I don’t know if travelers are really enticed to check in at some inn that advertises “George Washington slept here.” I’m not, but I am lured by destinations that promote historical attractions—presidential and otherwise. That’s why I drove the 175-mile Journey Through Hallowed Ground, a stretch of land that probably has more famous sleepers than any other place in our history, from Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant, General George C. Marshall and John Kennedy, as well as America’s first president.
That’s not all. The corridor includes a vast collection of historical, cultural and scenic places, some dating from before the American Revolution: 73 national historic districts, 16 historic main streets, 13 national parks, numerous national scenic byways, the country’s largest collection of Civil War sites and lots more.
It’s a drive through history.
The Journey Through Hallowed Ground, or JTHG, primarily along U.S. Highway 15—once a Native American trail and subsequently the Carolina Road—parallels the Blue Ridge and Catoctin mountains through Virginia and western Maryland and ends at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. There’s also a short jog into West Virginia and another 25-mile segment along Virginia’s Route 20 to Charlottesville.
Last May Congress declared the Journey Through Hallowed Ground corridor a National Heritage Area, America’s 38th.
The collaborative movement that would become JTHG started in 1996 as modern development—subdivisions, malls and commercial strips—was taking over at an alarming rate. In 2005 the public and private partners from four states were officially organized as JTHG, a nonprofit initiative.
Traveling the Hallowed Ground
I started my personal journey in Charlottesville, where Thomas Jefferson founded and designed the University of Virginia to be what he called an Academical Village, a complex of small structures placed around open areas of grass. The historic Rotunda, the university’s signature landmark, was completed in 1826, shortly after Jefferson’s death. Guided tours are offered when school’s in session.
Jefferson’s incomparable home, Monticello, is just 3 miles outside Charlottesville. To say that Jefferson was obsessed with his house is an understatement. It was the center of his life, as he built it and rebuilt it over a 40-year period, striving for perfection. It’s the only private American residence on the World Heritage List. Jefferson also cultivated a landscape garden with flowers, vegetables and fruit. You could spend all day here, touring the house and exploring the gardens and grounds, either by guided tours or on your own.
Jefferson’s good friend President James Monroe lived almost next door, at Ash Lawn–Highland. He bought the property in 1793 as a working plantation (his first guests were also neighbors, President James Madison and his wife, Dolley). Today the remaining 535-acre estate, much less pretentious than Jefferson’s, still retains its plantation appearance.
Guide and re-enactor Dennis Bigelow introduces Monroe to tourists. He says the emphasis in the area is on Jefferson and Madison but more attention should be paid to Monroe. After all, Monroe held more major government offices than any other president. He also served as a Revolutionary War general, purchased Florida from Spain, assisted with the Louisiana Purchase and crafted the Monroe Doctrine, which formed the foundation of America’s foreign policy. A popular president, Monroe’s term was called the Era of Good Feelings.
Bigelow is a talented guide who tells hilarious little-known anecdotes about Monroe. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen an audience applaud at the end of a biographic talk.
Afterward, I made a worthwhile stop for “hearty food” with servers in period dress at Michie Tavern. You can tour the original 1784 establishment where travelers gathered for food, drink and lodging, and also visit the general store in an 1822 gristmill.
Then I took a leisurely drive up Route 20, a beautiful tree-clad two-lane winding road beside prosperous farms, to a more contemporary attraction, the Barboursville Vineyards and Winery.
In 1976, an enterprising Italian bought 600 acres of the original plantation of James Barbour, Virginia’s first governor, to establish a new wine region. Today, more than a hundred vineyards spread through Orange County. The winery provides tours, a tasting room, a museum and a world-class restaurant, as well as some premier wine. For architecture buffs, the prime attraction here is the Ruins, what’s left of Barbour’s mansion after it was gutted by fire. Designed by Barbour’s friend and neighbor, Thomas Jefferson, the mansion’s remains are preserved on the National Register of Historic Places.
It’s only 8 miles from here to Montpelier, the lifelong home of America’s fourth president, James Madison,
often referred to as the Father of the Constitution. A $24 million restoration of the Madison house, originally built in 1764 by the president’s father, was completed in 2008. When the president’s widow, Dolley, sold the estate in 1844, the house had 22 rooms. After a succession of owners, William and Annie duPont bought the 2,650-acre property in 1901. By the time their daughter, Marion duPont Scott, died in 1983 and transferred it to the National Trust, the mansion had been altered extensively (some of it garishly) and expanded to 55 rooms. Now it’s returned to how it was when the Madisons lived here.
