Easy, ~2.5 mi wander around town

~275 ft elevation gain

Hiked 9/19/25

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A leisurely stroll through rich and diverse history of Harpers Ferry; pivotal location in the civil war hosting and John Browns Fort, Storer College and the Niagara Movement/NAACP start of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and more can be explored in this US landmark.

Storer College may be seen in the distance, with a plaque dedicated to John Brown, which reads:

Here John Brown aimed at human slavery a blow that woke a guilty nation. With him fought seven slaves and sons of slaves. Over his crucified corpse marched 200,000 Black soldiers and freedmen singing “John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave but his soul goes marching on!”

In gratitude this tablet is erected the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, May 21, 1932

The exterior of Anthony Hall at Storer College, nearby signs describing it and the Niagara Movement read:

Storer College Established in 1867 by Freewill Baptists as part of an effort to educate freedmen after the Civil War, it was the only college open to African Americans in the WV prior to 1891. The Niagara Movement, the precursor of the NAACP, held its 2nd conference there in 1906. The school lost state funding in 1954 and closed in 1955. It was listed on the National Register in 2001.

The Niagara Movement Here, on August 15-19, 1906, on the Storer College campus, the Niagara Movement held their first open and public meeting on American soil. Organized by W. E. B. Du Bois and others a year earlier in Erie Beach, Ontario, Canada, the Niagara Movement became the cornerstone of the modern civil rights movement and was the forerunner to the NAACP.

Exterior of St Peters Roman Catholic Church, sign reads:

St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church Construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad produced an influx of Irish laborers into the Harpers Ferry area during the early 1830s. St Peter’s Catholic Church, completed in 1833, symbolizes America’s melting pot tradition and the customs, habits, and religion of the early Irish immigrants.

During the Civil War, to protect the church from Union and Confederate shells, Father Costello flew the British Union Jack flag as a symbol of the church’s neutrality. St Peter’s escaped the war relatively unscathed.

St. Peters was remodeled to its present appearance in 1896 and mas s is offered here every Sunday.

Side view of St Peters Roman Catholic Church. Confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers may be seen way off in the distance.

Jefferson Rock, the name is derived from Thomas Jefferson who in 1783 stood there and later proclaimed:

The passage of the Patowmac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature. You stand on a very high point of land. On your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of the mountain a hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches the Patowmac in quest of a passage also. In the moment of their junction they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder and pass off to the sea. The first glance of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion that this earth has been created in time, that the mountains were formed first, that the rivers began to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly they have been so dammed up by the Blue Ridge of mountains as to have formed an ocean which filled the whole valley; that, continuing to rise, they have at last broken over at this spot and have torn the mountain down from its summit to its base. The piles of rock on each hand, but particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident marks of their disruptions and avulsions from their beds by the most powerful agents in nature, corroborate the impression.

But the distant finishing which nature has given the picture is of a very different character. It is a true contrast to the former. It is as placid and delightful as that is wild and tremendous. For the mountains being cloven asunder, she presents to your eye, through the cleft, a small catch of smooth blue horizon, at an infinite distance in that plain country, inviting you, as it were, from the riot and tumult roaring around to pass through the breach and participate in the calm below. Here the eye ultimately composes itself; and that way, too, the road happens actually to lead. You cross the Patowmac above the junction, pass along its side through the base of the mountain for three miles, the terrible precipice hanging in fragments over you, and within about 20 miles reach Frederictown and the fine country around that. This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic.