Note: I'm consolidating three owners into this post. Two owners I have little to no information about, and the third I have significantly more. The third is a pivotal part of my research, but I have so little on the other two that I see no need for a separate entry on them.
Historical research involving people can be incredibly nerve wracking. It's amazing that you can come across a name so many times and even recognize it, but then realize you are so limited in your resources you don't even know why you know them. Moreover, you have to deal with what I have dubbed the junior syndrome. You see a name several times, only to realize that it's someone's son.
Such is the case with the second owners of Ms. Gott's house. I have heard and seen the name F.X. Burton several times throughout my research on her house and through various other ventures in Danville's history. Imagine my surprise when I saw that name and read the deed to verify that it was, indeed, her house! I may not have believed it, had the deed not referenced it as Robinson Market Gardens.
F. X. Burton and his wife, Alice, owned the house for 10 years. Unfortunately for me, I quickly learned that during that 10 years, he died. Deed book entries in Danville that referenced F. X. Burton must have referred to his son. So, I know very little about him. As I recall, however, he was instrumental in the development of Neopolis (North Danville).
In 1904, Alice Burton sold the house to Mollie E. Mays and her husband. I know absolutely nothing about them, but they are worth mentioning as they established a trend with the house: female owners. Like Blanche Robinson, the land was deeded to Mollie, not to Mollie's husband. Between inheritances and purchases, the majority of the owners of that house have been women.
Mollie Mays owned the house for a year, give or take. If I recall, it was just under a year. As interesting as her purchase of the house was, her sale of the house was piece of information that completed my research.
The year was 1905. That area was yet to be annexed by the City of Danville. The Mount Vernon Villa Company had done very little to the area around Virginia Avenue. It was also the year that a purchase was made that would change the shape of the area forever...just not for another 15 or 20 years. The buyer? J. E. Perkinson: the one man upon whom all of my research hinged.
J. E. Perkinson...a man I have never met, and who left no heirs. Yet, by the end of my research, I felt like I knew him. I could picture what I thought he looked like in my head. All these years of researching him (which, somehow, did not feel stalkerish at all) made me feel a connection with him. He worked in the tobacco industry and owned a house on Main Street which no longer exists, but, ironically, he gave to his wife.
As an interesting side-note, before I get into the importance of J. E. Perkinson. His brother, T. R. Perkinson, built the house at 274 Carolina Avenue in 1916. He, however, lived in the area prior to that. He was first listed as living in the vicinity of Virginia Avenue in 1906, and T. R. Perkinson's name is also on the first piece of evidence of prior owners that I ever found in the house.
T. R. Perkinson moved to Danville in 1901, according to his obituary. He was a farmer who moved from Amelia. Where he lived prior to 1906 is unknown, though I imagine it is possible that he may have rented the house, which sparked his brother purchasing it.
Anyway, back to J. E. Perkinson...
J. E. Perkinson is the man who would make the area from Carolina Avenue to Howeland Circle what it is today. He would eventually buy the land up College Avenue, extend Carolina Avenue to Virginia Avenue, develop Howeland Circle and all of the intermediate streets. He built Avondale Drive and named the entire neighborhood Avondale Park.
This, however, was not until the 1920s. Around this time, Carolina Avenue was officially given its name, and the two houses given their house numbers. It is interesting to note, also, that circa 1920 the taxes on the house at 275 Carolina Avenue was $275 and some change. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I can't think of a better reason for a street to have houses that begin in the 270s rather than 100s.
After 1916, the house was rented. The only known occupant during this time was a local grocer: Frank L. Martin. He and his family lived here around 1920 before moving to Florida. Perhaps I need to do an entry on him as a miscellaneous later...
In 1924, J. E. Perkinson finally put his original purchase on the market. Amidst the selling of bungalows on College Avenue and other houses in the neighborhood, the unique house at 275 Carolina Avenue had it's first new owner in nearly 20 years.
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