Lewisburg dates to 1782, and 13 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns · #27 of 61 in West Virginia. What drives it
Most of Lewisburg was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1979. 13 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 343 buildings between them. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1898 on, and the census since 1860.
Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1830.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Lewisburg’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lewisburg is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #27 of 61 in West Virginia. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lewisburg’s overall grade.
West Virginia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical West Virginia town has 29.6 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Lewisburg’s 926 sits above most of its state (91% of West Virginia towns have fewer) while its 355 historic buildings outnumber those of 96% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.0 points). Two sources give 1782.
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Lewisburg’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Bowling Elementary SchoolschoolBowling High SchoolschoolFort UnionlocaleGreenbrier College for WomenschoolGreenbrier Military AcademyschoolLewisburg High SchoolschoolLewisburg Maternity HospitalhospitalSavannah MillslocaleWhite Schoolschool
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Lewisburg
ConfederateOld StoneRosewood
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Lewisburg is named after Andrew Lewis. In 1751 Lewis, as a young surveyor, established a camp near the spring behind the present courthouse. This spring has been known as the Lewis Spring since that time. During Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763, Native Americans completely destroyed two of the early European settlements in Greenbrier County, killing the men and carrying off the women and children. This raid virtually eliminated all of the earliest settlers in the county. The Native Americans were primarily Shawnees, and (according to undocumented tradition) were led by the famous leader Hokoleskwa, or Cornstalk.
Lewisburg was made a town by legislative enactment in 1782. An extract from the bill reads : "Be it enacted, that forty acres of land whereon the court house of the county of Greenbrier now stands, be and the same is hereby vested in Samuel Lewis, James Reid, Samuel Brown, Andrew Sonnally, John Stewart, Archer Mathew, William Ward, and Thomas Edgar, gentlemen, trustees, to be by them or any five of them laid out into lots of half an acre each with convenient streets which shall be and the same is hereby
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
building is still standing and is in an excellent state of preservation. He also granted to the county the site upon which the first court house of Greenbrier was built. This building was erected of stone in the town of Lewisburg in the year 1800. He died on the eighteenth day of August, 1823, in the seventyfifth year of his age, and was laid to rest in the Stuart family burying ground, where around him four generations of his family now sleep.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Lewisburg, 1782 to 1931
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lewisburg. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1923White Sulphur Springs sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Lewisburg.
Every building
Lewisburg, building by building, 1898–1923
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1898Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewRev, Jefferson R. Taylor, 1902
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Lewisburg’s page.
In 1782, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Lewisburg’s post office opened in 1830, and the census of 1860 counted 969 people here.
How does Lewisburg rank for history?
Lewisburg is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #27 of 61 in West Virginia. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Lewisburg?
13 listings: 9 buildings, among them the Old Stone Church (listed 1972, the first), 3 historic districts, the South Church Street Historic District, the Maple Street Historic District and the Lewisburg Historic District, with 343 contributing buildings, and 1 site. 355 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Lewisburg?
6% of Lewisburg’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 13% for a West Virginia town; the median home was built in 1979.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (9), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (13), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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