Lexington Apartment Reviews

Read Lexington apartment reviews. Renters share their first hand experiences from living in apartments you want to know about. These apartment reviews help you choose wisely before you rent.

Lexington Information

Scotch-Irish and German immigrants coming from Pennsylvania began to settle the valley in the 1730's and established themselves along a well worn Indian path, known as the Great Wagon Road, that traversed the center of the valley. This road is still traveled today and called Lee Highway, or U.S. Rt. 11.

Benjamin Borden received a royal grant that included what is now Rockbridge County and made portions of this land available to settlers for the establishment of farms. The name of the county was derived from the "Rocky Bridge", an early reference to The Natural Bridge of Virginia, one of the natural wonders of the world.

The City of Lexington, originally known as Gilbert Campbell's Ford, was established as the town of Lexington in the Spring of 1778. The name chosen by the Virginia Legislature for the new county seat was in honor of the first great battle of the Revolutionary War, the battle of Lexington, Massachusetts, which had occurred three years earlier.

Thomas Jefferson, who owned a tract of land in the new county that included the Natural Bridge, is reported to have played a part in naming the county as well as the town.

Lexington, which benefited from its location on the Great Wagon Road and its proximity to the North River (now known as the Maury River), was originally 1,300 feet long and 900 feet wide. It was smaller than what today comprises the city's Central Business District (CBD). Four original interior blocks were created by the intersection of Henry, Washington and Nelson Streets by Randolph, Main and Jefferson Streets. All but one was named after prominent supporters of the nation's struggle for independence.

The City of Lexington was incorporated in 1841 and almost from the beginning its main industry was education. Liberty Hall Academy was established in 1790 just to the west of the town. When George Washington made a sizable gift to the college's endowment, the institution's name was changed to Washington College so as to honor the nation's first president. At the end of the Civil War the presidency of the college was offered to General Robert E. Lee who presided over it for the five years preceding his death. Shortly thereafter the trustees renamed the school Washington & Lee University. Today, it enjoys a reputation as one of the finest coeducational centers of learning in the country. Its enrollment is in excess of 1600 undergraduates and 350 law students.

In 1816 the General Assembly of Virginia established three arsenals for the the housing of arms. One of these was built in Lexington. By the mid 1830's a prominent local attorney and graduate of Washington College, John T.L. Preston, advocated the establishment of a state military school at the arsenal. The Virginia Military Institute enrolled its first cadets in November of 1839 and prospered in the years prior to the Civil War. Among its faculty was Major Thomas J. Jackson, soon to become known as "Stonewall Jackson" and be noted as one of the South's most famous and revered heroes. The rigid military lifestyle of V.M.I. together with its reputation for requiring academic excellence in engineering, the sciences and liberal arts has earned it a national reputation for producing graduates who consistently go on to achievements in both the military and business worlds.