The Ferrell Building, so called for the early furniture retailer that occupied its first floor around the turn of the 20th century, is a survivor. Its roller-coaster resurrection and ultimate redemption, however, took some two decades!

In 1991, the Danville Historical Society learned that the building’s owner was preparing to raze it for a parking lot. The DHS advanced $3,000 to secure it from destruction anticipating that the Commonwealth of Virginia would take possession of it under its revolving fund. The waters muddied however when a newly-elected governor, citing economic austerity, froze the assets of the Virginia Historic Preservation Foundation. Members of the Danville Historical Society held their collective breath when their non-refundable earnest money to the seller was nearly lost, suspended in bureaucratic animation. At the end of the 1990s, the State resolved to divest itself of its revolving fund properties in favor of administering that program through the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. The APVA, now Preservation Virginia, began marketing the property.

Even with the dawn of the new millennium, the outlook remained clouded, some said grim. In 2006, work renewed under an eager owner only to falter. Then a second well-intentioned buyer picked up the reins, but a family crisis prevented their moving forward. Happily, in 2010, Rehab Builders acquired this diamond-in-the-rough. The Winston-Salem based historic redevelopment firm’s vision for the Ferrell Building is mixed use—retail at the street level and apartment living above. Their sensitive makeover has turned an eyesore into one of Downtown Danville’s grace notes.

The top of its arresting façade is embellished with intricate corbels that form a heavy brick cornice. Newly-recreated wood show windows, transoms, and cornice are reminiscent of an 1898 ad depicting Ferrell furniture displays.

Built by tobacconist S. H. Holland between 1877 and 1886, this landmark was home to the Gravely-Holland Insurance & Real Estate Company. Restaurants like the Empire Café of the 1920s and the Tuxedo of the 1960s and beyond were a staple at the street level in addition to many other businesses. In the early 1940s, the former WPA artist Carson Davenport, who later taught at Averett, maintained a studio upstairs.