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Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside & Southwest » Shenandoah Valley » Augusta County » Staunton (Independent City) and Vicinity » Billy Haines Birthplace

Billy Haines Birthplace

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Mid-19th century. 419 N. New St.
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)

Film actor and, later, interior designer William “Billy” Haines grew up in this house. Son of a Staunton cigar manufacturer, he ran away from home when he was fourteen. By his twenties, the witty and handsome Haines was one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors and the town's first openly gay movie star. He appeared in more than fifty films with such stars as Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore. In the following decades, he became more famous as the first of the great Hollywood decorators, with his partner, James Shields. His clients ranged from movie actress Joan Crawford to Nancy and Ronald Reagan. Haines's childhood home is a far cry from the glamour of the rich and famous. The neat three-bay, two-story frame house on a high basement has a one-story centered porch and a hipped roof with deep eaves.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Mary Baldwin College (Augusta Female Seminary)
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
Apartment Building (YMCA)
Temple House of Israel
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum

Citation

Anne Carter Lee, "Billy Haines Birthplace", [Staunton, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-AU19.

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