Preston family homes, Rockbridge County, Virginia cabinet card photo, snapshot photo and copy print photos, 1860/1939

Containers:

Box 10, Folder 16

Scope and content:

The photos in this folder are as follows:

A copy print photo and negative of the west side of the Preston house, showing John Thomas Lewis Preston's children Elizabeth Preston and John Preston in the yard, circa 1860.

A large cabinet card photo of a corner of the parlor in Margaret Junkin Preston's home, circa 1860.

A copy print photo of a partial front view of the east side of the Preston house, circa 1891.

A snapshot photo of the Preston Rock Cottage, location unknown, 1939 by the Roanoke Photo Finishing Co., Roanoke, Virginia.

Biographical / historical:

This house, located at 110 W. Preston Street in Lexington, Virginia, was built between 1821 and 1825 by the building partnership of Jordan and Darst It originally served as the home for Henry Ruffner, a professor who later became the president of Washington College. In 1844, the property was purchased by Colonel John Thomas Lewis Preston, one of the primary founders and a Latin professor at the neighboring Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Margaret Junkin Preston, following her marriage to Colonel Preston on August 3, 1857, moved into this three-story brick home. She stepped into the roles of homemaker and stepmother to his seven children. From this specific vantage point on Preston Street, she authored numerous stories and poems, including her acclaimed wartime ballad Beechenbrook, earning her wide distinction as the "Poet Laureate of the Confederacy". In June 1864, Margaret witnessed the devastation of the Civil War firsthand from this house. She documented the raid of Union General David Hunter's forces, which included the burning of VMI and the clearing out of her home's smokehouse and cellar.

Access and use