The Lane- Riley House

Bill Jones, the Southwestern University Historian, took me to see this house this week. It came up because I asked him to clarify whether Rev. James Sterling Lane was the first chaplain at Southwestern. Dr. Jones said that Rev. Lane served as chaplain for Southwestern in his capacity as minister of the First United Methodist Church in Georgetown (in those days the minister of the Methodist Church also served as the chaplain at Southwestern). Dr. Jones then told me that Rev. Lane's home in Georgetown is still standing, so we went to visit it. The house is located at 1302 College St. It is vacant and needs a lot of work. It was built in 1872, the same year Southwestern University was being founded in Georgetown. In 1908, it was bought by another Methodist minister, Rev. George Riley (1853-1925). Descendents of Rev. Riley apparently still own the home. The house has a Texas Historical Marker and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It still has the old well on the property. Rev. Lane was a Civil War veteran and is buried in the IOOF cemetery behind Southwestern. His grave is one of the ones featured on the Williamson Museum's cemetery tour this weekend (May 1, 2010).