Thorn Hill is a historic home located near Lexington,

Rockbridge County, Virginia Rockbridge County is a county in the Shenandoah Valley on the western edge of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,650. Its county seat is the city of Lexington. Rockbridge County completely surrounds the ...

. It was built in 1792, and is a two-story, five bay, brick

I-house The I-house is a vernacular house type, popular in the United States from the colonial period onward. The I-house was so named in the 1930s by Fred Kniffen, a cultural geographer at Louisiana State University who was a specialist in folk archit ...

dwelling. It has a side gable roof, interior end chimneys with corbelled caps, and a two-story, one-bay wing. The front facade features a colossal tetrastyle

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

with

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

columns. The property includes the contributing log

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is cured with smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with t ...

, frame kitchen, frame servants house and loom house, and barns and farm outbuildings. Thorn Hill was the home of Col. John Bowyer, a central figure in Rockbridge County's formative years. an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1975. The property has historically been closely associated with nearby

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexingto ...

(W&L). In 1782, Bowyer was appointed one of the first trustees of Liberty Hall Academy, which eventually became W&L. John Robinson, a principal benefactor of Washington College, and Judge John Brockenbrough, founder of the W&L Law School, lived at Thorn Hill. More recently, Thorn Hill was a dairy farm, and the house itself largely fell into disrepair. In 2004, Bill Johnston and Paul Elliott bought Thorn Hill, spending more than $1 million restoring the property and adding various amenities, including a large pottery studio where the original kitchen (which was built away from the main house to prevent the main house from burning down in the event of a fire) once stood. They also added a scenic driveway and lush gardens. In 2008, the pair attempted to sell the property. Unfortunately the house went on the market the week before the collapse of Bear Stearns. Over the next several years, they kept cutting the price without attracting a buyer. In 2013, the owners decided to auction the house. Current Washington and Lee Trustee Bennett L. Ross and his wife Alyson Moore Ross were the high bidders during the auction, stating that they "...were interested in buying Thorn Hill because of its ties to Washington and Lee." In 2021, the owners formally opened a bed and breakfast called the "Thorn Hill Inn", featuring refurbished original outbuildings with modern amenities as well as a fitness and yoga center.

References

External links

Thorn Hill, Southwest of Lexington, off VA Route 251, Lexington, Lexington, VA
13 photos and 1 photo caption page at

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

Thorn Hill, Detached Kitchen, Southwest of Lexington, off VA Route 251, Lexington, Lexington, VA
1 photo and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Buildings Survey
Thorn Hill, Dependency, Southwest of Lexington, off VA Route 251, Lexington, Lexington, VA
1 photo and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Buildings Survey
Thorn Hill, Smokehouse, Southwest of Lexington, off VA Route 251, Lexington, Lexington, VA
1 photo and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Buildings Survey Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses completed in 1792 Houses in Rockbridge County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Rockbridge County, Virginia 1792 establishments in Virginia {{RockbridgeCountyVA-NRHP-stub