History of Lime Kiln
Today’s theatergoers may have difficulty imagining that until the early 1980’s, Theater at Lime Kiln was little more than a large hole in the ground with tumbled down stone walls: the picturesque ruins that were merely a dream of a gentleman named A. T Barclay.
When Barclay died in 1915, the newspaper headline over his obituary read, “Another Civil War Veteran Gone.” Without the Civil War, Barclay might have been just another lawyer, and the perfect setting for an outdoor theater might never have been built. By his own account, when Barclay returned from the war after fighting alongside Stonewall Jackson and spending more than a year in a Yankee prison camp, his huge family farm just west of Lexington “had been run over, the fences destroyed and the stock run off.” Because Barclay’s only brother was a successful doctor, his mother prevailed upon A.T. to run the farm rather than go to the University of Virginia Law School.
A.T. wasn’t much of a farmer, but he was a smooth talker, with a bottomless barrel of get-rich quick schemes. His most obvious legacy is the City of Buena Vista. One of the factories built in Buena Vista was the Columbia Paper Mill, now G. B. Bontex. To lure the business to town, Barclay promised that he could supply lime, which was used in the paper manufacturing process.
Barclay’s farm was rich in limestone, which had been quarried in small quantities for years. In 1896, four years after the paper mill opened in Buena Vista, Barclay and two partners started the Rockbridge Stone and Lime Company on Barclay’s farm. About a dozen buildings, including a barrel shop and three large kilns, were erected. However, Barclay neglected to pay royalties to his sisters who owned one-third interest in the land. In short order they sued, and won. He lost direct control of the company and it was sold soon after. After Barclay died, the lease was not renewed and the buildings were taken down or rotted away. The kilns fell into ruin.
The land changed hands several times over the next few generations. When a Virginia Military Institute English professor named Brewster Ford bought the land, he realized that the old kiln ruin would make a wonderful setting for an outdoor theater. In 1967 he allowed it to be used for an experiment. Students at Washington & Lee University, with the assistance of local Thespians, staged three performances of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The kiln lay fallow for the better part of another decade until Dr. Ford donated the use of the property as a unique theater and home for Lime Kiln Arts. The first production of the new professional company was a two-week run of Rock Kiln Ruin’s Tale of Cymbeline, in 1984. It had all the hallmarks of future Lime Kiln productions - storytelling, history, spectacle, original music, humor, drama and a strong sense of place. “Shakespeare with a twang,” characterized one newspaper.
The first season was a roaring success. Washington & Lee University graduates and Lime Kiln founders Don Baker and Tommy Spencer approached the accomplished song-writing duo of Robin and Linda Williams, now famous for many appearances on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion, with an idea for a new show. They collaborated on a new work that would become Lime Kiln’s most popular and enduring - Stonewall Country, the musical based on the life and times of Lexington’s own Civil War hero, General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The show was the centerpiece of Lime Kiln’s first full season, and it generated enough interest to bring the Governor of Virginia to opening night.
That season set the pattern for Theater at Lime Kiln’s future: original musicals and plays presented at The Kiln based on Southern Appalachian heritage; adaptations of Appalachian folktales that went on tour to schools and communities both in and out of Virginia; and a renowned concert series that features legendary musicians and an eclectic mix of musical styles. Hundreds of actors, technicians and volunteers have contributed countless hours creating the magical place Theater at Lime Kiln is today, while preserving the natural beauty of the stone ruins left nearly a century ago. No doubt, A.T. Barclay would appreciate the irony that his farm has become a place where a dream can come true, night after summer night.