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Description from the 2000 National Register of Historic Places Registration for Storer College:“The Soldiers Gate and Alumni Fence lines the perimeter of the main campus of Storer College along Fillmore Street. The gate is constructed of two cut limestone square posts with marble plaques inset facing Fillmore Street. The plaque on the eastern post is inscribed “To the students of Storer College who fought in the Civil War 1861 to 1865 the Spanish American War 1898 The World War 1917 to 1918.” The massive posts are capped with concrete squares in three stepped tiers, each with a large milk glass globe on top. The wrought iron gates are arched with decorative ironwork at the top. The Alumni Fence runs east and west from the gate; the east extension runs to McDowell Street with intermittent smaller square posts capped with concrete. The west expansion of the iron fence begins with a smaller iron pedestrian gate with decorative ironwork, and continues with the same intermittent stone posts to the edge of a wooded area near Taylor Street.”

Soldiers Gate at the former Storer College

Entrance Pillars, Storer College, Harpers Ferry, W. Va.

Soldiers' Gate and Alumni Fence at Entrance to Storer College, Harpers Ferry, W. Va.

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Storer College

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Storer College Students in World War I (NPS)

"Storer College Veterans Memorial Gate" (The National War Memorial Registry)

The Soldiers Gate and Alumni Fence was erected in 1920 to honor Storer College students who served in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War I. The fence lines Fillmore Street between McDowell Street and Taylor Street and marks the main campus of Storer College. The Soldiers Gate and Alumni Fence is now part of the National Park Service property.

Storer College Soliders Gate and Alumni Fence

Storer College developed out of movements in the nineteenth century to provide freed slaves with basic skills and further teacher education. Prior to the Civil War, free and enslaved Blacks faced a range of legal and social obstacles to gain basic skills such as such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. With the Thirteenth Amendment ending slavery in 1865, millions of freedpeople sought access to training, skills, and a new sense of self-worth after slavery. Furthermore, education was an important tool for navigating the complex world of Jim Crow, which continued to restrict and suppress African American activities. Missionary organizations established schools across the country so that former slaves could gain skills they were previously denied. In 1865, Rev. Nathan Brackett of the Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society of New England opened one such school in the Lockwood House, previously the Armory Paymaster’s House, on Camp Hill in Harpers Ferry. The town of Harpers Ferry had been devastated by numerous Union and Confederate occupations during the Civil War. Still, its convenient location, transportation systems, and history of slave insurrection made it an attractive place for freedpeople to settle. In the postwar era, Blacks comprised 25% of the population in Harpers Ferry. The school was soon overwhelmed, with only sixteen teachers to educate some 2,500 students. To alleviate this problem, Brackett sought to establish a school to train African American teachers. This action is part of the broader "normal school" movement, named for the "norms" that primary teachers instilled in their young students, flourished in the mid to late nineteenth century.In 1867, a philanthropist from Maine named John Storer offered to provide the Freewill Baptists with $10,000 to establish a teaching school provided that three conditions were met: that the Baptists match the $10,000; that the school eventually develop into a four-year college; and that the school had to be open to all applicants regardless of race or gender. The Freewill Baptists accepted the offer, raised $10,000 and opened the Storer Normal School on October 2, 1867, with nineteen students. At the time, it was the only teacher school for African Americans in West Virginia. The school was initially very unpopular among the white residents of Harpers Ferry, with incidents of slander, vandalism, and harassment of teachers.  In 1881, Frederick Douglass, who was on the Board of Trustees, delivered a speech on John Brown in front of the college's Anthony Memorial Hall. Also in attendance was Andrew Hunter, the Charles Town District Attorney who had prosecuted and convicted John Brown.In August of 1906, the second conference of the Niagara Movement, led by W.E.B. DuBois to end racial discrimination, was held at Storer.  By meeting at Harpers Ferry, the Niagara Movement acknowledged the symbolic importance of John Brown's slave insurrection and the continued fight for Black freedom. At the meeting, DuBois appealed for the right to vote, the end of public discrimination, justice, the "right to walk, talk and be" with others without interference, and the "federal government to step in and white out illiteracy."1 The Niagara Movement countered Booker T. Washington's calls for assimilation while advocating for civil rights without aggression or militant actions. The National Park Service calls this meeting at Storer "cornerstone of the modern civil rights era."2 In 1909, the group would develop into the NAACP.In 1909, Storer College bought the armory engine house, also known as John Brown’s Fort, which had been moved around several times. It was placed on the college campus and used as a museum. In 1968, the National Park Service moved the fort back near to its original location in the Lower Town.While Storer remained primarily a teaching school, it began offering additional courses, industrial training, and academic degrees. Storer was officially designated a four-year college in 1938. It was never accredited, however, and was forced to turn away some graduate applicants due to a lack of funds. Around this time, enrollment peaked at about 400 students.During its final years Storer College experienced financial troubles and a dwindling enrollment. In 1954, following the ruling desegregating schools in Brown v. Board of Education, the state of West Virginia withdrew financial support for the school. With no other available options, Storer was forced to close in 1956. Physical assets of the college were transferred to the Baptist (and historically white) Alderson-Broaddus College along with scholarship endowments for Black students. Storer's endowment was transferred to the all-Black Virginia Union University and maintained by VUU and Howard University, another historic Black university. In 1960, the campus of Storer College became part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. Because Harpers Ferry is also home to the National Park Service's interpretive center, some of Storer College's buildings are used for tours or educational training. The most prominent building is Anthony Memorial Hall, built in 1881 on a scenic hill overlooking campus. A fire in 1927 left only the brick walls standing and it was restored shortly after. Today, Anthony Memorial Hall is an education center that bears the name of Stephen T. Mather, a businessman and conservationist who became the first director of the National Park Service. Over the years, a number of Storer College structures, such as dorms, a basketball court, and a science building, have been razed to make space for private homes or National Park Service facilities. The former college football field and horticultural lands, located west of Anthony Memorial Hall, are now forested.Annual reunions for Storer alumni are also still held on the campus. Prominent alumni include J. R. Clifford, the first Black lawyer in West Virginia and owner of the state’s first Black newspaper; Coralie Franklin Cook, a professor at Howard University and descendant of the Monticello slaves; Joseph Jeffrey Walters, author of the first African novel published in English, Guyana Pau; jazz musician Don Redman; and Nnamdi Azikiwe, president of the short-lived First Nigerian Republic.

