BGuthrie Photos: WV -- Harpers Ferry NHP -- Exterior Shots

WV -- Harpers Ferry NHP -- Exterior Shots:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. HARPEX_141111_067.JPG: Armory Paymaster's Residence Rank has its privileges. The paymaster, second in command at the armory, enjoyed an unobstructed view of the factory grounds and water gap from the substantial brick dwelling erected here about 1800. Soot and noise disrupted the scene with the arrival of the Winchester and Potomac Railroad through the paymaster's front yard in 1836. The paymaster moved to new, elegant quarters on the hill overlooking the river gap. The government then leased the old structure to armory workers.
2. HARPEX_141111_088.JPG: 1. Meriwether Lewis at Harpers Ferry Home of Samuel Annin, Armory Paymaster The U.S. Armory Paymaster's house stood here. Completed in 1802 as a home for the armory's senior administrator, this building was probably the best house in town when Meriwether Lewis arrived in 1803. Lewis may have stayed here and he certainly accounted for his supplies with Paymaster Samuel Annin.
3. HARPEX_141111_099.JPG: Market House Armory workers purchased fresh vegetables, meat, and fish every Wednesday and Saturday here at the Market House. Constructed by the government near mid-century, the building that once stood here architecturally resembled the refurbished armory buildings along the Potomac. The Sons of Temperance, a 19th-century organization campaigning for the prohibition of liquor, financed construction of the second floor for their meeting hall.
4. HARPEX_141111_113.JPG: A Government Factory Town No Longer The destruction of the armory in 1861, followed by four years of Civil War, devastated Harpers Ferry's economy. Attempts at revitalization included a brewery erected here in 1895. When West Virginia enacted prohibition in 1914, the brewery converted to a bottling works for sodas and spring water. The 1942 flood destroyed this last remaining industry in Harpers Ferry.
5. HARPEX_141111_133.JPG: Armory Workers Expanding armory operations in the opening decades of the 19th century resulted in overcrowded and unhealthy living conditions for workers. Families shared inadequate, unventilated housing, while single men slept in the workshops. To alleviate the housing shortage, armory superintendent James Stubblefield allowed workers to erect dwellings, at their own expense, on public lands along the Shenandoah River, "being the only disposable level ground at the armory." In the late 1820s and 1830s, the U.S. Government purchased the privately-built houses and leased them back to the workers.
6. HARPEX_141111_139.JPG: Casualties of Time Over two dozen armory workers' dwellings, ranging from modest frame cottages to substantial stone and brick houses, once fronted Shenandoah and Hamilton streets. The wood houses disappeared around mid-century, victims of fire and demolition. The government sold the remaining dwellings in 1852 to armory employees and others in an effort to secure a stable, land-owning workforce. Buildings along the Shenandoah River proved extremely vulnerable to flooding. During the devastating 1870 flood, all houses but one on the south side of Shenandoah Street, "from the market house to the Island of Virginius," were destroyed or severely damaged.
7. HARPEX_141111_146.JPG: Flood waters surround buildings on Shenandoah Street in 1924. None of the structures pictured here stand today.
8. HARPEX_141111_188.JPG: A Government Factory Town Harpers Ferry owed its existence principally to the United States armory, which began producing small arms here in 1801. At its height, this factory produced more than 10,000 weapons a year and employed 400 workers. The armory affected the everyday lives of its workers, both inside and outside the workplace, until its destruction in 1861 during the opening days of the Civil War. To learn about the armory's efforts on behalf of its workforce, walk this short trail along the Shenandoah River and visit the sites of buildings pictured here.
9. HARPEX_141111_194.JPG: Butcher Shop and Boarding House Factory officials believed a ready supply of meat for the community was "decidedly advantageous to the interests of the armory." As a result, the armory permitted local businessman Philip Coons to erect a large butcher shop and smoke-house, as well as a substantial stone boarding house, here on government land in the mid-1820s. When the U.S. purchased the buildings in 1863, the boarding house became workers' housing, while Coons continued to lease the butcher shop.
10. HARPEX_141111_237.JPG: Close Quarters Search for clues to how people lived in this 1800s boomtown. Look for drill holes in the cliffs, left behind when builders blasted new lots out of the rock. Discover how a home-owner in 1844 cut out part of his own wall to keep his neighbor's view. Examine ruins behind these buildings, and see how the National Park Service preserves these historic buildings for you -- and future generations -- to enjoy.
11. HARPEX_141111_255.JPG: Every Inch Counted The walls around you tell the story of crowded living in Harpers Ferry on the eve of the Civil War. With a population of nearly 3,000 people, space was scarce. Many buildings (like the buildings in front and to the left of you) shared walls with their neighbors. The 1824 building in front of you was both a home and a business at the time of the war. The first floor housed a clothing store whose owner made his home on the upper floors. Factory workers and townspeople shopped in the butcher shop and grocery store on the first floor of the 1844 building to your left.
12. HARPEX_141111_270.JPG: "A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step" -- Lao Tau The stone steps to your left are part of the Appalachian Trail -- a 2,200-mile footpath from Georgia to Maine. Climb the steps to some of the most scenic views in Harpers Ferry. Walk 300 yards to Jefferson Rock for a view that Thomas Jefferson described as "worth a voyage across the Atlantic." Take the trail to Lockwood House, Storer College, and the Appalachian Trail Visitor Center. Or keep walking 1,000 miles south to Springer Mountain, Georgia. Begin your journey here.
13. HARPEX_141111_292.JPG: Wax museum
14. HARPEX_141111_328.JPG: Lewis and Clark Meriwether Lewis arrived March 16, 1803. Oversaw building of collapsible iron framed, skin-clad boat and acquired supplies, tomahawks, and rifles. Left for Pennsylvania on April 18; returned July 7 to gather materials and left next day for Pittsburgh. Followed Ohio to Falls; met William Clark for trip to explore and study land, waterways, animal life, natural features and resources of West.
15. HARPEX_141111_359.JPG: A Nation's Armory You are standing directly across the street from the main entrance of one of the nation's first military industrial complexes. The U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry, now covered by an embankment of dirt and rubble, produced the deadliest weapons of its day from the early 1800s until the start of the Civil War in 1861. Gutted during the Civil War, the armory was later razed and mostly covered with rubble to make way for elevated train tracks. A stone obelisk on the rise in front of you marks the original location of what became known as John Brown's Fort.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
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