The Oliver Anderson House is important not only for its role in the Battle of Lexington, but also because it is a fine example of the large mansion houses that prosperous, slave-holding Southerners were building in Missouri in the 1840s and 1850s.
The house was built in 1853 by Oliver Anderson, a successful hemp businessman, in the Greek Revival style and exhibits many interesting features including cast-iron Corinthian columns supporting the front porch, and cast iron lintels over the windows. Inside are large rooms with 15 foot high ceilings, and a 15 foot wide central hallway. At the east end of the hallway, a massive walnut staircase rises through two landings to the third floor of the house.
The hallway floor is painted in a bold pattern of black and white that duplicates its original finish. The woodwork is executed all in walnut and the massive doors have silver doorknobs. The furnishings, while not those of the Anderson family, are appropriate to the mid-19th century.
The national financial panic of 1857 severely depressed the hemp market and helped to cause the financial downfall of Oliver Anderson. In the fall of 1859, he auctioned off all his holdings in real estate, personal property and slaves. The Anderson House was included in this sale, but his sons purchased the house. By this means, the Anderson family was able to continue to live in the house until the eve of the Civil War.
The final chapter of Anderson's misfortunes in Missouri was brought about by the coming of the Civil War to Lexington. A strong advocate of slavery, Anderson was likely one of the prominent Southern citizens arrested when Federal troops occupied Lexington in July 1861. Around that same time, the Federals evicted the Anderson family from their house and confiscated it for use as a hospital.
During the Battle of Lexington in September 1861, the Anderson House changed hands three times on the first day of the battle. After the Southerners forced the Union defenders out of the house, the Federals staged a desperate and bloody countercharge and retook it, only to be repulsed once more by the Southerners a short time later. During their brief reoccupation of the house, the Union troops killed three Southern prisoners at the base of the grand staircase in the main hall. A bullet hole remains in one of the staircase risers. The battle caused extensive damage to both the interior and exterior of the house. This damage from rifle and cannon shot is particularly visible on the east side of the house and in several interior rooms. A stray cannon ball careened through the attic of the house before ricocheting through the attic floor into the second floor hallway below, where the hole in the ceiling remains to this day.
After posting a bond, Oliver Anderson was paroled and banished from Missouri. The Anderson House was purchased after the war by Tilton Davis, who lived in and preserved the home for 50 years. Several of the upstairs rooms are furnished with original pieces of the Davis furniture. In 1958, the house and portions of the nearby battlefield were donated to the state and are now part of the Battle of Lexington State Historic Site.