Storer College was the first African American college in West Virginia. The institution was established by the Free Will Baptist church as a school for formerly enslaved person during the Civil War. In 1867, Storer was incorporated by the state as a school for African Americans under the leadership of the Rev. Nathan C. Brackett. Storer educated over 7,000 students in its nearly ninety-year history, including many prominent educators, lawyers, doctors, and politicians. The Storer College campus is now part of Harpers Ferry National Historic Park and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Anthony Memorial Hall is the most prominent building on campus and, like many of the Storer buildings that stand today, is used as an education center for the National Park Service.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the U.S. government owned most of the property in Harpers Ferry including the armory, arsenal, and the employees for these locations. Around 1819, a home was built on the site of the Lockwood House for the new armory superintendent, Captain John H. Hall, who occupied the home until his departure in 1840. From 1840 to 1847, the residence was used by A. M. Kitzmiller, the superintendent’s clerk. In 1847, the home was demolished and a new one was built on the spot to serve as a residence for the armory’s paymaster. The house was occupied by paymaster Col. Edward Lucas Jr. from 1848 to 1858 and by paymaster Dr. Dennis Murphy from 1858 to the start of the Civil War. In 1858, a second story was added.Lockwood House was frequently used and damaged by military forces during the Civil War. The structure served as a hospital for sick and wounded Union troops in the summer of 1862, including the Battle of Harpers Ferry in September. From July to October of 1863, it was used as the headquarters of Brigadier General Henry H. Lockwood, whom the house is named after. In August 1864, Major General Philip H. Sheridan also used the house as his headquarters during his Shenandoah Valley Campaign. At other times the Lockwood house would be used as a prison and even a ballroom. Heavy use by Union troops, as well as occasional shelling by Confederate artillery, left the house with significant damage.After the Civil War, Nathan C. Brackett of the Freewill Baptist Home Mission Board arrived in Harpers Ferry and began organizing schools for freed slaves in the local area. One of these schools was in the Lockwood House; the House also simultaneously served as Brackett’s headquarters, his residence, and the residence of several teachers and Black families. In 1867, Storer College was established, with the government transferring ownership of Lockwood House and several other old armory buildings to them for use as a campus. Lockwood served as the college’s first classrooms and dormitories until they transferred to other buildings.Starting in the 1870s, Storer used Lockwood as both a summer boarding house and hotel. In 1883, a third floor was added. Around 1926, the hotel was closed and Lockwood was rented out by several people during the years following. By the time Storer College closed in 1955, Lockwood House was in a very dilapidated state. Ownership was transferred to the National Park Service in 1960. The exterior of Lockwood House was restored to its Civil War appearance, including the removal of the third floor, and two rooms were restored to their Storer College appearance. Current conservation efforts have been focusing on Civil War graffiti found on some of the interior walls.

