Challenges to the Proposed Institutional History Museum

Challenges to the Proposed Institutional History Museum
W&L faculty, along with community leaders, express concern about the proposed museum.

(View of Washington College, VA. | SOURCE: W&L Archaeological Resources Management Plan / C. Bohn, 1857)

“How will we make sure we’re not destroying institutional history by creating an institutional history museum?” asked Alison Bell, ‘91, Professor of Anthropology.

According to Washington and Lee’s Archaeological Resources Management Plan, there is an unexcavated historic house underneath the planned build site for the new Institutional History Museum. Professor Bell told The Spectator that no contact has been made with the Archaeology Department to discuss the historical importance of the site.

The University recently proposed building the museum near the intersection of Washington and Jefferson streets. The land is currently occupied by the parking lot of Lee Chapel, National Historic Landmark, the Corral Lot, and the Red House. The University hopes that the museum will “educate and inspire visitors to reflect on Washington and Lee University’s history and its place in the history of the nation.”

The Steward’s House — which campus archaeologists believe is the house circled in the photo above — was constructed in 1804. It was one of six original front campus buildings constructed around that time, none of which survive today. It featured a smokehouse, dairy room, and garden and acted as a residence, dining hall, and rental property. While it is no longer extant, the remains of the site are located underneath the area of the planned construction. University officials have never excavated the site.

Professor Bell, who has worked at W&L since 2002, has researched extensively on the archaeology of historic sites on campus, such as Liberty Hall and the Colonnade.

She expressed that “it’s a little ironic … that we’re thinking of building an institutional history museum on unexcavated institutional history.”

Bell told The Spectator that this period of the early 20th century was “transformational. Washington College went from a former plantation landscape, with exposed gullies and town livestock roaming through, to a preliminary academic landscape.” She stated that “these decades are completely invisible today, but were the launching pad for our physically and fiscally solid university.”

The Steward’s House was the campus dining hall for almost 30 years. At a later point, it was rented to John and Sally Lymus. John Lymus “was a free African American and the college servant,” according to Bell. He helped with a variety of duties on campus, but little is known about his daily life and the lives of the students on campus during this time.

Bell argued that because of the many roles the house played on campus, an excavation could provide major insights into daily life in the early 19th century. According to her, “archaeology might provide the only available direct evidence of the social fabric of the college in its early decades on front campus.”

“So my feeling is as an archaeologist that there needs to be some sort of survey and research on the area before shovels are put in the ground,” Bell stated. She suggested a variety of options for remote sensing, including LiDAR, a 3D mapping technology that W&L has on campus.

Bell believes that if an excavation were undertaken, there is a high chance of finding artifacts, such as those “that would relate to daily life around the Steward House where the students were eating from 1804 to 1832.”

Bell continued, explaining that she feels we have certain obligations to honor our history. “So I think that if we were really being good stewards of our cultural resources and institutional history, we would be very careful to look for any archaeological deposits before we start thinking of a new building,” she said. She later stated, “It would be incredibly ironic and a massive shame if we destroyed any surviving traces of this critical period in the institution’s history to build a Museum of Institutional History.”

The Spectator also interviewed Arnie Glaser, the planning director for the city of Lexington. He stated that the university has not begun the process of obtaining approval for the project from the city. The university has a master plan that has been approved by the city. However, university officials removed the Institutional History Museum from that plan after city pushback in 2022.

According to Glaser, in order to get approval, the university would have to change the master plan or apply for a special permit. Both of these options would require going through the city council for an advertised public hearing, which would take at least two and a half months.

After receiving approval, the university would then need to apply for a building permit. This would entail a similar process, requiring at least another two and a half months of waiting.

Finally, the proposal would go to the Lexington building official, for review and approval. However, the university has not yet submitted the application for the first step of this process, meaning that obtaining approval from the city of Lexington is at least five months away.

Lexington’s mayor, Frank Friedman, also spoke on the subject with The Spectator following his fall reelection victory. Friedman discussed the dangers of “institutional creep” which he defined as “taking property off the tax records and changing the fabric [of the town].”

Friedman cited plans for the new Institutional History Museum, saying that the Lexington city government had shut down a proposal to build the museum in town behind Blue Sky Bakery. He said that he had suggested to the school to “put that shining beacon of the museum right on the corner. You can keep your parking underneath, you don’t lose that.”

W&L’s administration did not heed Friedman’s advice. “Of course, they didn’t listen to me: they’re eliminating parking, they’re eliminating the Red House,” he explained.

The University has not fully revealed many details of the project, including its timeline. The Spectator will continue to report on the Institutional History Museum as developments arise.