During a guided tour of the house, you can stand in Madison’s library, where he first envisioned the words for the Constitution. You can also stroll through the gardens, hike a forest trail and visit the farm complex, the family and slave cemeteries and the William duPont Gallery (including Marion’s Art Deco Red Room, moved from the mansion) in a wing off the new visitor center.
Culpeper, a north-central Virginia town founded in 1759 on Highway 15, is a must-see. To say that George Washington slept here is to diminish his importance; as a 17-year-old surveyor, he plotted the town in 1749.
During the Civil War, Culpeper, with its strategic railroad location, was said to have been the site of more than 160 skirmishes. A local woman told me that, back then, you had to look at the courthouse every day to see which flag was flying to know how you should act. The area saw a plethora of famous generals during the war, among them Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee and George A. Custer, who had his horse shot out from under him at the railroad station during the Battle of Culpeper Court House.
Today the historic area around Main and Davis streets holds Early American architectural gems that house boutiques, antiques stores and restaurants. General Grant was said to buy cigars every day at Gorrell’s Pharmacy, located in the building that was Confederate General A.P. Hill’s boyhood home. Don’t miss the small Museum of Culpeper History, where the prize exhibit is a set of 215-million-year-old dinosaur tracks from a local quarry.
My favorite attraction, just north of town, was the Brandy Station Battleground, site of the largest cavalry battle in American history, in 1863. A local home, now known as the Graffiti House, served as a hospital, where both Union and Confederate wounded soldiers used charcoal from the fireplace to adorn the walls with drawings and their autographs. This was unknown until 1993, when they were discovered under layers of paint and wallpaper during a renovation. There are dozens of signatures, some unknown to history, some famous. On one wall, written with a flourish, are the large initials “GC.” There’s no confirmation who wrote this, but the initials may be those of George Custer, who was here for the battle and might have visited the wounded.
Thirty-five miles north, just off Highway 15, Manassas National Battlefield Park honors the first and second battles of Bull Run, waged 11 months apart. At the July 1861 battle (one of the Civil War’s first), citizens carried picnic baskets onto the field to watch what they thought would be “a colorful show.” This also was when Confederate General Bernard Bee shouted, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall!” Jackson was General Thomas Jackson, soon to become famous as Stonewall Jackson.
A park brochure says much of the landscape here retains its wartime character. Well, yes, the Stone House and the Stone Bridge where the first shots were fired are still here. But getting around this park is difficult because two major Virginia highways—routes 29 and 234—bisect the park. The traffic is dreadful, mostly speeding commuters living in new developments. Try to go on a weekend.
Stop at the visitor center and pick up the battlefield guide. The First Manassas and Second Manassas self-guided walking trails follow interpretive signs. A Second Manassas self-guided driving tour covers 11 noteworthy sites, including Groveton Confederate Cemetery where only two soldiers are identified of the 266 buried.
Still Making History
To escape the gloom of the Civil War, I headed for Loudoun County, famous for horses and a thriving wine industry. Detouring along back roads through rolling pastures, I found an area that speaks of money—horse farms and immense estates with lawns like golf courses, stacked stone fences and vineyards reminiscent of the Napa Valley.
This is where Liz Taylor and Virginia Senator John Warner lived, and where President Kennedy and Jackie leased a 400-acre 19th century farm to escape from the White House and socialize with friends. A public pavilion and garden in Middleburg are dedicated to Jackie in honor of the contributions she made to the town during the time she lived here.
Middleburg, chartered in 1787, is legendary as the capital of hunt country, a reputation acquired in the early 1800s for its association with steeplechase, fox hunting, horse racing and breeding. The village (population: about 900) can best be described as upscale with fashionable boutiques, exclusive art galleries, elegant antiques shops and expensive cars parked on the streets. The prevailing decor is horsey: antique jockey hitching posts, the Tally Ho Theater, the Cuppa Giddy Up coffee shop. The Red Fox Inn and Tavern dates from 1728, and dozens of buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Before crossing the Potomac River into Maryland and heading for West Virginia, two significant National Trust homes and one very special village line the way, all within minutes of Highway 15.
Oatlands, just south of Leesburg, is a 19th century working plantation with a Federal-style house built in 1804, later converted to the 22-room Greek Revival mansion it is today. In Leesburg, you’ll find Colonial-era Dodona Manor, former home of General George C. Marshall. When he was secretary of state under President Truman, he crafted the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. The comfortable Federal-style house built in the 1820s is as unpretentious as Oatlands is luxurious.
