Wedding DJ at The Penn House in Reidsville, NC

The Space

Charles Penn, who developed the Lucky Strikes brand for American Tobacco and served as the company’s vice president when it was the leading employer in Rockingham County, is the reason this house exists. He commissioned Danville, Virginia architect Bryant Hurd to design it, and the finished home, completed in 1932, carries an impressive Corinthian portico and stands today as the largest and most elaborate Colonial Revival residence from the 1920 to 1940 period still standing in Reidsville.

The house was later donated to the City of Reidsville, which owns and operates it now, and the Bee Penn Room takes its name from that benefactor. The home itself is laid out as a main block with a one-story L-shaped wing, former servants quarters, and a kitchen wing, a real domestic floor plan rather than a hall built purely for events, and a greenhouse on the property adds a newer piece of meeting space to that older footprint.

Capacity & Layout

The venue seats 150 guests and holds 250 standing, spread across 12,500 square feet of total meeting space in four separate rooms. That split between rooms means a couple is not committing a single hall to the entire day; the Bee Penn Room, with its Baby Grand piano, works well for cocktail hours or informal gatherings, while the larger spaces carry the seated dinner and dancing.

Rental includes 150 chairs for the ceremony and tables for the reception, which is enough to cover the venue’s full seated capacity without a couple needing to rent additional seating for a wedding at or under that number. Both indoor and outdoor ceremony and reception spaces are available on the 3-acre property, so the same guest count can move between the landscaped grounds and the house’s meeting rooms depending on weather and the couple’s preference.

Amenities

Separate bridal suite rooms are available for the bride and groom, letting both sides of the wedding party get ready on site rather than arriving already dressed. A preferred caterers list is available, and outside caterers are allowed with a deposit, which gives couples flexibility without leaving them entirely on their own to find a kitchen crew willing to work in a historic home.

Because the city owns and operates the property, bar service must run through an approved bartender rather than any outside vendor a couple might otherwise bring in, a detail worth knowing early in planning. WiFi is available throughout, and the venue is wheelchair accessible, both practical notes for a nearly century-old home that has otherwise been kept true to its 1932 Colonial Revival design.

Location & Getting There

The Penn House sits in Historic Downtown Reidsville, on 3 acres of landscaped grounds that give the property room for an outdoor ceremony or reception without leaving the historic district. Its 2016 Wedding Wire Couples Choice Award reflects a venue that has hosted weddings regularly enough to build a track record, and the surrounding Colonial Revival architecture keeps the setting consistent with the house itself.

For sound, the four meeting rooms inside the house, including the Bee Penn Room with its Baby Grand piano, are finished domestic spaces that hold music and conversation close the way any historic home interior does, while the landscaped outdoor grounds give a ceremony or reception open-air acoustics instead. We adjust our setup between a contained indoor room and the open 3-acre grounds depending on which part of the day the couple has scheduled where.