Campbell House, ca. 1845
Historic Lexington
Andrew Reid purchased this lot in 1784 from the town’s trustees. Later, between 1844 and 1845, Alexander T. Sloan, a local hotel owner and businessman, built this house. His wife reported that the site was a “rough and unsightly piece of ground” when they purchased it, but they transformed it into their “mansion house.”
The building is referred to as an “I” house, a vernacular building tradition with origins in England. Distinguished by elegant Federal style details, the house has two false windows on the Randolph street side – probably an effort to cut down noise and dust while maintaining a balanced symmetry. It also has an unusual stretcher bond on the front.
In 1866 the four Waddell sisters purchased the house and like many ladies of limited means, offered “table” to bachelor faculty and students. Through them, the house was inherited by Dr. Leslie Lyle Campbell, a local historian and founder of the Rockbridge Historical Society. He left the house to the Society in 1964. It is now open to the public as the Society’s headquarters and museum.
Marker is at the intersection of E Washington Street and S Randolph Street, on the left when traveling west on E Washington Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
