3-D Map Assignment

3-D MAP ASSIGNMENT: THE DANVILLE RIOT
Preliminary Assignment #2
History 615

The Danville Riot, Continued

Topographical Map of Danville, Virginia by F. W. Beers 1877, Showing Property Owners

In order to discover the true layout of the town, the historian needs to move past partisan drawings and move towards official maps of Danville.

This map was originally prepared by the F. W. Beers company of Richmond, Virginia.

This map is helpful in that it shows buildings and property boundaries in 1877. However, it still has difficulties in that it is obviously a loose hand drawing and lacks the details and accuracy needed for proper inquiry. Also, it fails to show any sign of an opera house.

Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1886

One of the best sources of historical evidence for past city layouts in the United States were made by Sanborn Insurance. Their maps recorded the location, number of stories, use, windows, and other pertinent information for every building in the specified city. The closest date of map available for Danville, Virginia, was 1886.

The image above shows part of the city of Danville as represented in the Sanborn Insurance map.

Re-creating the City of Danville

Finding the Sanborn map was the first step in re-creating the city of Danville, but much more needed to be done to create something the historian could use. These individual maps were scanned and then combined in Photoshop to create three images of a larger part of the city; one of which is shown below.

Making a 3-D Map of Danville

The three 2-D maps of Danville made in Photoshop formed the basis for a 3-D map made in Sketchup. The 2-D maps became 3-D by tracing over the Photoshop images and estimating the vertical heights of buildings based on the horizontal scale.

This 3-D map shows the scenes of interest for the Danville Riot, with shadows added for 2:30 PM, the approximate time of the riot.

This second map shows the scene of action on the night of November 2, when the Readjuster candidate for Senator Col. W. E. Sims addressed a large crowd of blacks in front of the Court House. Sims was denouncing "The Danville Circular," a piece of propaganda written to make other Virginians think that Danville was succumbing to "negro rule." On the outskirts of the mob, near the Arlington Hotel, two men, Noel (white) and Lawson (black) had a brief exchange of words.

This historian is still searching for the location of the Danville opera house, which will help him to make sense of the events on the morning of November 3, 1883. Images of the scene of action, however, are shown below, from the North, South, East, and West.