The historic Lockwood House, also known as the Paymaster’s Quarters, is one of the largest residences in Harpers Ferry. Constructed in 1848, the structure was originally used as the home for the U.S. Armory’s paymaster. During the Civil War the building was used several times as an army hospital and temporary headquarters for both Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan and Brig. Gen. Henry Lockwood. Following the war, the Lockwood House was used by Freewill Baptist missionaries as a school for freed slaves until it became Storer College. Lockwood House fell into disrepair when Storer began moving operations to new facilities at their campus on Camp Hill. In 1960, the National Park Service acquired Lockwood and restored the structure.

Lockwood House

In 1856, Congress authorized the construction of three residences at Harpers Ferry for U.S. Armory officials: the Superintendent’s Clerk, the Paymaster’s Clerk, and the Master Armorer. The Brackett House was built from 1857 to 1858 at Camp Hill to house the Superintendent’s Clerk. The home was designed by Armory Superintendent Henry W. Clowe, and was made identical to the nearby Morrell House that was built for the Paymaster’s Clerk. The more simplistic styles of the two homes reflected the lower status of their occupants compared to the homes of their superiors. Upon completion, the home was occupied by Superintendent’s Clerk Archihald Kitzmiller and his family. The Kitzmillers lived here until the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, which forced the abandonment of the U.S. Armory.It is uncertain what happened at the Brackett House during the Civil War, although an inspection inventory claims it housed offices for the Sanitary Commission, and was in poor condition. Rev. Nathan C. Brackett arrived in Harpers Ferry following the end of the war in 1865 and helped found Storer College in 1867 in the nearby Lockwood House. In 1868, Congress transferred ownership of the four armory buildings on Camp Hill, including Brackett House, to Storer College. Soon afterwards Nathan Brackett and his family, who up until then had been living in Lockwood House, moved into Brackett House, which soon came to obtain its present name. It is uncertain how long the Bracketts lived at the residence; however, their grandchildren claimed that Nathan lived there until his death in 1910 while his wife Louise remained until her death in 1936. For several years many female Storer students lived in the Brackett House until the construction of Mosher Hall (also known as Myrtle Hall) girls’ dormitory in 1879.During the 1880s, Brackett House served as a summer boarding house much like Lockwood House; it was even nicknamed the Lockwood Annex at one point. Thomas and Lavinia Lovett operated the boarding house at Brackett until around 1890, when they left to open the famous Hilltop House hotel. Around 1929, J. W. Pierce lived at Brackett and briefly ran a grocery store in the home. The home continued to house some teachers and students on certain occasions when other facilities were too full. In the mid-1940s and early 1950s, retired Storer President Henry T. McDonald and his wife Elizabeth lived at Brackett; the Board of Trustees allowed them to live at the home rent-free because it had sat vacant for some time. Storer College closed in 1955 and all buildings, including Brackett, were acquired by the National Park Service. The NPS has made renovations to the Brackett House to house offices, and is open to the public during park hours.

