Intricate lacy cast-iron porch Main and Union), and several tobacco trim and manicured landscaping catch the attention of passersby on North Main Street. Built around 1885 for Thomas Jefferson Lee by architect-contractor, Thomas B. Fitzgerald, and architecturally rated as OUTSTANDING by Russell Wright in 1971, this exceptional two-story Italianate mansion of statewide importance reflects the high quality craftsmanship of all Fitzgerald’s constructions in Danville. Its irregular facade is given emphasis by a projecting three-part bay at the north corner and windows that are all accented by light colored keystones and spring blocks. 

Thomas Jefferson Lee was born in June of 1847, in Albemarle County and married Eliza Corbin, daughter of Jackson and Sallie Dawson Corbin, in Pittsylvania County in 1866. According to Victorian Danville, Lee “started life poor without education, at one time working in a cotton mill and another time as a carpenter- lie came to Danville around the age of twenty four...and his land acquisitions. according to court records, began in 1871 and continued until his death.” Lee owned and operated Lee’s Warehouse on Bridge Street, the Arlington Hotel (corner Main and Union) and several tobacco factories. When North Danville was a separate municipality, Lee was a mayor of Neapolis. At his death in 1887, his wealth was estimated at $I50,000.

The Leemont Cemetery on Claiborne Street, which was named for him, is the site of his burial vault. He provided the land for the former Calvary Methodist Church and worked on the building committee with Thomas B. Fitzgerald to build this place of worship in 1886. 

Alter Lee’s death, his widow Eliza, married William H. Buntin of Halifax County. Victorian Danville relates the story of their pet parrot, "Polly." "Upon the parrot’s death, Townes Funeral Home was instructed to build an appropriate casket. “Polly” was laid our in one of the rooms and some two hundred people attended the funeral. The remains were interred in the yard of the house.” 

After purchasing the home in 1978, the Subletts operated The Victorian Restaurant here from 1980 to 1987. With the help of their daughter, Lea-Ann Samuels, they have been restoring the home as their residence since 1988.