One fun, quick detour just north of Leesburg takes you to White’s Ferry, where you can cross the Potomac River on the last cable-operated ferry on the river (since 1786) in your vehicle or as a pedestrian.
Seven miles east, the entire village of Waterford (population about 300), founded in 1733 by Quakers, is a National Historic Landmark. With its narrow streets, preserved 18th and early 19th century buildings and the 1831 brick gristmill, the town looks as if time has bypassed it. Fittingly, the JTHG Partnership is headquartered here.
From Waterford, you have to drive back roads and cross the Potomac River into West Virginia to reach Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Everybody who was somebody in early American history passed through here: Washington, Jefferson, Lee, Lincoln and more. When Jefferson stopped in 1783, he stood on a rock now bearing his name, looked at the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers and said the area was “one of the most stupendous scenes in nature.”
The area is rich in history but is best known as the place where John Brown, who believed he could free the slaves, seized the armory and guided an uprising in 1859 that led to the Civil War. The National Park Service has selected six themes to explore here.
Lee invaded Maryland in 1862 after his Manassas victory, setting the stage for the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest one-day battle of the Civil War, when about 23,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or missing. The visitor center has appropriate exhibits and an introductory audiovisual presentation and provides a map for a superb self-guided driving tour, highlighted with interpretive markers. It was at Antietam that Union nurse Clara Barton became known as “the Angel of the Battlefield.”
It’s only 25 miles to Frederick, where 29 buildings were used as hospitals after Antietam. The town, founded in 1745, saw numerous skirmishes during the Civil War. General Lee camped here before Antietam and Gettysburg. The 50-block historic downtown still retains a small-town feeling, featuring antiques stores, specialty shops and restaurants in preserved 18th and 19th century buildings. Walking-tour brochures are provided at the visitor center, which also offers guided tours.
Don’t miss the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, featuring extraordinary medical-related exhibits. Everything you could possibly want to know is here, from exhibits on the ambulance system and camp life to the veterinary care of horses and mules in the war. You’ll also witness the horrors or war through grim displays of disease and photographs of the wounded.
Just miles from Camp David (off-limits to visitors), I stopped off in Thurmont for lunch at the Cozy, a “down-home” restaurant, mostly to see their Camp David Museum. The establishment has had a relationship with the presidential retreat since 1942, hosting foreign delegates, media, secret service and White House staff. The small museum has set up a memorabilia-filled presidents’ wall—it’s great reading if you like trivia. Roosevelt and Churchill stopped in 1942; FDR stayed in his limo but the prime minister got a sandwich, a drink and played the jukebox. The restaurant even features the Cozy Burger, a favorite of the cast and crew of West Wing when they were filming in Thurmont.
Drive only 13 miles from here and you’re in Pennsylvania, at Gettysburg National Military Park, site of the most important battle of the Civil War and Soldiers National Cemetery, where Lincoln delivered his most famous speech. Even if you’ve been here before, it’s worth a return visit just to see the new visitor center with its 12-exhibit museum. The most recent introductory film,
A New Birth of Freedom, narrated by Morgan Freeman, is poignant enough to bring tears.
Last year the enormous cyclorama (377 feet in circumference, 42 feet high) reopened in a new rotunda after a five-year, $15 million restoration. Painted in 1884, it had been in storage since 1913. It’s an amazing show depicting the Battle of Pickett’s Charge, viewed from an elevated platform and accompanied by a sound-and-light program.
I drove the battlefield early one morning and stopped along Seminary Ridge to look over the open field where Pickett’s Charge began, when Lee lost more than 5,000 men in one hour. While I couldn’t see the actual field through the fog, the area was so beautiful and serene, it was hard to believe that such carnage had taken place here. A young woman jogging stopped to talk. I told her that I thought it was a lovely place to run. She smiled and agreed, but added, “I can hardly do it without crying.”
Pickett’s famous charge crossed Route 15, known then as it is now as Emmitsburg Road, a hallowed place.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership
540-882-4929,
www.hallowedground.org
GOOD SAM PARKS
You’ll find dozens of Good Sam Parks near the Journey Through Hallowed Ground route, including 38 in Pennsylvania, 30 in Virginia, two in West Virginia and five in Maryland. To search our comprehensive campground listings, go to
www.goodsamclub.com, click on Travel Tools, then click on Find a Campground.