Lockwood House (Harpers Ferry)

One of the largest residences in Harpers Ferry, it is a massive stone and brick structure,[1] located on the east side of Camp Hill at 360 Fillmore St., high above the town.

[2] Craig suggested significant improvements to both the musket and rifle factories, as well as repairs to the armory canal, and the “erection of Quarters for the Commanding Officer and Paymaster".

With the outbreak of Civil War in 1861 and the destruction of the armory installation, Harpers Ferry, its people, industry, and their associated buildings, began many years of struggle to establish a new identity.

"In future years traveler and tourist will eagerly resort [here]...and history will point out [this] as the spot where many acts in the great tragedy, not yet closed, took place."

~ John D. Smith, 19th Main Infantry, September 1862[3] In August 1864, the house was also used as a headquarters by Union General Philip Sheridan as he prepared for his Valley campaign .

Reverend Nathan Cook Brackett a member of New England's Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society, established a primary school in the war-torn building.

Nathan Brackett was familiar with the territory having served in the Shenandoah Valley, even headquartered in Harpers Ferry, in 1864 with the U.S. Christian Commission:The agent upon whom the largest share of the work, in detail, was devolved, was Rev.

Young, we were allowed to occupy an old government house, which answered for school room and a place to live in, at Harper’s Ferry.

Through fundraisers and state funding, Storer College expanded its buildings but retained control of Lockwood House for the purpose of dormitories.

[2]  Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) floor plans and photographs recorded Lockwood House as it appeared in 1958.

[2] In the early 1970s two of the first floor rooms were refurnished to depict the first years of Brackett school based on historical reports by Anne Coxe Toogood and David H.

[2]  In the 30 years since, the building has remained relatively vacant with the basement in use currently to house part of the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park curatorial collection.