The Brackett House, also known as the Superintendent’s Clerk’s House, is a historic residence in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The structure was built in 1858 to house the U.S. Armory’s superintendent’s clerk, and was one of four homes built on Camp Hill for armory officials. After the Civil War, all four homes were transferred to Storer College. The Brackett House is named after Storer’s founder and first president Rev. Nathan C. Brackett. For many years it housed Storer faculty and students and was also used as a summer boarding house. After Storer’s closure in 1955, the National Park Service acquired the Brackett House to provide office space for the organization.

Brackett House

In 1856, Congress authorized the construction of three residences at Harpers Ferry for U.S. Armory officials; the Superintendent’s Clerk, the Paymaster’s Clerk, and the Master Armorer. The Morrell House was built from 1857 through 1858 at Camp Hill to house the Paymaster’s Clerk. The structure was designed by Armory Superintendent Henry W. Clowe and was made identical to the nearby Brackett House that was built for the Superintendent’s Clerk. The more simplistic styles of the two homes reflected the lower status of their occupants compared to the homes of their superiors. For a short time, the Master Armorer Benjamin Mills lived in the home because he refused to live in the Master Armorer’s House built on Shenandoah Street. After Mills’ departure in 1859, the house was occupied by Paymaster’s Clerk John E. P. Daingerfield and his family, who lived in the Morrell House until the armory was abandoned at the start of the Civil War in April of 1861.In 1868, Congress authorized the transfer of ownership of the four armory facilities on Camp Hill, including Morrell, to the recently created Storer College. Sometime after this acquisition, Storer expanded Morrell House by building a two-and-a-half story stone addition. In 1870, Rev. Alexander H. Morrell and his family moved into the house that would later bear their name. Rev. Morrell, a member of the Freewill Baptist Home Mission Board, was a good friend of Nathan C. Brackett and helped establish Storer College. For the next eleven years, Rev. Morrell would work to organize churches throughout the local area. In 1881, Morrell moved to Rhode Island but later returned to Harpers Ferry in 1885. Shortly after his death in December of the same year he returned, a plaque was placed on his home naming it as the “Morrell House.”After Rev. Morrell’s death, Storer College began renting out Morrell House to summer boarders, much like with the Brackett and Lockwood Houses. In the early 1900s, the Shawen family operated a hotel out of Morrell, known as the Sparrow’s Inn that closed in 1919. From 1920 to 1929, Anna T. Dailey and her daughter Mrs. Lou Thompson, managed Morrell under the name of the Shenandoah Inn. Afterwards, Morrell was converted into apartments for Storer faculty. In 1942, a large fire destroyed the two-and-a-half story stone addition to Morrell, but the original section of the home survived little damage and it was decided not to rebuild the addition. In 1955, Storer College closed and in 1960 the National Park Service obtained ownership of Morrell as well as the rest of Storer’s campus. Today Morrell House acts as the administrative headquarters for the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

The Morrell House, also known as the Paymaster’s Clerk’s Quarters, is a historic residence in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The home was originally built from 1857 through 1858 to house the U.S. Armory’s Paymaster’s Clerk, and was identical in design to the nearby Brackett House. The Morrell House was one of several buildings gifted by the government to Storer College in 1868. For fifteen years the structure housed Rev. Alexander Morrell, the home’s namesake. The Morrell House has also served various purposes such as a summer boarding house, an inn, and apartments for Storer teachers. After Storer College closed, the Morrell House was acquired by the National Park Service, and currently operates as the headquarters for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

