Kids' Night at Point of Honor
The Lynchburg Museum System presents Kids' Night at Point of Honor, adventures for children ages 7-12, featuring night tours, stories, hot dogs, and a movie. Nocturnal animals from The Nature Zone will also be on hand as well as a special guest appearance by someone from the past! Reserve early spaces fill up quickly! Point of Honor stands on a tract cleared from the wilderness where Monacan Indians once camped, and has been home to some of 19th century Virginia's most remarkable citizens. Born in 1766, Dr. George Cabell, Sr. attended Hampden-Sydney Academy and completed his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a friend and physician to the patriot, Patrick Henry and a frequent correspondent with his neighbor, Thomas Jefferson.
Point of Honor passed from the Cabell family when Dr. Cabell's son William Lewis Cabell and his bride Eliza Daniel Cabell both died in 1830. Her father, Judge William Daniel, Sr. inherited the mansion and left it to his son Judge William Daniel, Jr. in 1839. Judge Daniel, Jr. served on the Virginia Court of Appeals from 1846 through the end of the Civil War. His son was United States Senator John Warwick Daniel, the famous "Lame Lion" of Lynchburg. Judge Daniel, Jr.'s sister Elvira Daniel married pioneer American civil engineer and Civil War hero Charles Ellet, Jr. Their daughter, Mary Virginia married William D. Cabell and was a founding member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Point of Honor was the antebellum home of Col. John S. Langhorne whose daughter Elizabeth Langhorne Lewis led the fight for women's suffrage. His granddaughters include Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson, the original "Gibson Girl" and Nancy, Lady Astor, the first woman elected to the British Parliament. Nancy Perkins Lancaster, the famed interior designer, was his great granddaughter.
During the Civil War, Point of Honor was the home of Robert Latham Owen, president of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, and his wife Narcissa Chisholm, daughter of the Cherokee Chief, Thomas Chisholm. Their son, Robert L. Owen, Jr., was Oklahoma's first United States senator.
Grounds Restoration
In the late 1970s as Point of Honor was completing the restoration of the house, the Board made a request of The Garden Club of Virginia's Restoration Committee to restore the grounds. The Garden Club of Virginia agreed to restore the front grounds of Point of Honor with Meade Palmer as landscape architect. The design included a long circular drive set with large stones and cobblestones leading from the front gate to the steps of the house. Matching stone was used for a walk leading to the parking lot. Massive English boxwood were transported from a nearby site and served as the foundation planting for the front and the drive circle.
Several years later, Rudy Favretti, landscape architect for The GCV, drew a plan for perennial beds in the rear of the house which was implemented. Another gift by The GCV several years later provided trees and shrubs to landscape the parking lot. In the 1990s Point of Honor raised funds to build the Bertha Green Webster Carriage House and a recreated kitchen. The GCV landscaped the Carriage House and planted a miniature apple orchard with the advice of Tom Burford, an orchardist of note. In 2006 a stone walk was donated to Point of Honor by The Garden Club to aid in the visitor traffic from the Carriage House to the rear grounds.
Explore Related Categories
