Harpers Ferry
The Vintage Lady resides in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, known for its amazing views, unique shops, hiking trails, and historic significance. It is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers where the U.S. states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet.
On October 16, 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a group of 21 men in a raid on the Arsenal. Five of the men were black: three free blacks, one a freed slave, and one a fugitive slave. During this time, assisting fugitive slaves was illegal under the Dred Scott decision. Brown attacked and captured several buildings; he hoped to use the captured weapons to initiate a slave uprising throughout the South.
At the beginning of the twentieth century it was a fashionable resort for holidayers who came by train from Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. An elongated mass of land in the Potomac, known as Island Park, was a kind of Coney Island. Owned by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, on week ends and holidays as many as 28 excursion trains a day brought picnickers, bowling clubs, singing societies, and honeymooners up from the city.
In 1944, most of the town became part of the National Park Service and it is now maintained as the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. The majority of the existing homes in Harpers Ferry (including Charmadoah) are very old, and some of these are registered in the National Register of Historic Places.
