.jpg)
Dec. 15, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: We have sent a letter to the VMI board of visitors asking it to reconsider its plans to demolish the two historic houses on Letcher Avenue: the Blair House (now called Neikirk) and the Archer House (now called Cabell). Both were built in the late 1800s and were significant enough to be described in “The Architecture of Historic Lexington” by Royster Lyle Jr. and Pamela Hemenway Simpson, with photographs by Sally Mann, published in 1977.
According to a September 2024 letter from the Department of Historic Resources, both houses contribute to the designations of VMI and Lexington as historic districts and the demolition of both “is considered an adverse impact” on these historic districts.
We, the undersigned, are proud to have grown up on the VMI post. Its houses and the families who lived within them were part of the fabric of our childhoods. We moved to bigger and better houses as our fathers’ ranks increased. Many of those houses have already been destroyed. That which remains is well worth saving.
What was once called the Letcher Avenue Hyphen still provides a gracious transition to the massive, castellated Gothic Revival architecture of VMI. We recognize the crucial role VMI plays in both the history and future of Lexington and beyond. The historic row of houses still standing on Letcher Avenue is part of the ongoing life of this town and its colleges. Please consider that once the houses are lost, they are lost forever.
Editor’s note: The following signed this letter: Suzanne Barksdale Rice, Louise Gentry Brennan, Ann Carroll Weaver, Arthur C. Taylor III, Anne Lipscomb Burger, JEB Byers, Mary Wells Ridley Ramsey, Laurie Lipscomb and Betty Dobyns Larkin.
