Last year the Danville Historical Society saved from demolition a small, but important part of Schoolfield’s rich history. In August 1998, the Society forged with the City of Danville an innovative agreement to lease this cl907 mill worker’s home on the western edge of BaIlou Park. When fully restored, this cottage will interpret the important contributions of the textile worker at Dan River Inc. It will pay tribute to thousands of hard-working men and women who ran looms and spinning frames—powering Danville’s new industrial engine which less than a generation after Reconstruction came to vie with the supremacy of tobacco, long the cornerstone of the region’s agricultural economy.

Beginning in 1903, hundreds of houses like the one at 197 Park Circle were erected in Schoolfield, not lust to shelter the workforce at the mill’s Dan River (Schoolfield) division, but also to lure new employees. By 1914, over 400 houses were completed, with rentals of two-, three-, four- and six-room cottages ranging from $0.75 to $2.25 per week.

The four-room plan of the house at 197 Park Circle allies it with the earliest dwellings built in Schoolfield—most symmetrical with a gable roof, diminutive porch, and double- leaf doors opening into an angled entry adjoining the two front rooms. A shed roof covers the two back rooms and rear porch. 

First known residents of the house were members of the Hopkins family, listed in the Schoolfield department of the 1908 Danville City Directory. The family included Joseph B. Hopkins, who worked in the mill as a weaver; Miss Bettie Hopkins; and Joseph H. Hopkins, a farmer, and his wife Mary. Sometime after the First World War, the house was occupied by George and Alma Riley, who lived at this address from the mid 1920s until about 1960 when Mr. Riley died. Prior to his retirement, Mr. Riley worked for the mill principally as a loomfixer. It was in June of 1921, lust prior to the Rileys’ residence here, that the mill conveyed to the City of Danville a large tract on the east side of Park Avenue which included this house. This largely undeveloped acreage increased the size of Ballou Park to its present 97 acres.

From the early I960s until the early ‘80s, the residence was the home of Mr. Giles Hamlett, a maintenance foreman for the City of Danville, and his wife Ruth. For fifteen years thereafter, the structure was vacant except for city storage.

The restoration still in progress promises great potential as an area tourist attraction. For the community, the mill house reflects the spirit of generations of Schoolfield residents who continue to play an important role in telling the story of the mill’s legacy in our city.