass, diamond paned sash in the large elliptically-arched front window, and of course, from the porch with its low ballustrade. The ten room structure, originally valued at $1500, was completed for Mr. and Mrs. George C. Temple in 1986-97. It was as solid as the family for whom it was built. At the time Mr. Temple served as Danville City Treasurer. His leadership in finance and investments continued throughout his life, for he also served as long-time head of Patton, Temple and Williamson. For well over a half century, the Temples lived at the Broad Street address, where their several children grew up also. After Mrs. Temple’s death in 1954, her children sold the old homeplace to Mr. and Mrs. Richard R. Patterson. Their son, William W. Patterson, lived here with his wife and daughter from the mid-1950s until they left Danville in 1963. During that time Mr. Patterson, a well-known architect locally, added a very contemporary kitchen, which has continued to be a functional and practical asset to the house since it was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Harry W. Scearce 22 years ago.

The house is filled with a variety of interesting antiques collected by Mrs. Scearce and her late husband over a period of Mrs. Harry W. Scearce many years. A number of high-style Victorian pieces in walnut and rosewood occupy the long parlor on the right, and others complement the entrance hall with its curved stairway. Each room contains objects that reflect a love for things past and for the house that holds them.