Mathews House
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
This house was built in 1845 to replace an earlier brick home that burned. This is a three-by-three bay, L-shaped structure with a hipped roof. Its floor plan is regular Georgian with large 6/6 sashes. Special feature include the very large inside chimneys with corbeled caps, the pairs of brackets all around the deep cornice, and substantial entrance porch with much Italianate-style decorative woodwork.
Images
Mathews House

Alex F. Mathews

Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Mason Mathews (see backstory of the Venable-Mathews-Moore House just up the street) bought this property at auction in 1845 for $2,020. For the next 118 years, the Mathews family occupied the house. In 1874, Mason Mathews conveyed the house to his parents, Alexander Ferdinand Mathews (1842-1927) and Laura Maud Gardner Mathews (1842-1927). Alexander Mathews attended Lewisburg Academy and the University of Virginia where he received a law degree. During the Civil War, he was Commissary of Subsistence for the 59th Virginia Infantry of the Confederate Army and was an aide-de-camp to General Henry A. Wise, former governor of Virginia. He was a co-founder of the Bank of Lewisburg and brother of Henry M. Mathews, former governor of West Virginia.
Cite This Entry
Skip Deegans on behalf of Lewisburg Historic Landmarks Commission. "Mathews House." Clio: Your Guide to History. December 31, 2018. Accessed March 31, 2025. https://theclio.com/tour/369/39
Sources
Bunn, Morgan Donnally. The People of the Old Stone Cemetery: The Burials. Self-published, 2017.
Bunn, Morgan Donnally. The People of the Old Stone Cemetery: The Obituaries. Self-published, 2017.
Historical Booklet Greenbrier County 160th Anniversary 1778-1938.
Rice, Otis K. A History of Greenbrier County. Lewisburg, WV: Greenbrier Historical Society, 1986.Bunn, Morgan Donnally. The People of the Old Stone Cemetery: The Obituaries. Self-published, 2017.
Historical Booklet Greenbrier County 160th Anniversary 1778-1938.
Talbert, James E. A Historical Look at Lewisburg, West Virginia's Hard Scrabble Hill and beyond 1783-2007. Lewisburg, WV: Greenbrier Historical Society, 2007.
Turley, C. E., The Lewisburg Historic District. The Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society, Vol. IV, No. 1. Lewisburg, WV: Greenbrier Historical Society, 1981.