Kemper Home - Madison, VA
Posted by: 
vhasler
N 38° 23.000 W 078° 15.255
17S E 739830 N 4251917
Greek Revival home of James Lawson Kemper - state legislator, Confederate major general and governor of Virginia (1874 to 1877).
Waymark Code: WME2V1
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 03/27/2012
Views: 4
From the historic district application:
(Kemper or Christian Home): Detached house. Greek Revival. 1840-50s. Wood frame (weatherboard); 2 stories, raised basement; hipped roof (standing seam metal); 2 bays; 1-story, 1 (center) bay porch with Greek Ionic columns supporting roof with balustrade. This Greek Revival residence constitutes an important contribution to the historic district. Its more salient features include its Ionic porch, Asher Benjamin derived doorway, and window surrounds with corner blocks. Suggesting a more vernacular tradition are paneled-end chimneys and outbuildings. Its site on a high hill overlooking the town's main road gives the structure a conspicuous presence."
Listed as Item #7 on Main Street, East Side is the NRHP application given as link below.
The application further describes the home's famous resident as:
During the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the most prominent leader to emerge from Madison was state legislator, Confederate major general and governor of Virginia, James Lawson Kemper (1823-1895). A native of Madison County, Kemper started a successful law practice at the county seat in 1850 after serving honorably in the Virginia regiment of the American army in the Mexican War. Entering the House of Delegates in 1853 (a bitterly contested election pitted him against fellow townsman and former client George N. Thrift), Kemper served in the legislature during five sessions, the last as Speaker of the House. While guiding Virginia into a state of military preparedness in Richmond, he continued to take an active interest in the affairs of both the Blue Ridge Turnpike Company and the Linn Banks Masonic lodge over which he presided as its first Worshipful Master. In the war he participated in most of the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia from First Manassas to Gettysburg, first as a regimental commander and then as commander of the Kemper brigade. Seriously wounded at Gettysburg he recovered toward the end of the war to assume command of the Virginia reserves and conscrlptioo service.
In 1865 Kemper returned with his family to Madison, taking up permanent residence in the former home of Thomas W. Welch on the northern end of town in 1868. Soon a major figure in the rise of the Conservative Party in Virginia, Kemper served as governor of Virginia from 1874 to 1877, marking his administration with professions of support for free public education and faithful adherence to provisions of Virginia's controversial 1870 Funding Act. Also a promoter of railroad construction and agricultural development in the Madison area, Kemper sold his Madison home in 1881 in order to retire from politics on a farm in Orange County, where he died in 1895.
The home is now the Madison County Administration Center and Health Department.