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In 2018, Davis & Elkins College received a wonderful gift of property from Bill and Grace Jordan. Like Graceland and Halliehurst, this property is connected to the founding families of our College.
The "Jordan Estate" is comprised of a secluded red brick mansion sitting on a level hilltop lot surrounded by eight acres of woods. Accessed from Harpertown Road, the land abuts the D&E campus on the east side of Moyer Hall.
Senator Henry Gassaway Davis named Graceland after his daughter, Grace Davis Lee. Grace had a son named Thomas Lee who married Sue Lee in 1932. Thomas and Sue purchased eight acres of property from Aunt Hallie Davis Elkins, namesake of Halliehurst. In 1938, the Lees hired a well-known architect from New York to build the mansion that recently became a part of Davis & Elkins College.
During construction, Sue Lee insisted that the bricks used for the walls of the home be chipped to make the structure look older. Much of the furniture was brought from Graceland. A dog cemetery was established at the house in 1939 complete with 11 stone identifying markers. This pet cemetery was originally located between Graceland and Halliehurst and established by Grace Davis Lee.
The daughter of Thomas and Sue Lee, Grace, met Bill Jordan in Elkins during their high school years. After Bill graduated from D&E in 1958, Bill and Grace married and "lived happily ever after" according to Grace. The Jordans, who resided in Topeka, Kansas, later inherited the home after the death of Sue Lee. The Jordans and their children would spend summers at the hilltop home in Elkins and it became a treasured spot for the entire Jordan family. Prior to Bill's death in 2019, the home and land were deeded to the College to be treasured and preserved. It now serves as the home to the College's Provost and his family.
A Charleston Gazette article from 1999 details the life of Thomas and Sue Lee and their years living in the home that is today known as the Jordan estate. Senator Davis' grandson, Thomas, a graduate of Princeton University, met New York socialite Sue during a fateful trip to Arizona. They courted in New York, but as the relationship became more serious he confessed to Sue that he could never live in New York, for his life and his heart were in Elkins, West Virginia. According to the article, upon arriving in Elkins in 1932 "... Tom Lee's bride discovered a vibrant town dominated by a railroad roundhouse and repair shop, woodworking plants and the picturesque college on the hill." They lived at Graceland for several years before building their hilltop mansion. Sue became a pillar of the community, active in the Episcopal Church, and serving for more than 50 years on the board of Davis Memorial Hospital.
Visiting with Bill and Grace Jordan at the time they transferred the home to D&E in 2018, we discussed the history of the house, the furnishings and the many portraits of members of the Davis family as well as relatives from Sue's side of the family.
Grace shared that the acorn over the French doors to the terrace has a silver dollar in it to bring good luck. It is D&E's good luck to have inherited this historic and beautiful home that we shall treasure.
The journey continues...