Liberty Hall Academy

Liberty Hall Academy. Washington and Lee University traces its origins to Augusta Academy, a small classical school established din 1749 by Scotch-Irish pioneers some twenty mile north of Lexington. In 1776, the patriotic fervor of the American Revolution caused Augusta Academy Trustees to change its name to Liberty Hall. In 1782, the same year that the school relocated at this site, the Virginia legislature chartered the institution as Liberty Hall Academy and granted it the authority to confer degrees upon its graduates. After two wooden academic buildings burned, the stone building depicted above was constructed in 18793. After George Washington bestowed a major benefaction upon the school in 1796, grateful Trustees changed the name to Washington Academy. In 1803, the academy again fell victim to the ravages of a fire that left standing only the walls that remain on the site. In the fire's aftermath, the school relocated at its present site in Lexington and in 1813 became Washington College. In 1870, upon the death of its president, Robert E. Lee, its name was changed a final time to Washington and Lee University.