A small portion of this historic structure, as yet unrestored, will be open for inspection; renovation will begin early next year. 

Constructed circa 1873, the house originally faced Main Street. It was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Chiswell Dabney Langhorne and their daughters, among whom were Irene and Nancy, who were born here and lived in this house until the family moved to Richmond in 1885. Artist Charles Dana Gibson married Irene, whom he immortalized as the prototype for his “Gibson Girl”, the feminine ideal of the l890s and early l900s. Nancy became world- famous as the Viscountess Astor, the first woman elected to the British House of Commons. Three years after her election Lady Astor returned to Danville, in 1922. From the second-floor porch of this house, by then relocated to its present site, she addressed the citizens of her hometown. 

When the house was threatened with demolition for a parking lot earlier this year, the structure was saved from certain destruction when it was purchased by Mrs. Stuart James Grant. Mrs. Grant gave the property to the Lady Astor Preservation Trust, a not-for- profit organization which is about to begin the first phase of the restoration of the house as a museum to Lady Astor, Irene Gibson, their family, life and times.