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Lexington is located in the central Shenandoah Valley and is the county seat for Rockbridge County. The city was incorporated in 1841 and, almost from the beginning, its main industry was education. Both Washington & Lee University and Virginia Military Institute are located within the historic district. Liberty Hall Academy was established in 1790 just to the west of the town. When George Washington made a sizable gift to the college's endowment, the institution's name was changed to Washington College in honor of the Nation's first president. At the end of the Civil War, the presidency of the college was offered to General Robert E. Lee, who presided over it for the five years preceding his death. Shortly thereafter the trustees renamed the school Washington & Lee University. In 1816, the General Assembly of Virginia established an arsenal in Lexington. By the mid-1830s, a prominent local attorney and graduate of Washington College, John T.L. Preston, advocated the establishment of a State military school at the arsenal. The Virginia Military Institute enrolled its first cadets in November of 1839 and prospered in the years prior to the Civil War. Among its faculty was Major Thomas J. Jackson, later to acquire fame in the Civil War as "Stonewall" Jackson. Lexington began to grow with the arrival of the railroad between 1860 and 1880. The speculative real estate boom of the 1890s, which saw the Lexington Land Company acquire 1,275 acres to the west of the town and along the railroad and river fronts, also helped bolster the local economy. The commercial area of Lexington is grounded along Main Street with historic development also along Randolph, Jefferson, Washington and Henry streets. Primarily constructed of brick, the historic commercial buildings date from the early 19th to early 20th centuries. Several churches remain on Main Street, including the Greek Revival Presbyterian Church constructed in 1843.
The Lexington Historic District was listed in the National Register in 1972. It was not a high vacancy rate that motivated the Main Street effort in Lexington, but the precarious nature of the downtown economy that had to be dealt with proactively. The town, merchants and citizens realized it was not enough to have beautiful, historic buildings--they had to look at the downtown comprehensively. Lexington was designated a Virginia Main Street community in 1988 and the Lexington Downtown Development Association has led revitalization efforts. Since 1988, almost 235 buildings have been rehabilitated with $11 million in private funding and close to $200,000 in public funding invested in downtown. The Lexington Historic District is roughly bounded by Chesapeake and Ohio RR, Graham and Jackson aves., and Estill and Jordan sts. The Lexington Downtown Development Association is located at 101 S. Main St. and is open from 9:00am to 5:00pm, Monday-Friday. For more information about shopping, dining and events in downtown Lexington, call the Lexington Downtown Development Association at 540-463-7191. |
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