The Southern Inn

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According to a town map from 1787, plot Plot 21 of Lexington, Virginia was originally granted to James Lyle. Though Lyle owned this land, he never did much with it. In fact, this property changed hands on multiple occasions without much use at all until it was bought by Jacob Bear in 1827, and he finally added a building to the lot in 1828. According to public records, Bear most likely used the building primarily as a residence until his death in 1859. Because his wife was an inmate at the Western Lunatic Asylum at the time of his death, a lawyer was appointed to sell the lot. Once again, the property would change ownership a couple of times before ending up in the hands of E.L. Graham. At the time of his ownership, records strongly indicate that Graham used the upper level of the building as a residence while running some kind of public store or restaurant on the lower floor.

After Graham’s death, the building was sold to cover his debts and thus bought by one of its more significant owners, Henry H. Myers. Myers came to Lexington from Lewisburg, West Virginia at six years old and was eventually educated at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University). During the Civil War years, Myers served in the Liberty Hall Volunteers, an infantry regiment originally organized by students of Washington College, and later in the 1st Virginia Cavalry regiment. Following the war, Myers became a part of his father’s hardware business that sold guns, paints, oils, and many other items before establishing numerous other small businesses throughout the town of Lexington, some of which were located in the building that is Southern Inn today.

In addition to being educated at Washington College, Myers’s membership in various library societies along with his dealings in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania through his Roanoke business partnership made him a very cultured man for his day. Myers served on the town council, was one of founders of Lexington Fire Department, and was an early investor in the Buena Vista Improvement Company. The vast knowledge of architecture presumably acquired from his readings led Myers to modify the building on 37 South Main by adding Italianate brackets and a flatter roofline, both of which were typical of new buildings in the 1880’s and 1890’s.

Despite having many uses for the building over the course of his lifetime, Myers sold the building on December 5, 1886 to L.G. Jahnke, who turned the building into a profitable jewelry store for thirty years. In 1917, the building was bought by J. Ed. Deaver, a man known throughout town for his clothing store. Under Deaver's ownership, the building finally became a restaurant.

After borrowing from many of his relatives, George Macheras purchased room in the building from Deaver to create his Southern Inn Restaurant. On April 1, 1932 with thirteen cents to his name (and still very much in debt to his relatives), Macheras opened the Southern Inn for business. From the start, the Southern Inn was a family business. After school, the Macheras children would come and work the afternoons. One sister even had to open the restaurant daily before school at the age of eight. Sadly, George Macheras died in 1938, only six years after realizing his dream of owning his restaurant. His wife, Florence, continued the business and in 1944, she bought the property for the restaurant they had been leasing. Economic times were tough in the years to follow, and her Lynchburg relatives came to assist in restaurant affairs. The family operation that characterized the Southern Inn added to the restaurant’s local appeal and allowed their business to flourish. Because of the restaurant’s profitability, Florence was able to enlarge the dining room at the Inn, purchase land, and gain wealth and property in Lexington.

In her old age, Florence transferred control of the restaurant over to George Jr., her son. Eventually the entire Macheras family began to exit the restaurant industry as the family handed over day-to-day management of the restaurant business to Miachel Zitmore while still maintaining ownership of the building itself. In the summer of 1998, George and Sue Ann Huger bought the Southern Inn Restaurant. The Hugers began the process of renovating both the restaurant’s building and menu, giving it a more modern look.

Unfortunately, on July 8, 2010, the Southern Inn was almost entirely destroyed by a fire caused by lightning during a vicious storm. In an event that would have completely demoralized many businesses of the day, the Hugers with the support of the surrounding Lexington community rallied together to rebuild and once again contemporize the restaurant in a way that also managed to maintain the historical complexion and charm of the building. One year and a week after the fire, The Southern Inn Restaurant reopened and continues to provide Lexington with a unique American dining choice.