A scrupulous exterior restoration, just complete, has— according to its present owners—made this late-I9th-century dwelling ready to greet afresh the 21st Century and the demands of its second century of Service. These careful stewards, both physicians, not only have lavished loving care on the structure but also have adapted its period rooms for the computer age, as Internet providers. Even so, the structure remains for the owners—both employed by the nearby Danville Urologic Clinic— an “in town” home as well. A thoroughly domestic structure manifesting none of the coldness associated with institutional use, it has been so carefully retrofitted for the electronic age that a family could remove the computers and access lines and be none the wiser for their having been there. 

From the time of its construction in 1897 until the mid 1980s, the house at 1012 Main Street sheltered no other family but that of T.S. Williamson and his descendants. Thomas Spencer Williamson, one of four children of Elbert Madison Willamson and Virginia Spencer Williamson, moved to Danville from Petersburg at the age of eleven. As had his father, the younger Williamson entered the lucrative tobacco trade as an independent leaf dealer. Having served as the president of the Danville Tobacco Association and as an active promoter of the local market for more than 50 years, T.S. Willamson was often described as the ‘dean’ of the local tobacco industry. 

T.S. Williamson & Company, which was begun by his father in 1878, operated for 74 years. Williamson first married Annie Hickey, the daughter of a tobacconist, in 1891. Six years after their marriage he purchased a 57-foot lot on Main Street where he built this two-and-a-half-story Queen Anne style mansion. In 191 7, ten years after the death of his first wife, Williamson married Mary Dodson Richmond. He lived here with his wife and three children from his first marriage until his death in 1945. The last members of the family to live here were his widow, known affectionately to her friends as “Miss Dot,” who died in 1983, and a son, Elbert Williamson. 

In 1986, soon after it was featured as the Danville Historical Society’s first Decorator Showcase house, the old Williamson Homeplace, was purchased by Lois Mumford, who saw past its then-decadent condition and refurbished the structure as her home, giving it a new lease on life. Six years later Pamela and jimmy Barbour purchased the dwelling and continued the restoration begun by Mrs. Mumford. The Barbours installed a handsome new kitchen, new infrastructure such as air conditioning, as well as landscaping, especially in the rear yard to accommodate their use of the house as a bed-and-breakfast inn. Newly-redecorated, the Barbours Gold Leaf Inn opened in 1994 and became a popular homeaway-from-home for many travelers and sightseers. 

When the Barbours moved to Atlanta, Drs. Franklin and Dugan Maddux purchased the house in 1996, and gave it a new moniker as Gamewood Data Systems, the couple’s Intemet providing business which had outgrown its space in their Pittsylvania County home. This “virtual” company, formed nine years ago, was named for Dr. Franklin Maddux’ grandparents’ acreage near Remington in Fauquier County, Virginia. Much of Gamewood Farm, a 3,000 acre cattle, corn and equine farm where the famous race horse “Man 0’ War” was once stabled now has been sold to the Commonwealth of Virginia as a game preserve.

Exterior colors used in the stunning exterior redo just completed took their cue from those associated with Gamewood Data—dark bottle green and vellum (the soft yellow used for the body of the house). This handsome palette was applied over the century-old wood siding and trim, all meticulously stripped, reflashed, sealed and primed. The original servants house in the rear yard has been outfitted with banks of concealed electronic systems which efficiently handle most of the Internet service for Gamewood’s many users in the Danville area. Inside the main house, changes to the interior to make it compatible with Internet service and for computer training are nearly imperceptible. The owners remaining goal is to bring the already handsome interior to the same level of restoration and polish as that of the gleaming exterior, now a showpiece among its neighbors on Millionaires Row.