First Baptist Church

Established after the Civil War with the support of the Freedmen’s Bureau, it was one of Lexington’s first Black schools. It was in operation from 1865 to 1927, when the Lylburn Downing School opened in response to overcrowding Charles Henry Franklin rented half of the first floor as his barber shop. Two sisters, Estelle and Edna Washington, opened a restaurant in the other half. Walker and Wood Brothers Meat Market (30 N Main St) – Prominent Black businessman Harry Lee Walker bought this building, first built in 1820 and known in recent decades as the Willson-Walker House, in 1911 for use as a butcher shop, one of the most thriving businesses in the community. He provided the VMI mess hall with meat through an exclusive contract. His daughter Nannie married Clarence Wood, who joined the family business with his brother Joe. First Baptist Church (103 N Main St) – The congregation of the Lexington African Baptist Church worshiped in a frame building next to the site of the current church for 25 years beginning in 1867, right on the heels of emancipation. The current Gothic-Revival-style church was completed in 1896, and its congregation has played an active role in the local black community. Lylburn Downing, a Lexington-born African-American minister in Roanoke, was an early financial contributor for the construction of the church.