Morrell House

Permelia Eastman Cook Hall was the final building constructed on Storer College’s campus, built in 1939-1940. The need for a “domestic science” hall was discussed as early as 1913 and the college collected donations into the 1920s, but financial strain and fire damage to existing structures prevented Storer from quickly constructing a new academic building. In 1927, Storer’s president Henry T. McDonald used the college’s fiftieth anniversary as an opportunity to fundraise for the new building. McDonald asked the Free Baptist Woman’s Missionary Society (FBWMS), who had been involved with Storer College since its establishment, for funds. FBWMS member, Permelia Eastman Cook, offered a $15,000 donation as long as that amount was matched by contributions from the FBWMS and Women’s American Baptist Home Mission Society (WABHMS). The WABHMS did donate a matching $15,000 to total $30,000 towards construction and Storer College named the new domestic science building after Cook for her contribution. Very little information is available about Permelia Eastman Cook except that she lived in Valley Springs, South Dakota in 1931 when she passed away. Storer College had the necessary funds to construct Cook Hall by 1928, but construction did not begin until 1939. The design of Cook Hall was inspired by Sally Journeycake Hall at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Harriet Palmer, the chairperson of Storer College’s building committee, visited Bacone College in 1939 and really liked the design of Journeycake Hall, and as a result asked permission to base the design of Cook Hall on that building. Cook Hall was constructed fairly quickly at a cost of $27,768.16. Starting in the 1940-41 year Cook Hall was used for home economics classes, women’s physical education, and dormitories. Cook Hall was actively used in this way until Storer College closed in 1955. The National Park Service purchased the college property in 1962 as part of the Harpers Ferry National Monument (later Harpers Ferry National Historical Park). Description from the 1980 National Register of Historic Places Nomination for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park:“Permelia Eastman Cook Hall (Park Bldg. No. 61) is a three-story stone building with pedimented central pavilion erected on the southern crest of Camp Hill south of Anthony Hall in 1940. It was a home economics and dormitory building for Storer College. The National Park Service renovated it in 1962-63 as a dormitory for the Mather Training Center.”Description from 2000 National Register of Historic Places Registration for Storer College:“Located southeast of Anthony Memorial Hall, Permelia Eastman Cook Hall is a 2½ story stone structure. The projecting front gable center section has 3 window bays. The lower story windows share a continuous stone lintel with the name of the building engraved in the stone. On the second story, a stylized Palladian window is constructed from a set of three windows with a fanlight window above the center window, a stone lintel arches over the fanlight with a keystone and stretches across the two adjoining windows. The two wings on either side of the projecting center mirror each other. Both are three bays, two window bays and a door abutting the center projection. The doors are six-panels surrounded by pilasters, a wide plain frieze and a dentiled cornice. Windows have six over six sash with stone lintels. The rear of the building has a central stone two-story addition with a rear entrance. The lower story is built into the hillside.”

Permelia Eastman Cook Hall was constructed in 1940 as part of the Storer College campus. It originally housed the physics laboratory, home economics department, and dormitories for the college. Cook Hall is now administered by the National Park Service and is office space. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail has offices in Cook Hall.

Permelia Eastman Cook Hall

The Bird-Brady House was constructed between 1895-97 as a residence for faculty of Storer College and their families. The plot was first sold into private ownership in 1868, but it seems that house was not built on the property until 1895-97 when the land was owned by Josiah Stoddard and Addison DuBois. The house was purchased by Lura B. Lightner, who was a teacher at Storer College, in 1899 and another Storer teacher, Celeste Newcomer, bought the property in 1929. In 1944 Newcomer sold the house to Elizabeth Brady Bird and Mabel S. Brady, who both worked for Storer College. Brady Bird was Storer’s counselor and house director and Brady was the head of the Alumni Association in the 1950s. It is likely that Bird and Brady rented out rooms or floors to Storer College faculty or staff because Jim Crow laws and segregation typically restricted the places that African American educators could live around campus. Bird and Brady sold the property to the National Park Service in 1964 but continued to live in the house as lessees until the early 1970s. Description from the 1980 National Register of Historic Places Nomination for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park:“The Bird-Brady House (Park Bldg. No. 69) was erected during the last quarter of the 19th century on the brow of Camp Hill south of the Anthony Industrial Building. A stone basement above grade at the rear carries two stuccoed frame stories and a hipped roof. Built as a Storer College faculty residence, it is the only such structure remaining on the campus. The interior has been rehabilitated for National Park Service offices.”Description from the 2000 National Register of Historic Places Registration for Storer College:“Located south of the Lewis W. Anthony Building, the Bird-Brady House fronts onto an access road and is built into the hill overlooking the Shenandoah River. The front elevation is two stories, three bays wide. The frame structure is covered with stucco and rests on a one story stone foundation (visible from the side and rear), and is three bays deep. Windows are two over two sash with pointed architraves. The front entrance is covered with a recent flat roofed enclosed three-bay porch. A sealed entrance on the second story shows evidence of sidelights and a pointed architrave. The asphalt shingled roof is hipped with two interior chimneys in the peak, one large brick chimney and one small stuccoed chimney. West of the house is a one story, two bay, stone garage with enclosed front and replacement door, c. 1920s.”

