Hello and welcome back to Danville Field Notes, a weekly column where I report on recent and upcoming news items in Southside.
This week, the heat wave rolling through much of Cardinal country did not stop groundbreakings, unveilings and regular city business in Danville.
Folks practically sweated through their clothes at a noon groundbreaking for the Morotock Lofts on Wednesday, when the temperature reached a high of 98.
Speaking of historic, a historic marker for the Danville Canal was unveiled Friday at an only slightly less sweltering ceremony.
The final item in this week’s column is unrelated to revitalization or history, but it affects residents’ pockets, so it’s worth a mention.
Danville and Pittsylvania seem to always have plenty of news, so let me know if I missed anything, or if there’s something you’d like to see me cover! Reach out anytime at grace@cardinalnews.org.
City and developers break ground on Morotock Lofts adaptive reuse project
The project to turn yet another former textile mill into River District apartments is officially underway after a groundbreaking ceremony on July 1.
The Morotock Manufacturing Co. building on Floyd Street was originally built in 1907 as a textile mill, when the textile industry was one of the city’s main economic drivers. Later in its life, it was a grocery store and a bowling alley.
More recently, the building, which totals more than 32,000 square feet, sat vacant for many years.
By August 2027, it will be a residential space with 41 apartments — studios, one- and two-bedroom units — and include a fitness center, a reading room and a 1,500-square-foot office space for lease.
The units will be designated as workforce housing, with 40% of the units reserved for residents earning 100% of the area’s median income or lower.
Workforce housing is a term that refers to housing for middle-income workers like teachers, police officers and nurses.
The $15 million project began with an idea about six years ago, said Rory Dowling, owner of 1st & Main Development, the Durham, North Carolina-based company behind the project.
“It quickly became my passion project,” Dowling said. “It wasn’t until I started talking to the city, and they said ‘Here’s what we can do to help pencil this project out,’ that it became a collaborative, iterative process over the last three years to really get this to come together.”
The building is located in the Mechanicsville area of the River District, which emerged in the later 19th and early 20th centuries as a “distinctive, ethnically mixed neighborhood of tradesmen, educators, skilled workers and laborers,” according to the city.
Danville’s effort to revitalize this area, called Plan Mechanicsville, includes community workshops and background research. The effort is in its final phase, which will end with the presentation and adoption of a planning document. Key focuses include infrastructure like sidewalks, neighborhood improvements to calm traffic and affordable housing.
Danville Canal historic marker now stands outside Dan River Falls
The Danville Canal, which is the city’s oldest commercial structure, has a history going back 270 years. It was approved for a historic marker through the Virginia Department of Historic Resources about a year ago, and the marker was finally erected Friday.
The historic marker, sponsored by local historian Jonathan Hackworth, recognizes the canal’s longstanding history in Danville before it is transformed into a whitewater channel through a city parks and recreation project.
Located directly in front of Dan River Falls, a renovated textile mill, on Memorial Drive, the marker includes information about the original canal construction in 1794.
The canal has transformed for different reasons over the years, facilitating river trade, serving industry and eventually powering the massive Dan River Mills complex, which the Dan River Falls building belonged to.
“Its path traces the city’s growth from a frontier settlement to a major manufacturing center,” the marker says.
Near the canal, the Dan River Falls project and the new Riverfront Park represent the city’s effort to revitalize its waterfront. Soon, the Danville canal will be part of that effort.
Construction to transform the canal into a whitewater channel is expected to be complete in 2027, turning the historic feature into “a one-of-a-kind outdoor recreation and tourism destination,” according to the city’s website.
In addition to recreational opportunities, the whitewater channel will be used to train first responders on swift-water rescue scenarios.
The canal’s 1882 headgate system, which controls the flow of water, will allow the water elevation in the channel to be manipulated for both of these purposes.
“The amazing thing is that it’s the oldest commercial structure in Danville and it’s still somewhat functional,” Hackworth said in a 2025 interview. “When the canal project is done it will be the oldest functioning structure in Danville.”
City council to vote on lower fees for curbside recycling pickup
At its regular 7 p.m Tuesday meeting, the Danville City Council will vote on a fee reduction to the city’s subscription-based curbside recycling program.
If approved, the annual fee would be reduced from $90 to $52 for semimonthly curbside recycling pickup.
City staff supports this fee reduction, hoping that it will “improve affordability and encourage greater participation in the program,” according to the staff report in the meeting’s agenda packet.
The reduced annual fee would go into effect immediately and would be payable in advance at the public works office.
In 2011, the city launched its subscription-based curbside recycling pickup program, and has reduced the fee several times since then. When the program started 15 years ago, it cost $260 per year to have curbside recycling picked up. In 2013, the city lowered that rate to $195 per year, and lowered it again in 2016 to $90 per year.
Recycling carts are provided at no cost to participating residents upon request, the staff report said.
