Past Residents: Finding a Connection with an Old House Based on Personal Connections

You meet many interesting people in your life. Each with a different story to tell. But sometimes the most interesting story comes about after they're gone, and as such their memory lives on.

Growing up in Danville, I barely had my own identity. I was the son of the president of the Chamber of Commerce and of someone who grew up in Danville. On top of that, I was the grandson of the first president of DCC and of a former teacher at GW. Almost anytime I was introduced to any adult, it was met with "Oh, I know your father," or "Oh, you're Joe Taylor's grandson," or even "oh, I went to school with your mom." Of course, my favorite will always be "oh, your mom used to babysit me." I was able, however, to meet many interesting people.

It was when my grandmother was at Stratford House, however, that I roughly created an identity of my own. I was still "Louise Taylor's grandson," but that's part of why I was able to do the things I did. The residents who had been long-time friends of my grandparents knew my background, and most of the ones who didn't were just glad to see some young blood. Granted, the identity I had was the little boy who used to roam the halls and play under the dining room tables, but still...I was recognizable outside of who I came from for the first time.

Though I've been really busy lately, I still try to research Ms. Gott's house and my friend Micah's house (formerly Hope Harbor). Last night, my personal life finally intersected with my research. I was browsing through old copies of the city directory, looking at former residents of 1021 Main Street, when a familiar name crossed my path: Lefty Wilson.

Lefty Wilson
Photo courtesy of Virginia Sports and Museum website.

My first thought was "sweet! A famous Danvillian boarded at the house in the late 1920s." So, I texted Micah to tell him. Then, just for my own curiosity, I typed Lefty Wilson into Google. I knew he had been a baseball player because of Lefty Wilson Field. I learned through the city directory entry that he was also a teacher at GW, which was then located on Holbrooke Avenue where the Sutherlin Place townhouses are; the athletic field at the corner of West Green Street and Rison Street.

George Washington Highschool ca. 1951 (There wasn't a map from 1930).

Rison Park School ca. 1920 for comparison.

So, just out of curiosity, I typed his name into Google. The Virginia Sports and Museum Hall of Fame page for him came up, as long as information about Lefty Wilson Field. I learned that he was father of the year in 1955, and teacher of the year in 1957. Scrolling down on Google, an obituary caught my eye. It was for his wife, Mary, and the snippet showed Stratford House. I clicked the link just out of curiosity, wondering if it was someone I knew. It's funny, actually, because I first saw the apartment number, 206, and then thought to look at the year of death: 2002. My grandmother was in apartment 201, so I could picture the door to apartment 206 instinctively. But when I looked at the year of death, I thought to myself "that's after my time" as it was five years after Grandma died.

I backed out of the page and then stopped, immediately. Something had clicked in my brain, and I went right back to the page and looked at the name: Mary Wilson. Apartment 206. Of course. It was Mrs. Wilson! She had lived there when Grandma was there. Moreover, I suddenly recalled all the times that we passed Lefty Wilson Field and my father would say "that's named for the husband of Mrs. Wilson who lives up the hall from your grandmother."

So, I dug a little bit more. I thought it was cool that I knew the wife (and, actually, the great-grandmother of a couple of guys I knew growing up), but what I found was even better. After the marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson both resided at 1021 Main Street.

Aside from my research and the work I've done on the house, I now have a personal connection with the house. Someone who knew me growing up, a sweet woman who always smiled and spoke to me, had lived in one of the houses I'm actively researching, thereby reviving the memory of Mrs. Wilson in my mind.