The Stonewall Jackson
Memorial Hospital
1907-1954
A new exhibit opened on January 12, 2023 at the Stonewall Jackson House in Lexington, Virginia . The Exhibit features the hospital during the era it was located in the Stonewall Jackson House, and will run through the end of this year. The museum staff drew on the research of former Washington and Lee student Katherine McAlpine, Washington and Lee history professor Theodore DeLaney, and contributions from area residents familiar with the hospital to develop the exhibit.
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| Five members of the hospital staff posed in front of the hospital building on Washington Street in this photograph from Kathleen McAleer's collection. They are (left to right) Mamie Womeldorf, Lillian Donald Swink, Sam Momson, Pearl Saunders, and Charlotte Moore, who was the matron for many years. (Photograph from the collection of Kathleen Manspile Zollmon McAleer) |
After the death of Confederate General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson in 1863, his widow, Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, rented their home on Washington Street to tenants. In the early twentieth century efforts to preserve both the property and the memory of Stonewall Jackson resulted in the sale of the property to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who converted it into the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital in 1907. The hospital served the Lexington and Rockbridge community for almost fifty years before it outgrew the site and moved to its present location on Spottswood Drive in Lexington in 1954.
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| Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital (left) and Nurses' Home (right). (Courtesy Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia) |
Among the themes the exhibit explores are the architectural changes to the building over time, the role of the UDC and other women in opening and administering the hospital, and the importance of the hospital in the community.
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| In the 1930's Ruth Davis, RN, a member of the hospital staff, posed with a patient at Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital. (Photograph from the collection of Kathleen Manspile Zollman McAleer) |
The items on display include an invalid chair from the hospital, photographs of hospital staff, a model of the dramatic changes to the building over time, and medical equipment from the era. Visitors are encouraged to share their own memories or stories about the hospital in a scrapbook that is on display as part of the exhibit.
| Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital, Lexington, Virginia, formerly the home of "Stonewall" Jackson. (Stonewall Jackson House collection) |
For more information please contact Megan H. Newman at the Stonewall Jackson House, 8 East Washington Street, Lexington, Virginia. Phone 540 463-2552
Previous Exhibit can be viewed HERE
