Lynnside Website

Lynnside

Lynnside Manor
Picture by Jim Glanville, February 2014

Death of Jim Glanville, Nov. 22, 2019, is here Mass at Sweet Springs, Aug. 15, 2020, is here.

Lynnside in Monroe County, West Virginia, was for many years home to the Lewis and Floyd and related families. Both the Lewis and Floyd families had members who made significant contributions to the history of Virginia, West Virginia, and America.

The

large derelict red brick house called Lynnside,

seen above, was constructed in 1845.

It stands on a small rise facing, across Route 3 (historically the Greenbrier to Lynchburg Toll Road). This image was captured looking west from the place where Routes 3 and 311 intersect (link to map below).

In 1754, the Scotch-Irish pioneer Andrew Lewis made the first land survey here for the Greenbrier Company. He went on to become General Andrew Lewis of Revolutionary War fame. His brother Colonel Charles Lewis, died at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774. His brother William Lewis built the first Lynnside house around 1780, and was the founder of the nearby Sweet Springs spa

in 1774.

Today, the house and surrounding property are part of the Lynnside Historic District in the Valley of the Sweet Springs. The site of the "Old Sweet Springs" spa lies about a mile to the northeast. St. John's Catholic Chapel is situated across the road about a quarter of a mile from the house. At the top of the knoll to the rear of the house are the Lewis Family Cemetery and the Catholic Cemetery. Lynnside Spring is at the right edge of the picture above.

Virginia Governor John Floyd and his wife Letitia Preston Floyd are buried on the hill beyond the house. He died here in 1837 while visiting his daughter Letitia Preston Lewis. His wife Letitia Preston died in 1853 at her home in Burke's Garden, and her body was brought here to lie beside her husband's.

The governor was for many years sympathetic to the Catholic Church and Letitia actually converted to Catholicism very late in life. Many of their descendents were active church members and

the association between the Catholic Church and this place continues to the present day.

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This is the successor to Lynn Spellman

's web site now maintained by Jim Glanville (JG). The story of how this web site came into being is told

here

.

Lynn Spellman passed away in Colorado on Sunday 15 May 2016. Her obituary is here.

JG's under-construction Table of Contents for this Lynnside web site is here.

A gallery of Lynnside area photographs by JG is here.

A description and twenty photographs (by JG and others) of events on 15 August 2014 at Lynnside, the cemetery, and the St. John's Chapel can be seen here.

JG's Holstonia web page is here.

Lynn Spellman's original home page is here.

Lynn Spellman's 2007 History of Sweet Springs, WV, is linked here

Lynn Spellman's genealogy pages are linked here

Many others of Lynn's original pages are linked from the above three pages. Some of Lynn's original pages have been recreated. Others, we hope to be able to recreate soon.

External Links to Lynnside

Google Maps shows the location of Lynnside Historic District.

The Mapcarta link to the Lynnside Historic District is here.

The Wikipedia entry for the Lynnside Historic District (which shows a locator map for Monroe County) is here.

An excellent, interactive map of Monroe County, West Virginia, is here.

The 2012 "Preservation West Virginia" brochure about Lynnside Manor is here.

The National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Lynnside (a 23-page pdf file with maps and pictures) is here.

The Encyclopedia West Virginia article about St. John's Chapel is here.