LEXINGTON
Sponsored by The Blue Ridge Garden Club
Saturday, April 24, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Chair:
Jane Brooke (Mrs. George M. III)
800 Bowyer Lane
Lexington, VA 24450
E-mail: jlbrooke@embarqmail.com
Co-Chairs:
Catherine Harcus (Mrs. Sinclair J., Jr.)
603 Marshall St.
Lexington, VA 24450
E-mail: charcus@gmail.com
Kathy Lamb (Mrs. Rex M. III)
93 Riverbend Dr.
Lexington, VA 24450
E-mail: kwlamb@embarqmail.com
Bus Chair:
Catharine Gilliam
2703 Brownsburg Turnpike
Brownsburg, VA 24415
E-mail: cgilliam@npca.org
Ticket sales by mail:
Nancy McLaughlin (Mrs. Lee, Jr.)
946 Walkers Creek Rd.
Rockbridge Baths, VA 24473
E-mail: nancymcl@rockbridge.net
INFORMATION CENTER:
Lexington Visitor Center
106 East Washington St.
Lexington, VA 24450
Telephone: (540) 463-3777
E-mail: www.lexingtonvirginia.com
Restroom facilities available
FULL TICKET: Advance ticket price until April 22, $20 when purchased locally at Hamilton-Robbins, 21 South Main St., by mail or online; thereafter $25. Student tickets, $15. Children younger than 17 must be accompanied by a parent or other responsible adult and purchase a student ticket. No single-site admission tickets. Tickets may be purchased on tour day at any of the properties open for the tour. Advance tickets may be purchased by accessing www.vagardenweek.org.
REFRESHMENTS: Included with the ticket and served throughout the day at the Reeves Center, Washington and Lee University (across Letcher Ave. from the University Admissions Office).
DIRECTIONS and PARKING: Parking at the Lexington Visitor Center and the Rockbridge County Courthouse garage (entrance across from the Visitor Center). From I-81: Take Exit 188B to Rte 60 West; 3 mi. to Lexington; follow signs to Visitor Center, 106 East Washington St. Follow the green arrows to 107 Lee Ave., 2 University Place (Lee House), 4 University Place (Lee-Jackson House), Lee Chapel & Museum, the Reeves Center (refreshments), 123 West Washington St. (R.E. Lee Memorial Church), and 8 East Washington St. (Stonewall Jackson House). All tour locations are within walking distance of the Visitor Center and Courthouse parking. Limited handicapped parking is available on West Washington St. across from the Lee House.
Due to logistics of the private homes and gardens, these properties are not wheelchair-accessible. Please wear comfortable walking shoes and watch for uneven surfaces. Participating homeowners, Washington and Lee University, R.E. Lee Memorial Church, Stonewall Jackson House, the Blue Ridge Garden Club and the Garden Club of Virginia are not responsible for accidents occurring on the tour.
Restroom facilities are available at the Lexington Visitor Center
Properties May Be Visited In Any Order
The Lexington Tour: “Robert E. Lee’s Neighborhood”
Stroll through charming historic Lexington as you visit many of the places that were part of Lee’s daily life when he served as president of Washington College following the American Civil War. The college was later named Washington and Lee University in recognition of Lee’s leadership in those post-war years.
THE OLD RECTORY, 107 Lee Avenue. Robert E. Lee, elected to the church vestry eight days after his arrival in Lexington in 1865, lived a short walk from the rectory of Grace Episcopal Church (later renamed R.E. Lee Memorial Church). General William Nelson Pendleton, the rector, and his family resided at this stately home on one of Lexington’s loveliest streets. Built in 1824 for Charles Dorman, a prominent local lawyer, this Federal-style house features fine detailing on both the exterior and interior. A sweeping lawn with huge maple trees leads to the front entrance. A lovely oval garden dates back at least 50 years.
Entering the house, be sure to look for the carved hand over the front doorway and ask about the various interpretations of its meaning. Also inside are several lovely pieces of furniture original to the Pendleton family. Don’t miss the glass-front cabinet placed where there once was a fireplace in the dining room. This piece was initialed by the General and his entire family. Throughout the house are paintings by local artists, including one over the living room fireplace, frequently reproduced, by Georgiana Brush. David and Melissa Cox, owners.
LEE HOUSE, 2 University Place. Home to the university president since it was built for Robert E. Lee, this house was sited on a ridge overlooking downtown. Designed by C.W. Oltmanns, a member of the Virginia Military Institute faculty, with input from Lee and his son, George Washington Custis Lee, this simple and practical plan is full of many interesting details. The spacious, three-sided veranda around the first floor of the Italianate home was designed by Lee to enable Mrs. Lee, who was confined to a wheelchair, to move freely around the exterior. As you enter, you will see Lee memorabilia and historic photos of the house in the music room to your left and a collection of 19th century American art from the Hudson River School throughout the first floor. Lee was pleased to design a brick stable adjoining the residence for his beloved companion, Traveller. He said that it was gratifying to be under the same roof with his old friend. When you visit the stable, now a garage, ask your hostess about Traveller’s visitations.
The adjoining garden on the east side of the house was designed as an enclosed space for university entertaining. The Lee House is currently home to President and Mrs. Kenneth P. Ruscio.
LEE-JACKSON HOUSE, 4 University Place. Home to both Robert E. Lee and his colleague, General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, this Greek Revival house crests the hill near the Colonnade at Washington and Lee University. It was built in 1842 as a home for the president of Washington College; Jackson lived here when he was married to Elinor Junkin, daughter of George Junkin, the college’s president from 1848-61. They were married in the living room, and the wing to the right of the entrance was added for them in 1853. After Elinor died in childbirth, Stonewall remained with the Junkin family until he became engaged to his second wife, Mary Anna Morrison. Lee lived in the house when he assumed the college presidency, in 1865, until Lee House was completed.
