Previously on tour in 1985, this charming and spacious “raised cottage” is undergoing an elegant restoration by its new owners, who recently moved to Danville from the Eastern Shore. In 1913,Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Gresham of Baltimore, Maryland, sold Lot 11 with this home, then under construction, to Stonewall Jackson Slaughter. Sold for $2,250, the cottage is typical of the simpler line of architecture built during the Edwardian era. The home is embellished with a bevelled, leaded-glass front door and a Neoclassical front porch. This ornamentation is repeated in the interior with the Neoclassical columns, which divide the front foyer from the sitting room. 

S.J. Slaughter, its first occupant, was a Danville tobacconist. He married Elizabeth Maury, who is descended from the well-known Maury and Harvie families of Danville and Virginia. After Mr. Slaughter’s death, his wife continued to live here until 1950, when she sold the home to Mr. and Mrs. J. Kenneth Carter. The Carters resided on Sutherlin Avenue for over 20 years before selling the home to Mr. and Mrs. El rod M. Long just about the time the Danville Historic District was formed in the early 1970’s. Renewed interest in preserving the area spurred the planting of Bradford pear trees along die curbside in 1977. The current owners purchased the home from Mrs. E. Harrison Mitchell in 1990. 

Tour visitors will be pleased to see personal belongings of Vice President James S. Sherman, who is Henrietta Mitchell’s grandfather. Sherman was elected in 1908 along with William H. Taft, President of the United States. 

Family memorabilia includes Vice President Sherman’s study lamp and a photograph of his wife in her inaugural gown, which is on exhibit in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Alex, a liturgical musician, is the proud owner of the antique Steinway (1885) in the front parlor. The home is splendidly furnished with antiques and family portraits. The Mitchells chose to live in Danville after residing along the East Coast from Vermont to North Carolina and in England.