LIBERTY HALL
Washington and Lee University, Lexington
Built 1793; burned 1803
Photograph: Virginia Historical Society
Liberty Hall was the first substantial structure for the fledgling classical academy that eventually became Washington and
Lee University. Although the university traces its origins to 1749, it was housed in various wood and log buildings in several
locations before it settled on a 120-acre site just west of Lexington in 1782. In 1793, the Board of Trustees contracted with
William Cravens, a stonemason from Rockingham County, to build a main building. Its four corner chimneys were a regional
feature. The stone building served as both classroom and dormitory, housing some forty or fifty students in the upper two floors,
and classes, scientific apparatus, and the library on the first floor. In the aftermath of a disastrous fire in 1803, the trustees of
the school decided to move it closer to town, but the substantial stone walls of William Cravens's building survived and are
now preserved by the university as a picturesque ruin.
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