Washington Restaurant
Known Name(s)
Washington Restaurant
Address
16 N. Main Street Lexington, VA
Establishment Type(s)
Restaurant
Physical Status
Extant
Detailed History
The vernacular 1862 building at 16 North Main Street is listed as a contributing structure to the Lexington National Register Historic District. The building survived fires ordered by Union General David Hunter, who occupied the town in June of 1864.
From the Rockbridge Historical Society article written by Executive Director and super-helpful person Eric Wilson in early 2019, "Re-Visiting Rockbridge, 1939: A New Year’s Journey with RHS, and “The Negro Motorist Green Book"”
"With its notably large plate glass windows, the site is now occupied by Sugar Maple Trading Company and, before that, Duke’s Antiques. The restaurant welcomed customers just uphill from the former Willson-Walker House, where Walker & Wood Brothers Sanitary Meat Market and grocery store had long served as its own pillar in North Main’s black business center, and the Lexington community at large. Across the street, beginning in 1883, Lexington Lodge No. 2461 hosted meetings of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, the town’s most prominent African-American fraternal organization, and an important means of cultural connection, across the United States."
Follow the Rockbridge Historical Society blog here: https://rockbridgehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Green-Book-comes-to-Lexington-1939-and-Beyond-1.pdf
