The building at 117 South Union, known as the “Old Bee,” served as the original home of Danville’s renowned Register And Bee newspaper. Constructed around 1899, it housed a printing press in the basement, with offices on the first and second floors. Following a fire in the adjacent Masonic Temple in 1920, the Register and Bee relocated to another location on the same street, leaving the “Old Bee” to various commercial endeavors, from furniture stores to grocery shops. In 1939, the building underwent extensive renovations to become a single-screen movie theater called “The Dan.” A modern facade replaced the “Old Bee’s” original brickwork and remains to this day.
Across from the city’s South Union Park stands the stately “New Bee” building at 123 South Union. Built in 1921 as the James A. Rorer Memorial Building, the “New Bee” became the second home of the Register and Bee newspaper in Danville. The building’s distinctive design signaled the newspaper’s golden age, spanning from the 1920s to the 1990s.
The Register and Bee remained in the Rorer family throughout the 20th century, initially under the leadership of Rorer Abraham James (1859-1921). James was not only a newspaperman but also a lawyer and politician, serving as a delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate, and as a Democratic U.S. Congressman. Upon James’s death in 1921, his son, Rorer Abraham James Jr. (1897–1937), took over the family business. James Jr. died suddenly in 1937, leaving the newspaper to his 17-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. At age 21, Elizabeth Stuart James Grant (1920-1990) became president of the paper, but entrusted daily management to her husband, Walter L. Grant (1920–1972), who served as the newspaper’s publisher from 1945. Mrs. Grant was an active figure in Danville’s preservation movement and instrumental in preserving the birthplace of Lady Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, a Danville native who was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons. Mrs. Grant was also a woman of considerable influence; following a family dispute in the 1970s, Grant relocated the Register and Bee newsroom from the “New Bee” on South Union and constructed offices and a printing plant at 700 Monument Street, the newspaper’s current location. The South Union offices subsequently sat vacant for over forty years.
By 2020, “The Bee” had reimagined the 1921 newspaper building and its 1899 predecessor into a new boutique hotel for Danville. The hotel features 47 guest suites, some with full apartment amenities, and a stunning rooftop terrace atop the “New Bee.” Many of the buildings’ historical details have been preserved and restored. You’ll notice original hardwood floors in the hallways of the “Old Bee,” the original spiral staircase connecting the printing press to the editor’s office on the third floor of the “New Bee,” and numerous other elements such as the “Rorer A. James” inscription on the façade, the intricate polychrome terra cotta design on the front cornice, and the two front display cases. Above the South Union Street entrance to the “New Bee,” the original newsboy statue welcomes new guests to the building that once symbolized Danville’s progress. These existing historical touches have been blended with modern amenities and design, creating the complete look and feel of the River District boutique hotel you see today.
“New Bee” pictured on owner Rorer A. James Jr.’s letterhead in 1930.
New Bee on a 1930 letterhead
A 1963 photograph of the New Bee, across from the Municipal Building, where the Register and Bee witnessed the Danville Civil Rights protests culminate in the summer of 1963.
