For symmetry's sake

The front steps at Morris House lead to a window, instead of the door -- which is to the left.

This house, visible at the right of Cyrus McCormick in my post of two days ago, was built in the early 1840's as one of a set of four faculty residences. It is now used as a seminar and reception center, as well as guest accommodations at Washington and Lee. The designer of these varied houses made rather free with classical proportions in the porticoes, for starters, (as can be said of many such buildings in Lexington, including Washington Hall and Stono,) and you can view such deviations as charming un-academic improvisations, or provincial ignorance, (or both,) as you prefer.

(Posting rather late today, due to computer trouble.)

Where Lee died

A magnificent old tree - one of many on the Washington and Lee campus - stands in front of the house of the President.

The house was built for General Robert E. Lee when he was chosen as president of W&L after the end of the Civil War. Since then it has served as the house of the President of the University. Research has shown it to be not an original design, but one adapted from a plan book of the time. The large porch, with its low, almost transparent railings, was for the benefit of Martha Custis Lee (Lee's wife, a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington), who was confined to a wheelchair. She is said to have enjoyed watching and talking with students from her vantage point on the porch.

Lee died in 1870, at 63, in the dining room of this house.

Westward the course of empire...

The statue of Cyrus McCormick at Washington and Lee faces southeast, actually.

McCormick invented the first mechanical reaper in 1831 - when he wasn't much over 20 - and patented it in 1834. He was born in 1809 not far from Lexington, in northern Rockbridge County. (The family farm is worth a visit.) His father is reported to have worked for many years on a horse-drawn reaper, without success, and then passed his work down to his son.

McCormick left this area in 1839 for Chicago (where he founded a forerunner of International Harvester), but maintained ties here, including to Washington and Lee, to which he was a generous benefactor.

The W&L timeline states that when this statue of McCormick was unveiled in 1931, thousands of spectators turned out for the occasion.

(In the background you see the Lee-Jackson House - left - and Morris House - right - on the W&L campus. At far left is a portion of General Robert E. Lee's house, built for him when he arrived in Lexington after the Civil War. Stay tuned tomorrow for a photo.)

Bachelor's quarters

A huge, fantastic tree casts a black shadow on red-gold brick as the sun goes down.

One last post from Stono, for now: I believe this is the former office, now listed as "bachelor's quarters" under faculty housing at VMI. Not a bad bachelor's pad.

Stone, brick and wood

Materials mellowed by time give this old outbuilding at Stono a romantic quality.

A number of Stono's dependencies have survived. This fascinating circular one was the ice house.

Stono

The double portico of Stono, in the morning light.

Stono faces east, overlooking the Maury River at Jordan's Point from high above. It was built in 1818 by and for Colonel John Jordan (1777 - 1854), one Lexington's most productive and best-known builders and businessmen.

In addition to Stono, Jordan (with his business partner from 1815 - 1824, Samuel Darst) is responsible for building part or all of numerous Lexington structures, including Washington Hall at W&L, Beaumont (home of Samuel Darst) and The Pines on Lee Avenue, the Dold Building, the former Rockbridge-Botetourt Library at 312 S. Main St., the Ann Smith School at Nelson and Lee, and the foundation stonework for the original VMI Barracks. (He is also thought to have executed brickwork at Jefferson's Monticello -- an 1805 letter exists in which he requests payment from the sitting president.) Jordan and Darst are credited with having been central in bringing the classical revival, and particularly Jeffersonian classicism, to Lexington.

According to The Architecture of Historic Lexington by Lyle and Simpson (from which most of the details in this post have been gleaned), Jordan also built roads and canals - including work on the canal from Richmond that eventually terminated just below his house at Jordan's Point - and the first covered bridge over the Maury at East Lexington.

Though presently owned by the VMI Foundation, and used as overnight accommodations for visiting "VIPs," almost 200 years ago Stono was surrounded by Jordan's "cotton, woolen, flour, grist, and lumber mills." That part is hard to imagine now:

Church on Sunday: Dissent

The stained-glass cross in front of St. Paul's Anglican Church, at Nelson and Davidson streets.

