Pavilion X Exhibition

UVA Law Community

Pavilion X was the residence of UVA Law professors for over a century. Its Law residents included John A. G. Davis, Henry St. George Tucker, John B. Minor, and William Minor Lile, the four of whom lived consecutively in the pavilion from 1833 to 1936.

Minor earned the loyalty and admiration of scores of Law students, a number of whom frequently visited him at Pavilion X. including future U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Wilson considered Minor a “perfect teacher” who conducted his courses with such “thoroughness and vigor and ability” as to impress the most dedicated scholar. Minor and Wilson exchanged letters through the years and, in their correspondence, Wilson referenced the time he spent with Minor and his family in Pavilion X.  Wilson was heavily influenced by his Law School education, which shaped his future presidential policies on racial essentialism and resegregation.

William Minor Lile moved into Pavilion X in August 1896. According to the census, several Black workers labored in Pavilion X during Lile’s tenure: Charley Smith, Jenny and Lara Howard, Annie, and Henrietta. Pavilion X became a space where Lile articulated many of his staunchest views on U.S. race relations. Weighing into Maryland’s constitutional debate in 1909, Lile advocated the total disenfranchisement of Black voters, noting how pleased he was that Virginia had eliminated the “illiterate and shiftless negro” from the political community. Lile considered African Americans incapable of making a contribution to society and American politics, even while his household at Pavilion X was supported by their labor.

A portrait of a young white man
William Minor Lile, September 1885. The Diaries of William Minor Lile, 1882-1893; 1913-1932, Photograph Collection, MSS 89-1. UVA Law, Arthur J. Morris Law Library.
A fragment of a handwritten census.
John B. Minor diary entry. Minor noted the 1840 and 1850 census numbers for Albemarle county under the categories: “white”, “free colored” and “slaves”.