In 1988, the fate of the birthplace and girlhood home of two famous Langhorne daughters hung in the balance—saved, practically at the eleventh hour, from demolition for a parking lot. Happily now, its place as a cultural landmark is assured. Today, rare historic images and family memorabilia recall the remarkable stories of Nancy Langhorne, Viscountess Astor—the first woman to sit in British Parliament—and Irene Langhorne Gibson, whose artist husband Charles Dana Gibson immortalized her as the “Gibson Girl,” fashion ideal of turn-of-the-century America.

Only a couple of years after Nancy Astor’s landmark election to the British House of Commons in 1919, her Danville birthplace, then facing Main Street’s corner with Broad, was moved hack nearly 40 feet to make way for the three-story Caswell Apartments. The Langhorne’s former 1874 house, in turn—realigned with a Broad Street address—was reborn as the Gwynn Apartments. On May 5, 1922, the Gwynn’s first tenants, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Benton, entertained in their first-floor apartment two returning Langhorne daughters, Irene Gibson and Nancy Astor. Here too, from the second-floor porch of this house, Danville’s Nancy Langhorne addressed the citizens of her hometown as Lady Astor, M.P. Over the ensuing eight decades, apartments in this historic structure have sheltered a host of well-regarded citizens and professionals, including descendants of Thomas Jefferson.

The determination and largesse of the longtime owner of the Danville Register & Bee, the late E. Stuart James Grant, spared this landmark from oblivion. Mrs. Grant also established the not-for-profit corporation, The Langhorne House Trust, which continues to develop and administer the historic landmark as a museum. In 2006, the Langhorne House was added to the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Under the auspices of the Trust, two historic rooms, have been refurbished to reflect the spirit of the time when the Langhornes set up housekeeping here, before moving to Richmond in the early 1880s. Among furnishing of the period are a handful of actual pieces owned by the Langhornes. Most recently, a rosewood square grand piano, once owned by family members in Lynchburg, joined this collection.

The Trust also was the prime mover in efforts to relocate the monumental portrait of Nancy Astor in the British House of Commons, by William Sims, R.A., to a prominent public space in Danville’s Municipal Building. This past October family members, including Nancy Astor's grandson, William Waldorf Astor III, attended its gala dedication.