As I understand it, St. Paul's was formed a decade or so ago by a group of dissenting parishioners from R. E. Lee Memorial Episcopal. They considered that the Episcopal Church in the U.S. had strayed too far from the true teachings of the Church, and, among other things, were concerned about changes being made to the Book of Common Prayer. The new congregation allied itself with the more orthodox Anglican Church in Africa.

The church was designed by local architect Hans Schweitzer, who died last year. Its low lines, board-and-batten siding and metal roof give it a rather homey aspect, with a Swiss (or is it Scandinavian?) flavor. So, this church appears to bring together influences from England, the United States, Africa and Switzerland -- neat trick.

A Shenandoah fortress

The southeast facade of the VMI Barracks against a backdrop of Hogback Mountain.

This photo was taken from the high point on Maury St., shooting out over the playing fields, Main St., and Cocke Hall to get a clear view of the Barracks. It is a very low resolution image, due to the fact that I had to zoom the maximum to get it, and still had to crop about a third of the width to get the composition I wanted. But I like the clouds and shadows on the mountain, and I managed to get out early enough in the morning to catch some east light. So here it is.

Delicate ironwork

A lantern atop one of the pillars of Washington and Lee's Memorial Gate, at Jefferson and Henry.


Greg at Liege City Daily Photo has kindly given me the Kreativ Blogger award. Thank you very much! (For readers of my blog who don't already, it's well worth regularly stopping by Liege City Daily Photo to see Greg's always interesting posts.) I've been too pressed for time lately to do much commenting on the blogs I follow, and I'm afraid I may not get around to passing on this award, but the recognition is most appreciated.

Around back

Additions and an outbuilding make for appealing lines and massing at the back of Stono.

I especially like the chimneys in this photo. I'm working my way around to showing the front of this landmark Lexington house from 1818 (now part of VMI). When I can get myself out there in the early morning, I'll get a shot of the imposing double Tuscan portico that faces the Maury River.

Feel better?

The very angular lines of the entrance to Stonewall Jackson Carilion Hospital.

So-called because, until 1954, the Stonewall Jackson House on Washington St. (the house Jackson lived in while teaching at VMI - photo to come) served as Lexington's hospital, this much newer facility on the hill behind Col Alto is now part of the Carilion group of hospitals. I understand why an up-to-date hospital wants to project an image of cutting-edge modernism, but in many respects it seems to me that the atmosphere of modern architecture is not conducive to healing. (Others may disagree.)

I look forward (perhaps in vain) to the fashion in hospital architecture coming back around to structures that look more like yesterday's post, for example.

At least from inside the hospital one can look out on a restorative view.

A very civilized infirmary

The portico of the "new" VMI hospital.

This building, originally the house of Samuel F. Jordan (a local builder, son of prominent Lexington builder John Jordan), was purchased by VMI in 1870, and enlarged in 1909. At some point it replaced the old hospital, a relatively small building that has since been torn down.[*] (It had been completed just in time for an 1849 mumps epidemic in the corps, according to The Architecture of Historic Lexington.)

Yesterday's house is visible at the right.

Tomorrow I'll post a photo of the entrance to the recently renovated and expanded Stonewall Jackson Carilion Hospital, which serves the general area. I'll then let you decide where you would rather convalesce.

*[Update: The old hospital has certainly not been torn down as I had been told -- I just spotted it in one of my photos! Will post a picture of it at a later date.]

Camera tricks

The chaplain's residence at VMI appears very lonely on the hill above North Main St.

It's interesting that this photo seems to represent a solitary house in somewhat wild surroundings, and even might be thought to have an air of Gothic melancholy. In truth, this gracious house sits rather convivially between two others (you can see the roof line of one of them at left), overlooking the old VMI stables across Main St., and not far from the center of town.

Church on Sunday: Old and new at R. E. Lee

The steeple of the R. E. Lee Episcopal Church with the twilight moon.

The stone church dates to 1882 (see it from the front in an earlier post, here), but the steeple was replaced in 2007. The new steeple is 57 feet tall and covered in 1,800 hand-pressed metal shingles. The crown of the weathervane (salvaged from the original steeple), which was newly-covered in gold leaf by church parishioners, still shows bullet holes, reportedly from soldiers discharging their weapons a final time upon returning home from war. (More details on rebuilding the steeple here.)