The past is far from forgotten in Danville, which is seeing unprecedented downtown revitalization not only in its business district but also in longstanding residential areas such as the landmark Millionaires’ Row area on Main Street and its surrounding neighborhoods.

People are lining up to live in the city’s historic areas, and those properties are becoming tourist attractions in and of themselves.

“The Tobacco Warehouse District is seeing huge success, with its residential component as the main driver,” says Gerald Fischer, community development director for the city. “We’ve got four residential projects in that district, adaptive reuse that’s turning former commercial space into residential. We have 160 units online: subsidized housing, market-rate condos and working-family units, which are for rent.”

Having a mix of renters and owners in the area will further boost downtown’s new life as a residential area, and is bringing a good variety of retail residents as well, Fischer says.

“We’ve seen people start to take ownership of downtown,” adds Anne Moore-Sparks, community development coordinator. “Retailers that already were there are sprucing up their buildings and doing their own landscaping. It’s a matter of pride. They now see that downtown is a success, and that’s been very important.”

Fischer and Moore-Sparks both point to the city’s early-1990s investment in The Crossing at the Dan as a key catalyst for the district’s redevelopment. The former train station and Southern Railway yard now is a multi-use complex that draws people downtown.

“We took a chance on the area, and ended up with an entertainment and educational campus that we’re very proud of,” Fischer says. “We thought our investment would produce and encourage private investment in the adjacent area; it took a few years to get to that point, but we’re seeing it now.”

On the home front, the ongoing restoration of historic homes in downtown’s neighborhoods and high-profile challenges such as saving the old “Home of Dan River Fabrics” sign are keeping the Danville Historical Society humming.

“We are seeing a lot of outsiders come in, and they’re finding that we have something unique to offer in addition to our architecture,” says Rose Shields, owner of Rose Shields Interiors and the society’s current president. “We really are more of a destination point now – we have the old mill buildings, lots of Victorian architecture, the Tobacco Warehouse District, all [serving as] attractions for people.”

The homes were the draw for Fred Meder, who sits on the Danville Commission of Architectural Review and began restoring his first Danville historical home almost two decades ago. Now, with several under his belt, Meder says that the older neighborhoods may be seeing a permanent renaissance.

“People like to walk through the neighborhoods and look at the homes,” Meder says. “I pinch myself every morning. I have a castle. And anybody who watches HGTV knows that we have a wealth of housing stock in Danville that’s still underutilized and underpriced.”

The goal now will be to tie all these pockets of activity into an integrated whole, notes Shields.

“It all connects together, and we’re going in the direction of having everything be walkable,” she says. “People in the various districts are starting their own associations, so we’re making good strides in the right direction.”