Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 19, 1990 TAG: 9005190492
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DANVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Nancy Langhorne - the first woman elected to Britain's House of Commons - left Danville in 1885 at age 6 with her father, a tobacco auctioneer who purchased a Georgian mansion near Charlottesville after earning a fortune through railroad construction in Richmond.
She went on to marry the Viscount Waldorf Astor, one of the world's richest men, serve in the British Parliament for 25 years and restore a massive country estate on the Thames River called Clivedon.
"It shows what you can do, doesn't it?" Viscount William Waldorf Astor III said as he stood in the bedroom used by his grandmother.
"I must say it is a rather humble beginning," said Chiswell Langhorne Perkins, his lordship's cousin. Perkins came down from Villanova, Pa., for the family reunion organized by a group restoring the 19th century home.
"It probably gave her impetus - enabled her to achieve what she did," Astor said. "It helped her."
Lady Astor was a strong advocate for social reform and was instrumental in raising the age in which children could leave school from 12 to 16, Astor said. Three of her sons became ministers of Parliament and Astor, 38, is a member of the House of Lords. His title, passed to the family's eldest son, ranks above a baron and below an earl.
Members of the Astor family in England have given more than $33,000 to help pay for the restoration, which began this month. The preservation group plans to turn the house into a museum devoted to the life of Lady Astor, who visited Danville several times before her death in 1964.
Stuart Grant, publisher of the Danville Register & Bee, bought the house in 1988 and donated it to the preservation group. A company had planned to raze it for a parking lot.
After a reception Thursday night in the Southerlin Mansion, the last Confederate capitol, Astor also visited Danville's historic tobacco warehouse district and the church where his grandmother was baptized.
Astor - who directed renovations of Clivedon, which is used as a hotel and the family home - said the restoration in Danville would be a challenge because several changes have been made since Lady Astor lived there and only the shell of the original structure remains.
"It's fascinating to be here," he said. "It fills in a bit of history one hears about but has never seen."
by CNB