Bloomery is an unincorporated community on the Shenandoah River in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States.
Location
1.1 km
Mechanicstown is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. Mechanicstown lies on West Virginia Route 115 at its intersection with County Route 25 and County Route 9/3.
2.1 km
The Hermitage near Charles Town, West Virginia is historic property which includes several buildings, as well as non-contributing tennis courts and a pool. The oldest structure is a small stone cottage dating to circa 1734, making it one of the oldest buildings in West Virginia. It resembles Prato Rio in nearby Leetown, West Virginia and may date to this property's first owner, Daniel Barnett, who was a partner in the Burr Iron Works circa 1740, the first of its kind in the state. A stone privy is also believed to be the oldest structure of its kind in the state.
The two story wooden farmhouse is associated primarily with the Chew family, who moved into the house from Loudoun County, Virginia in the mid-19th century, when Roger Preston Chew was three. The L-shape is due to an incorporated stone cookhouse wing. As a Virginia Military Institute cadet, Chew helped control crowds attending the execution of John Brown after his raid on nearby Harper's Ferry. Col. Roger Chew later became a distinguished Confederate artillery and cavalry officer. During the American Civil War, Chew's flying artillery was engaged in more skirmishes and battles than any battery in the Confederate Army, and Col. Chew eventually commanded five battalions of two batteries.
Both Roger and his brother Robert, rebuilt the estate after the war's end, and the interior was extensively remodeled during the Victorian era.
In 1871, Chew married Louise Fontaine Washington, daughter of the last owner of Mount Vernon, at Blakeley. He then became an important business man in the area, as well as serving in the House of Delegates from 1882 to 1888.
2.4 km
Mountain Mission is an unincorporated community on Charles Town Road in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. Mountain Mission lies between the Shenandoah River and the community of Mannings.
2.7 km
Hopewell, also known as Hopewell Mills and Hopewell Farm, was established around 1765 by William Little, Sr., who built grain and saw mills near the Shenandoah River. In 1827, William Little, Jr. sold the property to James Hite and Jacob Newcomer. Hite named the property "Hopewell", identifying the mill with a place in Leetown also named Hopewell, where there was a Quaker meeting house. Hite's descendant, Thomas Hite Willis, operated and expanded the mill, adding a woolen mill. The woolen mill operated until the 1920s providing uniforms for the Army.
The complex includes a log-and-clapboard house, built circa 1765 with twentieth century additions, a tenant house from the same era and of similar construction, several outbuildings and the ruins of the woolen mill, circa 1850.
3.1 km
Shannondale Springs is a former American resort associated with mineral springs on the bank of the Shenandoah River upstream from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The water from the main spring was reputed to have mild laxative qualities, while other springs had a sulfurous odor. The resort began in 1820 with the construction of 10 to 12 wood cottages, and a two-story hotel was added the next year. The hotel and some of the cottages burned in 1858. After the Civil War several new brick cottages were built and a new hotel was built on the site of the old in 1890. This hotel burned in 1909 and was never rebuilt. The cottages and accessory structures lasted another thirty years before becoming uninhabitable.
In the late 18th century the 29,000-acre Shannondale tract was owned by Fernandino Fairfax, who sold several parcels between 1811 and 1819 to settle debts. A ferry was established around 1819. Fairfax's residence, Shannon Hill, was across the Shenandoah from the Shannondale site. After a good start, the resort struggled until the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Winchester and Potomac Railroad reached Harpers Ferry in 1834 and 1835, respectively. This permitted easy access from Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The loss of the hotel to fire and the coming of the Civil War closed the resort until 1867, when the resort resumed operations on a much-diminished scale. A flood in 1870 caused considerable damage, and in 1890 a new hotel was constructed with 25 guest rooms, a ballroom and several bath houses. Investors in the new hotel had ties to the Charles Town Mining, Manufacturing and Improvement Company, and proposed to mine iron deposits near the springs. In 1902 the property was purchased at public sale by H.C. Getzendanner, who reopened the hotel in 1903. By 1919 Getzendanner had sold the resort to E.B. Frye for $500. In 1931 a lessor sold the waters for $1 per five-gallon bottle. The property was sold again in 1937 to Thornton T. Perry, Sr.. Much of the property was later donated to The Nature Conservancy, and in 1986 it was transferred to the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.
From 1996 the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission has leased the last two remaining structures, a bathhouse and a fountain, and has undertaken stabilization work.
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Bloomery, Jefferson County, West Virginia
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