Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital snapshot photo and post cards, 1907/1969

Containers:

Box 11, Folder 13

Scope and content:

The photos in this folder are as follows:

A circa 1907 color post card published by the Hugh C. Leighton Co., Portland, Maine and printed in Germany. Included is a negative.

A circa 1907 color post card published by W. C. Stuart, Lexington, Virginia and printed in Germany. Photo by photographer McCown of Lexington.

A circa 1969 snapshot view showing power lines in Lexington, Virginia Virginia. Power lines were placed underground in downtown Lexington during the 1970s as part of a major street revitalization.

Biographical / historical:

The original Stonewall Jackson House on East Washington Street in Lexington, Virginia, operated as the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital from 1907 until 1954. It served as the first community hospital in Rockbridge County for nearly 50 years. Major Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and his wife, Mary Anna, purchased and lived in the brick and stone home while he taught at the Virginia Military Institute, 1858-1861. It is the only home he ever owned. In 1906, decades after Jackson's death, his widow sold the property to the Mary Custis Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). The group fundraised to convert the home into a general community hospital. In 1907, the facility officially opened its doors as the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital. Extensive physical alterations were made over the years to adapt the home for medical care, including a Classical Revival style facade makeover, multiple annex expansions, and a bridge connector to an adjacent building. In 1954 a newer hospital facility was built elsewhere in Lexington, causing the medical operations to move out of the house. The historic building was then purchased by the Lee-Jackson Memorial Association to be preserved In 1979 after falling into disrepair and changing ownership, the home was carefully restored by the Historic Lexington Foundation. They stripped away the hospital era modifications to return the building's exterior and interior to exactly how it looked when the Jacksons lived there. Today, the property operates as the Jackson House Museum. It is owned and maintained by the Virginia Military Institute, offering public tours focused on Jackson's life, his family, and the enslaved people who lived and worked at the site.

Access and use