Time running out to hear walls talk at Danville Museum

Only about a week remains for the walls of the Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History to talk to you.

“If Our Walls Could Talk,” an exhibit that looks back on the 150-year history of the Sutherlin Mansion — which houses the museum — ends on Nov. 8.

Divided into six sections, the exhibit traces the mansion from the time that Danville businessman William T. Sutherlin built it in 1859 through its role in the Civil War, then to the post-Civil War efforts to preserve the home to its role as a public library and then its recreation as a dual-missioned museum of art and history.

“As part of the 150 years the mansion has been in existence, we wanted to do an exhibit about its various uses and the people who have used the house,” Lynne Bjarnesen said Friday. “It’s a place that’s seen a lot of history. If you were 150 years old, just think of the stories you could tell.”

The exhibit was developed by three guest curators, local historians Gary Grant, Lawrence McFall and Fred Mot-ley with the aid of volunteer Sarah Latham and education coordinator Patsi Compton.

The Morotock Fund of the Community Foundation of the Dan River Region sponsored the exhibit.

“We organized the exhibit chronologically because there was just no other way to do it,” Bjarnesen said.

The first section features both the mansion and Sutherlin’s business dealings in Danville. Moving to Danville in 1844 when he was 22, he quickly became a “force to be reckoned with” in the tobacco industry and his real estate development, according to Compton.

“Sutherlin was also in politics, serving on the Board of Alderman within a couple of years and as mayor,” Bjarne-sen said. “He built this Italian villa, which was the edge of town at the time and really avant garde.

The exhibit includes several personal objects, primary source documents and photographs of family members and buildings.

“We really learned how intelligent he was and the influence he had on the state,” Bjarnesen said. “In fact, when he died, he was being considered for lieutenant governor of Virginia.”

Sutherlin also was instrumental in bringing the railroad to Danville. He also supported what would become the hospital, Averett University and Virginia Tech. He was one of the founders of Mount Vernon United Methodist Church and gave property to Main Street United Methodist Church.

“He was a shrewd businessman, but also was philanthropic,” Bjarnesen said.

The second section focuses on the years of the Civil War, with an emphasis on the final days of the Confederacy when Jefferson Davis and his cabinet were headquartered in Danville.

Davis’ final proclamation was issued from the Sutherlin Mansion, where he was a guest. That period has earned Danville the title of “Last Capital of the Confederacy.”

The third section covers the period from 1865 to 1911 and portrays the private lives of the Sutherlins, which not only included prosperity and success but many family tragedies.

Their only daughter died in childbirth along with her baby, and left a four-year-old daughter for the Sutherlins to raise. That granddaughter also died giving birth to a daughter.

Jane Sutherlin, William’s wife, ran the businesses after his death in 1893, but when she died in 1911, the house and contents were to be sold.

The year of 1912 begins the next section.

“When lots began to be sold after her death, people didn’t know what would happen to the mansion, so a group got together to save the home and make it a Confederate memorial,” Bjarnesen said. “In spite of their best efforts, however, the house was for sale for $48,000 and they only raised $18,000.” The group paid the interest on the loan for five years and then, in 1916, the city took over the balance of the loan.

One display in this section is a picture in a New York Times article of girls rolling bandages during World War I, and Barnesen said, it appears that the mansion was used as a hospital during the Spanish influenza epidemic in 1918.

The fifth section focuses on the time the mansion was a whites-only library from 1928 to 1960 and on the sit-ins by African-American students that finally brought about the desegregation of the library.

Pictures of the Grasty Library for African-Americans also hang in the exhibit, contrasting the two supposedly “separate but equal” facilities.

“This has been a valuable illustration to students who have seen this exhibit that ‘separate but equal’ did not mean ‘equal,’” Compton said.

The sixth and last section deals with 1973 to the present, after the public library was built downtown and the man-sion became the Danville Museum of Fine Arts & History.

“What we are trying to show overall is the restoration of the building from the library to a museum,” Bjarnesen said. “Even from the beginning the museum has had an ambitious roster of exhibits.”

The city owns the exterior of the building, and the museum — which has been incorporated since 1974 — leases the interior of the building. The city takes care of the exterior maintenance of the building, but the museum is responsible for the interior.

“We get no money from the city, although they do pay the utilities,” Bjarnesen said. “We are not part of any state or city system.”

Along the walls of the exhibit are pieces from the museum’s various art collections, including their largest, the Kennedy-Revel collection, which includes about 3,000 pieces, including some as early as the 12th century.

“Not many museums are both an art and history museum,” Bjarnesen said. “We interpret the history of the house and the role of Danville in the Civil War and have robust exhibits, including a national one each year, exhibits from throughout the South and local ones. We do a lot.”

“With very little funds and people,” Compton added.

The “If Our Walls Could Talk” exhibit will be available until Nov. 8.

• Elzey is a freelancer writer for the Danville Register & Bee

If you go

• The Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m.

• Adult admission is $5; $4 for students age 7 through college and seniors 55 and up; children six and under and members are free. The first weekend of every month is free to local residents.

• For more information, call (434) 793-5644 or go to http://www.danvillemuseum.org.