1700s In 1733,
squatter Peter Stephens settled on land near the confluence of the
Potomac and
Shenandoah Rivers and established a ferry across the Potomac from
Virginia (now
West Virginia) to
Maryland. Robert Harper, from whom the town takes its name, was born in 1718 in
Oxford Township,
Pennsylvania, now part of
Philadelphia. Since he was a builder, Harper was asked by a group of Quakers in 1747 to build a
meeting house in the
Shenandoah Valley near the present site of
Winchester, Virginia. Traveling through Maryland on his way to the Shenandoah Valley, Harper—who was also a
millwright—realized the potential of the latent waterpower from the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers at their confluence. He paid Stephens 30
guineas for his
squatting rights to the ferry, since the land actually belonged to
Lord Fairfax. Harper then purchased of land from Lord Fairfax in 1751. and stated, "This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic." The town was one of his favorite retreats, and tradition holds that much of his
Notes on the State of Virginia was written there.
Jefferson County, in which Harpers Ferry is located, was named for him on its creation in 1801.
George Washington, as president of the
Potomac Company (which was formed to complete river improvements on the
Potomac River and its tributaries), traveled to Harpers Ferry during summer 1785 to determine the need for bypass
canals. Washington's familiarity with the area led him to propose the site in 1794 for a new armory. His brother, Charles Washington, who founded nearby
Charles Town, and his great-great-nephew, Colonel
Lewis Washington, both moved to the area.
1800s The federal armory In 1796, the federal government purchased a parcel of land from the heirs of Robert Harper. Construction began on what would become the
United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1799. The first railroad junction in the country began service in 1836 when the
Winchester and Potomac Railroad opened its line from Harpers Ferry southwest to Charles Town and then to
Winchester, Virginia.
Virginius Island Virginius Island, which connected the
Shenandoah River to the lower part of Harpers Ferry, was created by happenstance in the early 1800s after debris floated down from upstream mills during the construction of the Shenandoah Canal. Cotton, flour mills, and other water-powered companies were developed on Virginius Island, taking advantage of the Shenandoah River's water power and good routes to markets. The island came to house all of Harpers Ferry's manufacturing, except for the armory, which used the Potomac River for power, and its rifle plant, some distance upstream using the Shenandoah's power. At its antebellum peak, some 180 people lived on Virginius Island, including workers who lived in a
boarding house and in
row houses. Floods in the 20th century destroyed all structures on the island. Today, visitors can view Virginius Island's historic ruins and walk National Park Service trails. The first shot of the raid mortally wounded
Heyward Shepherd, a free black man who was a baggage porter for the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The noise from that shot alerted Dr. John Starry shortly after 1 am. He walked from his nearby home to investigate the shooting and was confronted by Brown's men. Starry stated that he was a doctor but could do nothing more for Shepherd, and the men allowed him to leave. Starry then went to the
livery and rode to neighboring towns and villages, alerting residents to the raid. John Brown's men were quickly pinned down by shots fired by local citizens and
militia, and forced to take refuge in the fire engine house (later called
John Brown's Fort), at the entrance to the armory. The stout building served as their redoubt for more than two days. The
Secretary of War asked the
Navy Department for a unit of
United States Marines from the
Washington Navy Yard, the nearest troops. Lieutenant
Israel Greene was ordered to take a force of 86 Marines to the town. U.S. Army
Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee was found on leave at
his home not far away in Arlington, Virginia, and was assigned as commander, along with Lt.
J. E. B. Stuart as his
aide-de-camp. Lee led the unit in civilian clothes, as none of his uniforms were available. The contingent arrived by train on October 18, and began negotiations of the abolitionists' surrender. When negotiation failed to produce a result, the troops stormed the fire house and ended the siege. In the action, the troops killed a few abolitionists and suffered a single casualty (twenty-four-year-old Marine Private Luke Quinn). John Brown and the other surviving raiders were captured. Lee submitted a report on October 19. Brown was quickly
tried in
Charles Town, the
county seat of
Jefferson County, for
treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, murder, and fomenting a slave insurrection. Convicted of all charges, with Starry's testimony integral to the conviction, he was hanged on December 2. (See
Virginia v. John Brown.) John Brown's words, both from his interview by Virginia Governor
Henry A. Wise and
his famous last speech, "captured the attention of the nation like no other abolitionist or slave owner before or since."
American Civil War picture of
contraband camp at Harpers Ferry, about 1861, with John Brown's Fort in background '' news illustration with camel back locomotive and tender wrecked by rebels in Harpers Ferry The
American Civil War was disastrous for Harpers Ferry, where five battles took place; It was a natural conduit for Confederate invasions of the North, as in General
Robert E. Lee's
Maryland campaign of 1862 and
Gettysburg campaign of 1863, and for Union troops heading south in their attempts to thwart Rebel forces in the Valley. The town was "easy to seize, and hard to hold", The town's garrison of federal troops attracted 1,500
contrabands by the summer of 1862. They were returned to slavery, however, when Confederate General
Stonewall Jackson took Harpers Ferry in September 1862. Lee needed to control Harpers Ferry because it was on his supply line and could cut off his possible routes of retreat if captured. Therefore, Lee divided his army of approximately 40,000 into four sections, sending three columns under Jackson to surround and capture the town. The
Battle of Harpers Ferry started with light fighting September 13 as the Confederates tried to capture the
Maryland Heights to the northeast, while John Walker moved back over the Potomac to capture
Loudoun Heights south of town. After a Confederate artillery bombardment on September 14 and 15, the federal garrison surrendered. With Jackson's capture of 12,419 federal troops, the surrender at Harpers Ferry was the largest surrender of U.S. military personnel until the
Battle of Bataan in 1942.
