Shingled gables with sawn and turned ornaments, bracketed cornices, and rich carving in the porch pediment are among the varied wood details that embellish the complex geometry of this Queen Anne-style structure and attest to its architectural importance.  The meteoric rise to power of its first owner, Andrew Jackson Montague, signifies its place in history – complete with an historical highway marker to prove the point.

Following the War Between the States, Danville was a tobacco and textile boom town, Mecca for such men as the Dibrell brothers, w ho relocated here from Richmond; and the Schoolfield brothers; who moved here from Horsepasture in Henry County. Respectively, they founded the tobacco brokerage house Dibrell Brothers, Inc., and Dan River, Inc., a world leader in textiles.  Similarly, rather than return to his native King and Queen County following law school, young "Jack" Montague chose Danville to launch his legal career in 1885.  While he and his family lived in this house he ran, successfully, in 1897 for Attorney General of Virginia.  That position propelled him to the Governor’s mansion five years later.

When the Montagues left Danville in 1898, they did not sell their home immediately – not until 1904 did it become the property of Loula C. Reagan, who lived here some 40 years.  During the Second World War she converted the house to apartments.  When it was sold in 1946 and for two decades thereafter, the house was used for rental property.  After the structure was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. James T. Gauldin in 1967, they began its return to single family use.

Over the past two decades its present owners, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Dumont, have completed that transformation with painstaking craftsmanship – restoring its original floor plan and returning the soft glow of the 1890s to these spacious rooms, upstairs and down.  Personally they have spent countless hours hand-stripping oak wainscoting and other details, set off by antique original lighting fixtures. Even the baths sport period-appropriate antique original sinks, tubs and water closets.

Inveterate flea market, auction, and antique hunters, the owners have filled these rooms with handsome pieces, especially unusual oak furnishings, appropriate for a household headed by a young professional in the 1890s, and eminently practical for their early 21st century successors.