Washington and Lee University (Washington and Lee or W&L) is a private liberal arts university in Lexington, Virginia, United States. Washington and Lee's 325 acre campus sits at the heart of Lexington and abuts the Virginia Military Institute in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Allegheny Mountains. The campus is approximately 50 miles from Roanoke, Virginia, 140 miles from Richmond, Virginia, and 180 miles from Washington, D.C. Washington and Lee was founded in 1749 as a small classical school named Augusta Academy (later Liberty Hall Academy) by Scots-Irish Presbyterian pioneers, though the University has never claimed any sectarian affiliation.