Haywood's

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William Alexander, for whom the building is now named, came to America as a Scotch-Irish immigrant in the mid-to-late 18th century and became one of Lexington’s first settlers. Originally, Alexander’s family ran a store at Jordan’s Point, and eventually the family came to own four and a half lots in Lexington. In 1789 at lot 19 on Washington Street, Alexander built a brick building that sat diagonally from the town’s court house. The building was unique in that it had both a very sophisticated diamond brick pattern as well as four corner chimneys. These well-refined architectural techniques were not typical of a rural valley town, and so it is speculated that the architect of the building was a traveling tradesman. Alexander used the building as both a residence and a store, and it was there that Alexander became Lexington’s first postmaster, collecting and distributing mail from his store.

Because the majority of the buildings in Lexington were frame or log homes, the Great Fire of 1796 wiped out almost all of the structures in Lexington. The brick layout of Alexander’s house kept the structure from being completely destroyed, but the badly damaged house was sold to Captain John Leyburn in 1800.

Following substantial renovation in the early nineteenth century, Leyburn used the building as both a residence and store. His general store was located on the ground floor while he lived on the floor directly above. Additionally, the building was used as a depository for the first Lexington bank, and the parlor across the hall from Leyburn’s store contained Lexington’s first piano. Following Captain Leyburn’s death in the 1830’s, his son Alfred continued to own the building where he rented shops out to both a doctor and man named George Baker who ran a haberdashery. Eventually, Baker bought the building in the 1850’s.

In 1851, the town of Lexington underwent a process of lowering the streets in order to provide for more efficient travel, as much of the town was built on extremely steep hills. Because of this, Baker’s building now had an additional floor made of limestone. The balcony that currently overlooks main street was added because the original street door no longer was on the ground level due to the lowering of the streets. Baker also modernized the building for his era, adding an Italianate roof line and bracket detailing that were both the style of the day in the 1850’s.

Baker sold his property to the building’s second namesake Jack Withrow in 1875. Withrow both lived in the building while also maintaining a shop. M.S. “Munce” McCoy opened a grocery store in the building that operated from 1923 to 1946 while the Withrow’s still owned the structure. Withrow’s daughters, Margaret and Lucy, ran a small kindergarten in the upper rooms of the House.

The Alexander Withrow House remained with the Withrow family until it was sold to the Historic Lexington Foundation in 1969. The Foundation restored the exterior and then sold the building to Carlson Thomas who restored the interior. Thomas and a number of other people owned the House over the course of the next forty years until The Georges Hotel purchased the building and finished a total renovation in 2014. Now, the townhouse is used as an inn and serves as the home to Haywood’s piano bar and restaurant, serving a seasonally varied menu and providing an assortment live music.