Recognized today for its monumental two-story columned portico, it’s hard to believe that this elegant, century-old face-lift covers a simple Italianate I-house—built on the eve of the Civil War. Some 50 years later, a rising young tobacco executive recreated the dwelling to reflect his aspirations at the tobacco brokerage firm Dibrell Brothers. Just around the corner, on Chestnut Place, in contrast to this classical facade of beaux arts inspiration, are semi-circular and arched windows, and heavy brackets typical of the original 1860 house built for local merchant E.J. Bell.

The family lived here until Mr. Bell’s bankruptcy in 1868. Then, at auction, the dwelling was purchased by a resident of New York, William J. Peake. He soon sold the property to tobacconist John R. Pace, and his wife, who lived here for two decades with their six children. After Pace’s death, Mr. Boatwright purchased the home in 1893 and moved from his previous residence at 136 Chestnut Street to this mansion, which he made eminently more suitable for entertaining foreign tobacconists and political figures of the day. Mr. Boatwright engaged W.R. Deitrick, a local contractor, to remodel the exterior extensively by adding Palladian windows, and doors with beveled glass, plus a two-story Ionic portico intersected by a one-story Ionic colonnade.

In 1967, Alice B. Williamson, conveyed her home to Judge and Mrs. Archibald Murphey Aiken. Aiken was Judge of the Corporation Court from 1950 until his death in 1971. His widow lived here until 1979 when she conveyed the property to Dr. Malcolm Mallery. Dr. Mallery occupied the second floor apartment created by Boatwright’s daughter in the 1950s as he began an extensive rehabilitation. Thereafter, from 1986 to 2009, the process of removing apartments and returning the house, by degrees, to its origins as a single-family dwelling continued under a succession of owners—Bob and Anne Banks, Danny and Carolyn Bright, Ed and Suzanne Stowe, and Rod Tomlinson and Maria Mejias.

Two years ago Jonathan and Ginger Holbrook, who moved to Danville from North Carolina, purchased the rambling house and began their own campaign to bring out the luster of rooms with rich details like classical interior columns set off by dentil crown moldings, and Palladian-style windows with sparkling beveled glass. With a half-dozen children on the “maintenance crew,” the Holbrooks are busy stewards inside and out at this grand old mansion.