Post-Civil War Inspired by John Brown's raid, both runaway and freed slaves came to Harpers Ferry during and after the
American Civil War. This created social tensions between white and black residents of the community and generated a growing need for services for the increasing African-American population. Accordingly, a freedman's school was opened on Camp Hill by
Freewill Baptist missionaries following the American Civil War. The town and the armory, with the exception of
John Brown's Fort, were destroyed during the war. "The larger portion of the houses all lie in ruins and the whole place is not actually worth $10," wrote a Massachusetts soldier to his mother in 1863. another, in 1879, described it as "shabby and ruined." As described in a newspaper in 1873: "One need only to alight from the train and look a little envious toward
the old Engine House or the ruined walls of
the old Arsenal in order to have a score of persons offering to become a kind of guide or to point out to your whatever you may desire to know about the great struggle which ended in the 'opening of the prison doors, the breaking of every yoke, the undoing of heavy burdens, and letting the oppressed go free." Storer, the only Black college at a location historically important to African-Americans, became a center of the civil rights movement and built the town's importance as a destination for Black tourists and excursionists. Douglass spoke there in 1881, as part of an unsuccessful campaign to fund a "John Brown professorship" to be held by an African-American. In 1906, Storer hosted the first U.S. meeting of the
Niagara Movement, the predecessor of the
NAACP, after its organizational meeting in
Fort Erie, Ontario. In the late 1890s, the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad wanted the land where the fort was located to make its line less vulnerable to flooding. Some white townspeople were eager to get rid of the fort. In the summer Storer rented rooms to Black vacationers until 1896. Access to the park was also a
benefit for B&O employees, as it had done in
Relay, Maryland. Among the many events held there were a reunion of 4,000
Odd Fellows in 1880 and a "Grand Tri-State Democratic Mass Meeting" 1892.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, one of the
Secret Six who assisted
John Brown, chose Harpers Ferry for his honeymoon. The B&O kept the site open after that for picnicking. The bandstand, the only surviving structure, has been moved twice. At the park's closing, it was moved to Arsenal Square (the current location of
John Brown's Fort), then later to the park at Washington and Gilmore Streets. It is referred to as The Bandstand or the Town
Gazebo, and many civic, cultural, and recreational activities take place there. The bridge was destroyed by flooding in 1896, as was a replacement bridge in 1924. The remaining structures on the island were destroyed in a 1942 flood. the movement met on the campus of
Storer College, a primarily Black college that operated until 1955. (After it closed, the campus became part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park). The three-day gathering, which was held to work for civil rights for
African Americans, was later described by DuBois as "one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held". Attendees walked from Storer College to the farm of the Murphy family, the location at the time of
John Brown's historic "fort," the armory's firehouse. As a result, the fort was soon moved to the Storer campus, where it became the college's central icon. After the college closed in 1955, the National Park Service moved it back to as close as possible to its original location.
Harpers Ferry National Monument and National Historical Park A 1936 flood left the lower town "shabby and almost uninhabited", with no bridge across the Shenandoah to Virginia and no highway bridge to Maryland. All remaining structures on
Virginius Island were destroyed. The backbone of the effort to preserve and commemorate Harpers Ferry was Henry T. MacDonald, President of Storer, an amateur historian appointed by West Virginia Governor
Okey Patteson as head of the Harpers Ferry National Monument Commission. Another new bridge over the Shenandoah connecting Virginia to
Bolivar Heights, West Virginia, opened two years later. Federal highway traffic now bypassed Harpers Ferry entirely. Land acquisition started in lower Harpers Ferry; the project was supported both by Harpers Ferry mayor Gilbert Perry and Governor Patteson. Twenty-two eviction notices were served in the lower town, and two taverns closed. The first task of the Park Service was to stabilize the buildings on Shenandoah Street, the main commercial street of lower Harpers Ferry. Roofs were covered, missing windows replaced, walls on the verge of collapse reinforced, and debris removed. Post-1859 buildings were not restored, and most were removed. The NPS built a Visitor Center and a John Brown Museum. Harpers Ferry National Monument became
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park on May 29, 1963. "Recreationists" who wanted a park and did not care about the history were a problem. Local residents did not want to lose recreational opportunities, but swimming and fishing on the Shenandoah shore, formerly common, were prohibited. In order to keep recreationists out of the historic area, and especially Virginius Island,
John Brown's Fort was moved to Arsenal Square from a now-inconvenient location on the former
Storer College campus, parking in the lower town was prohibited, and a shuttle bus service begun. In the early morning of December 21, 2019, multiple cars of a train owned by CSX derailed from the railroad bridge crossing the Potomac River. The derailment damaged a portion of the Goodloe E. Byron Memorial Pedestrian Walkway, which is attached to the railroad bridge and connects the Appalachian Trail between West Virginia and Maryland. Although the accident did not result in any injuries or fatalities, it effectively inhibited all pedestrian access across the Potomac. The bridge reopened in early July 2020.
Hill Top House project The Hill Top House Hotel, which had opened in 1888 to accommodate African Americans as the sole hotel in Harpers Ferry that would accept them as guests, burned in 1911. It was then rebuilt on a larger scale, but that building also burned in 1919. It was rebuilt a second time on a slightly smaller scale but closed in 2008. As of 2021, developers plan to demolish it and build a new 120-room hotel on the site. Controversies about the impact such a proposed venue would have on the town have delayed its development. ==Archaeology==