Later altered to serve as offices, the house was restored in the early 1970s and, since 1977, has housed senior faculty and administrators. The garden features boxwood and multitudes of bulbs in the spring, with beautiful dogwood trees bordering the property. Lee-Jackson House is currently home to Dawn Watkins, vice president of student affairs and dean of students.
LEE CHAPEL & MUSEUM. Note: Due to a wedding, Lee Chapel Auditorium will be open only from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; the Museum on the lower level is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This charming and picturesque Victorian chapel, built in 1867 of brick and limestone at the suggestion of Robert E. Lee, is sited at the heart of the university campus. It has been used continuously since then for a variety of university programs. The interior of the chapel features the famous 1772 Charles Willson Peale painting of George Washington at age 40. Also of note is the portrait of Lee by Theodore Pine painted in 1904, some 34 years after Lee’s death. In 1870, Edward V. Valentine, a Richmond artist selected by Mrs. Lee, was commissioned to create a memorial for Lee. He sculpted a recumbent statue of Lee asleep on his field cot, an appropriate choice because, unlike most officers, Lee preferred to sleep on the field with his men.
The Museum features Lee’s office when he was college president, preserved much as he left it with original furnishings; items from the Lee and Washington families; the Lee family crypt; the grave of Lee’s beloved horse, Traveller; and a recent exhibition titled, “Not Unmindful of the Future: Educating to Build and Rebuild a Nation.”
Lee Chapel was named a National Historic Landmark in 1961. The Lee Chapel Memorial Garden (1933) and Terrace (1977) were restoration projects of the Garden Club of Virginia with funding from Historic Garden Week tours. Washington and Lee University.
REEVES CENTER. Refreshments served. Originally a faculty home built in 1842 in the Greek Revival style to flank the Colonnade, this two-story brick house with Tuscan porticoes and pediment gable is now the Reeves Center, which houses Washington and Lee’s ceramics collection. The collection consists primarily of Chinese export porcelain and British and Continental European ceramics made between 1600 and 1900. The Chinese export porcelain collection is considered one of the best in the nation. The Reeves Center also houses paintings by Louise Herreshoff Reeves who, with her husband Euchlin, an alumnus of Washington and Lee, founded the ceramics collection. Of special interest to Historic Garden Week visitors will be the Lee pieces, including the Society of Cincinnati plates and the Lee Canton china. Washington and Lee University.
R.E. LEE MEMORIAL CHURCH, 123 West Washington St. Robert E. Lee’s last public appearance was at a vestry meeting at Grace Episcopal Church, just steps from his home, to consider the reconstruction of the church in order to increase space. He went home, collapsed and died 14 days later. The discussions Lee started led to the construction of a new church begun on the site in 1872, with a gift of stone from Dr. and Mrs. James White’s quarry. Much of the funding for the new church came from gifts donated in memory of Lee. Nearing the end of the tour, you’ll be ready to stop and pause in the calm and peacefulness of this Gothic Revival-style church. Look for the example of the original frescoed wall paid for by Custis Lee, one of the Lees’ sons and president of Washington and Lee from 1871-97. Note the many fine stained-glass windows, including the one in the rear of the chancel, over the altar, placed in memory of Robert E. Lee and Mary Custis Lee, at the opening of the new church in 1884. It represents the Resurrection and is a replica of a church window in Rome. The inscription reads: “Numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting.” In 1903 the vestry resolved that Grace Memorial Episcopal Church would henceforth be designated R.E. Lee Memorial Church.
STONEWALL JACKSON HOUSE GARDEN, 8 East Washington St. Lexington was home to Stonewall Jackson from 1851-61, while he taught at Virginia Military Institute. This Federal-style, brick townhouse, built in 1801, was the only home he ever owned. Jackson’s family continued to own the house until 1904, when it was sold to the United Daughters of the Confederacy and made into a hospital. Many Lexington natives have the distinction of saying that they were born in Stonewall Jackson’s house. The garden of the Stonewall Jackson House recreates the appearance of an informal, 19th century backyard kitchen garden. Borders of flowers, herbs, and a few small fruit trees and shrubs surround the beds. Today the garden is planted and maintained by volunteers, including a team of Master Gardeners, who will be available throughout the day on Saturday to talk to visitors about the period varieties and their horticulture.
The Stonewall Jackson House is a Virginia Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The House is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. Tours are offered on the hour and half-hour, and the last tour begins at 4:30 p.m. A discounted admission fee will be offered to visitors on Saturday, April 24, and Sunday, April 25, with Historic Garden Week tickets. There is no charge to visit the garden.
OTHER PLACES OF INTEREST:
CAMPBELL HOUSE (circa 1845). Rockbridge Historical Society headquarters and exhibition space. Located at 101 East Washington St., across from the Lexington Visitor Center. Shade garden with picnic area maintained by Master Gardeners. Free admission.
ROOTS AND SHOOTS INTERGENERATIONAL SCHOOL GARDEN. Waddell Elementary School, winner of the Garden Club of Virginia’s Common Wealth Award (1997). Located on Jordan St. at Wood’s Creek Park.
STONEWALL JACKSON MEMORIAL CEMETERY, 300 block of South Main St.
VIRGINIA MILITARY INSTITUTE, including the Jackson Memorial Hall and Memorial Gardens.