“Lynchburg 100: An Illustrated Guide to Lynchburg Landmarks” was published recently by Blackwell Press. The glossy 80-page guidebook is the product of the collaboration of Nancy Marion ’74 and S. Allen Chambers, Jr., architectural historian and author of the out-of-print — and nearly impossible to find — “Lynchburg: An Architectural History.”

With text by Chambers and beautiful photography and layout design by Marion, the book details 100 historic buildings and sites.

Monument Terrace graces the front of the book.The locations include everything from historic churches and Queen Anne mansions to Dr. Walter Johnson’s tennis court. On this court — located on Pierce Street in the city’s smallest historic district — Johnson coached Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson and other African-American tennis players.

The book is divided by neighborhood, and written directions guide readers to each site. In addition, two detailed, fold-out maps are incorporated into the book’s cover.

Marion has known Chambers for several years. They were serving on a committee for the Hill City’s Jamestown 2007 project, when the architectural historian was tasked with compiling a list of 100 Lynchburg sites.

With a host of historical sites and buildings dotting the city’s landscape, it wasn’t an easy task.

“Early in our discussions, we determined to attempt to confine our list to 100 sites, admittedly an approach fraught with potentially heated discussion, if not downright peril,” Chambers writes in the introduction. “We knew full well that any city as old and rich in memories as Lynchburg has far more than 100 landmarks.”

In the end, the committee decided to focus on old and new landmarks, places that, as Chambers wrote, gave “character, meaning, value and vibrancy to our city, and that are landmarks in the largest sense of the word.”

Nancy Marion ’74That was in 2003. “[Chambers] wrote the list, but then the committee never got their act together and the list never saw the light of day, other than as a link off of the committee’s Web site,” Marion said. “So I suggested to Al this summer that we make it into a book, which is what we did for the month of June.”

Marion was an art major at Sweet Briar. She is owner of The Design Group and Blackwell Press and the publisher of Lynch’s Ferry magazine.

She also has a personal association with many of the sites, as a current or past board member of Rivermont House (No. 71), Sandusky (No. 99), the Lynchburg Historical Foundation (No. 30) and Old City Cemetery (No. 46). She and her husband, David, also restored No. 42, the Tabb-Slaughter-Diggs House on Madison Street.

“Lynchburg 100: An Illustrated Guide to Lynchburg Landmarks” is available at the Sweet Briar College Book Shop, Old City Cemetery, Given’s Books, Barnes and Noble, and through www.lynchsferry.com.

– By Suzanne Ramsey, SBC staff writer