Matthew Hanna home cabinet card photo and snapshot photo, 1900/1930

Containers:

Box 7, Folder 46

Biographical / historical:

Some information on the house from Miss Nellie Tracy Gibbs is written on the back of the circa 1900 photo of the camel and elephant circus animals passing the house on North Main Street. The information is as follows: The central frame building was erected by William Brown on Henry Street, Lexington, Virginia. He sold the building in 1785 to Matthew Hanna, the "Holy Tanner." In this house, under Mr. Hanna, church services were held before the Lexington Presbyterian Church was established. Maj. John T. Gibbs, Quartermaster at the Virginia Military Institute, 1866-1881, lived in this house. Probably during his living there, the brick portion was added. The frame portion was taken down by Washington and Lee University in 1940. In the smaller frame house, to the west of the central house, lived Dr. Edwin I. Gibbs, son of Maj. John T. Gibbs. He was a physician in Lexington, Virginia, from about 1880 to 1885, when he left to become medical examiner of the Pension department, Washington, D.C. He died August 15, 1898.

The brick portion of the house was later the McKemy Grocery store.

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