Chatham Ford dealer Robert Grubb bought the Sims House at auction from Henson Overbey and Johnny Coles in June 1946. Mr. Grubb extensively refurbished the house to serve as three to four rental apartments, including one in the English basement. After Mr. Grubb died without a will in 1952, a Danville bank was appointed trustee of the estate, and they continued to administer the property for twenty-three years.
During that time, the Sims House was home to numerous families. Following are photos from the Adkins and Logue families during the period between 1951 and the early 1960's.
Louise, Jimmy, Twila, and Gene Logue are seated on a sofa in front of the bay window in the front parlor. A bedpost is seen in the foreground. This was Louise Logue's bedroom and sitting room. In the photograph Jimmy Logue is wearing his brother Gene's Air Force uniform, and Gene is wearing Jimmy's Navy uniform.
Hettie Adkins is seated with her granddaughter Twila Logue. Behind them are Gene and Jimmy Logue, still with reversed uniforms, with Florence Poole of Rhode Island between them. Two persons are seated just out of view to the right. The photograph was taken on the Sims House's first floor, in the front bedroom, which served as Hettie Adkins' bedroom and sitting room.
Florence Poole and Jimmy Logue, seated in front of the sliding doors which separate the two parlors on the first floor of the Sims House.
Louise Logue is at work in the kitchen (view toward the north corner).
Hettie Adkins joins her daughter Louise Logue in the kitchen.
Hettie Adkins tends the coal stove in her bedroom / sitting room.
Arthur Adkins is seen in the first-floor bathroom, where 1920-era fixtures are evident.
Jimmy Logue stands beside Norman Herndon's 1954 Ford. (Norman and his wife Anne Marie Labiosa often visited her mother Occi Labiosa, who was living with her four younger children in the upstairs apartment at the Sims House.)
Arthur Adkins, on the front steps.
Hettie Adkins stands on the northwest side of the Sims House, with the cottage (built 1955) and the Guyer-Lacks house in the background.
Logues and Hatchers gather around the front of the Sims House. At the time this photograph was taken, the Logues were living on the first floor, and the Hatchers in the upstairs apartment. Jessie Hatcher is seated on the steps against the foundation of the house. His wife Kathryn is seated on the porch, partially hidden by the first column. Their daughter Linda is standing between the two porch columns, and their daughter Hattie is on the top step. Louise Logue is seated against the wall at the top of the steps, and her daughter Twila is seated on the near edge of the fourth step from the bottom. The three boys in the foreground and the little girl on the bottom step are also Hatcher children.
On the front porch, Jo Ann Smith looks over the shoulder of Louise Logue, who is holding Vickie Lynn Smith.
Note the fleur-de-lis openings on the flat-sawn balusters under the porch rail. The flat-sawn boards were removed around 1960, and replaced during the 1990's with wrought-iron, also in a fleur-de-lis pattern. At the time this photograph was made, the Deely/Smith family, with three girls and four boys, lived in the upstairs apartment.
A Logue/Adkins gathering in 1958 is shown.
Standing at the far left is Roy Dodd, first cousin of Hettie Adkins. A child (unidentified) is crouching beside him.
At the right corner of the portico, Jim Logue is crouching.
At the top of the steps against the back column are Lenora Adkins Weidner and her husband Fred Weidner. Seated on the porch beside them is Occi Labiosa, who lived in the upstairs apartment. Reclining on the steps in front of them is Gene Logue, and Twila Logue is at the bottom of the steps with Rita Labiosa just above her. Hettie Adkins is seated on the steps, near the lower right window. Louise Logue is leaning against the steps.
Standing under the window at right are Lanier and Katie Moore Adkins, Sam Barton (later married to Louise Logue), and Irene Adkins Matherly and her husband Cy Matherly.
Note the scrollsawn brackets at the top of the portico columns, which were removed around 1960. This more complete representation of the 1958 family gathering includes the following:
Top row - Louise Logue Barton, Lenora Adkins Weidner and her husband Fred Weidner (Mt. Savage, MD), and Ardenia and husband (complete names unknown, of Staunton, VA);
Second row - Thomas Yeatts, Hettie Adkins, Evelyn Swartz (Mint Springs, VA), Inez Adkins Roach (Bastrop, LA);
Third row - David Weidner seated on the step below Twila Logue, Katie and Lanier Adkins, Irene Adkins Matherly and her husband Cy Matherly (Danville, VA);
Front row - Kathryn Swartz (Mint Springs, VA), Robert Weidner, Virginia Dare Roach and Judy Gale Roach (Bastrop, LA), and Arthur Adkins.
The 1958 family reunion brought together what now seems to have been a yard full of classics: Sam Barton's 1952 Chevrolet pickup truck, Norman Herndon's 1954 Ford, Jim Logue's 1954 Chevrolet, a 1956 Pontiac, P. D. Roach's 1955 Ford, Cy Matherly's 1956 Chevrolet, and Arthur Adkins' 1950 Ford.
Fred and Lenora Weidner on the front portico, with the bay window in the background. Note the flat-sawn balusters below the porch rail, and the scroll-sawn bracket above.
Adkins family members gather in front of a 1960 Ford and the Sims House. Note that on the portico of the house, the brackets are now missing and the flat-sawn balusters are replaced by horizontal 2x4's. From left to right are P. D. Roach, Hettie Adkins, Nancye Moore, Lanier Adkins, Myrtle Moore, Mrs. (?) Moore, Evelyn Swartz, and Louise Logue.
Looking west from the Sims House back yard, young David Weidner is playing in the shadows in the foreground, and the slope of the train track can be seen in the background.
Looking south from the Sims House side yard, a train can be seen on the curve at the Depot Street overpass.
This website is sponsored by Mitchells Publications and the Sims-Mitchell House, Chatham, Virginia.
Copyright © 2003–2006 Patricia B. Mitchell.