DAN'S HILL 



AN'S HILL, situated in Pittsylvania County, Vir- 

 ginia, about five miles from Danville, on the Dan 

 River, covering an area of about sixteen hundred 

 acres, is the ancestral home of the Wilson family, 

 the present owner, Robert Wilson James, being 

 the fifth generation in direct descent to have 

 lived here. 



The first member of the family, John Wilson, settled here 

 during the Revolutionary period, and the present house, with the 

 numerous outbuildings, consisting of stables, carriage-house, in 

 which the old four-horse coach was kept, the weaving-house, where 

 expert weavers in former days made the homespun worn by the 

 house servants and farm hands, a laundry room, dairy, smoke- 

 house, icehouses, kitchen with huge fireplace in which a person 

 could easily stand, and the several log cabins for servants' quarters 

 were built by Robert Wilson. These were in course of construc- 

 tion about eight years and were completed in 1833. All of the 

 bricks used in these buildings were made on the estate and the 

 lumber was cut from the native forest; both are still in a good 

 state of preservation. 



The residence is a spacious three-story brick structure of the 

 Colonial type, containing twenty rooms, and furnished with the 

 original mahogany furniture placed there years ago. The present 

 owners, Robert Wilson James and his wife, who was Miss Irene 

 Dwyer, of Ohio, have recently installed in this home all the modern 

 conveniences, consisting of heat, electric lights, bathrooms, and an 

 up-to-date refrigerating plant, making it, in addition to its tradi- 

 tional charms and general beauty, one of the most comfortable 

 homes possible. 



A fireside grouping in the drawing-room shows the beautiful 

 old imported marble mantel and the brass fender and andirons. The 



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