Lexington’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 4 old photos of Lexington. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The Lexington area was at least sparsely settled by Europeans in 1775. The settlers named their community in honor of Lexington, Massachusetts, the site of the first skirmish of the American Revolutionary War. Lexington was incorporated as a city in 1828. Silver Hill Mine, located a few miles south of Lexington, opened in 1838, and was the first operating silver mine in the country.
The oldest surviving house in Lexington is The Homestead, built by Dr. William Rainey Holt (1798–1868), a physician born in what is today Alamance County. The Homestead has windows, sidelights and other Palladian details characteristic of the pattern books of architect Asher Benjamin.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Lexington’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lexington’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewWorkers in the Nokomis Cotton Mill, 1912: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Lexington
See all 29 →
Lexington, decade by decade
![Baldwin's Lexington, North Carolina, City Directory [1937]](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/12415/56ed661bc1c88f91a1fc-s.jpg)
1990s
17 historic places in Lexington
Lexington has 17 listings on the National Register, and they protect 1,213 historic buildings, because Lexington Residential Historic District alone counts 804.
Where they are
Architectural styles
When they were listed
Listed 1971Old Davidson County Courthouse
Listed 1983Dr. William Rainey Holt House
Listed 1984John Henry Welborn House
Listed 1984Henry Shoaf Farm
Listed 1988Grimes School
Listed 1996Uptown Lexington Historic District
Listed 2000First Reformed Church
Listed 2002Grimes Brothers Mill
Listed 2006Grace Episcopal Church
Listed 2008Erlanger Mill Village Historic District
Listed 2012Lexington Memorial HospitalListed 1984Junior Order United American Mechanics National Orphans HomeListed 1984Pilgrim Reformed Church CemeteryListed 2007Lexington Residential Historic DistrictListed 2019Lexington Industrial Historic DistrictListed 2021St. Stephen United Methodist ChurchListed 2026Dunbar High SchoolThen & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Workers in the Nokomis Cotton Mill (1912) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (3) and the Library of Congress (3). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.