Constructed in 1922 as the Southern Amusement Building, this Beaux Arts style structure originally was to have become Danville’s most lavish theatre, a ‘new and large playhouse’ for road shows, vaudeville, Chautauqua and motion pictures. 

Early plans showed a 2,000 seat playhouse---to be called the Palace Theatre---complete with a large stage, balcony, and gallery, as well as two stores and suites of offices. Only the stores, lobby and offices were completed however. By 1925, the buildings businesses included:

The Palms: soda, cigars, and confections 
L. B. Flora: engineering contractor 
J. D. Butler: optometrist 
E. J. Binkley: chiropractor 
Wilson, Wickam & Thornton, Inc.: vaccum cleaner sales and service 
Continental Life Insurance Company 

In the decade alter plans for the theatre were put on hold, vaudeville and the demand for movie palaces waned with the Depression, and in 1933 the building was sold to developers in the Jefferson Avenue Improvement Company. In 1936, this investment group which included Louis Dibrell, Albert Patton, and Alvis Starling leased the structure to Sears, Roebuck & Company which was expanding its mail order business to include more retail stores, especially in the South. ,J. Bryant Heard, a prolific local architect was commissioned to revamp the first floor facade for a single tenant and to design for Sears a large rear addition for retail display---instead of the theatre proposed fifteen years earlier. Sometime during the next decade the storefront was altered substantially to create an uninterrupted horizontal show window. 

Clement & Wheatley purchased the building in 1987, restored the facade to its early appearance, and in 1988 relocated its expanding law firm from the Masonic Temple to its elegant new office at 549 Main Street.