For five years, Cyndee and Jeff Moore have proved caring stewards of this splendid house which also stands as testimony to the couple who restored it some 20 years ago, and to its pioneering rescue from demolition by the Danville Historical Society.

The house retains its trim Queen Anne form from 1896, when it was one of a pair of nearly identical side-hall "spec" houses built for C. C. Dula, one of Danville's tobacco tycoons.  Early in the 20th century, it became the residence of newlyweds Barnes and Mary Katherine Penn during construction of their new dwelling across the street, 1020 Main Street, completed in June 1903 by Mrs. Penn's parents as a wedding gift for the couple.

For a number of years the property was home first to the R. A. Arrington family, then to Mr. and Mrs. E.F. Scales.  With Miss Pearl Morrisette, Mrs. (Bessie) Scales was a recorder of folk history in the Danville area for the Federal Writers Project, part of President Roosevelt's Depression-era effort to put America back to work.  From the 1940s and into the 1970s, the house was the residence of the Robert E. Turner family.

In the summer of 1986 when preservationists became aware of the imminent demolition of the house, an ad-hoc committee of the Danville Historical Society mobilized to stabilize what was then a neglected eyesore.

A single classified ad caught the eyes of a couple from Silver Spring, Maryland, willing to tackle the massive restoration project.  Bill and Billie McCaw spent the next two years practically rebuilding the place – replacing rotted sill beams, making original double-hung windows fully operable, and completely stripping and then repainting the exterior in warm earth tones appropriate to the period.  They also paid particular attention to preserving and enhancing the late Victorian character of the interior.

Since 2004, worthy successors to the McCaws – Cyndee Perdue-Moore and husband Jeff Moore, publishers/educators/administrators with talent and contagious enthusiasm – continue the renewal of the house.  Their adaptation of the ground floor as a gathering place for family and friends continues to evolve, celebrating comfort and hospitality, a delightful contemporary wrinkle in this otherwise period-piece of late Victorian style.