The Bird-Brady house was probably constructed between 1895 and 1897 and was owned by several faculty members of Storer College. The house is named for Elizabeth Brady Bird and Mabel S. Brady who owned it between 1944 and 1964 when they sold it to the National Park Service. It now serves as offices for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

Bird-Brady House

The Lewis A. Anthony Industrial Building was constructed in 1903 as Storer College’s industrial arts building for male students. This initial use reflected trends in African American education that emphasized training in industries for both men and women. With the need for a new campus building Storer College requested additional funding from the State of West Virginia and the state legislature awarded them an addition $1500 in their budget for two years to fund the building. Additional funding came from private donations. Storer College asked Nathan C. Brackett, a former president of the college, to approach members of the Freewill Baptist Church for additional funds to complete the industrial arts building. In 1903, the family of Lewis W. Anthony donated funds to complete the building and the college named the building in his honor. Anthony was a member of the Freewill Baptist Church and former president of the college’s Board of Trustees, and the main Anthony Hall was also named in his honor. In 1929, the Lewis A. Anthony Building transitioned into serving as the campus library as education in Black colleges shifted towards liberal arts and Storer College needed a library space to keep accreditation standards. The college had lost its original library space in the 1927 fire that destroyed the main Anthony Hall. In 1953 a two-story addition was done by architect Louis Edwin Fry, Sr. to expand the library space. Renamed the Lewis Anthony Library it served as the campus library until Storer College closed in 1955. The building was acquired by the National Park Service in the 1960s and is the library for the NPS Harpers Ferry Center. Description from the 1980 National Register of Historic Places Nomination for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park:“The Lewis W. Anthony Industrial Building (Park Bldg. No. 64) is a rubble stone structure with gable roof constructed in 1903 on the hillside southwest of Anthony Hall. One story is above grade on east and two stories are exposed on the west. The overhanging eaves at the gable ends are decorated with brackets and wood trim at the apex. The building originally housed a carpenter shop, storage rooms, and offices for Storer College. In 1953 the college added a two-story concrete block stack section to the west side and converted the building to a library. The building has continued in this function since its acquisition by the National Park Services in 1962. Description from the 2000 National Register of Historic Places Registration for Storer College:“Located southwest of the Anthony Memorial Hall, the Lewis W. Anthony Building now serves as the Library and Archives for the Harpers Ferry Center. Designed in a Folk Victorian architectural style, it is a two story stone building constructed into the hill, exposing only the upper story at the front elevation. The building has seven bays with central double doors. The doors are half panel with six lights, a twelve-light transom and a cast stone lintel. Windows are four over four sash with steel beam lintels. The asphalt-shingled roof has wide eaves on the gable ends decorated with brackets and decorative gable peak detailing. Two four light windows are present in the upper story of the gable ends, with steel beam lintels. There are two brick interior gable end chimneys with corbeling. On the rear elevation a two-story concrete block addition is six bays wide. It has a date stone of 1953.”

The Lewis W. Anthony Building was constructed in 1903 to house Storer College’s industrial training classes and transitioned to being the campus library in 1929. It was originally named the Lewis W. Anthony Industrial Building, but it now known as the Lewis Anthony Library. The building now serves as the library for the NPS Harpers Ferry Center.

Lewis W. Anthony Industrial Building/Lewis Anthony Library

The original section of Anthony Hall was a house constructed in 1847 as housing for officers overseeing operations at the United States armory. The Civil War damaged the armory building, but it was granted to Storer College along with other armory buildings in 1867 and architect Peter Lauritzen used the building as the base for his design. The 1847 house was used as the south wing of Anthony Hall during the 1881-1882 construction. Most of the funds for constructing Anthony Hall came from donations from the Free Will Baptist’s Women’s Missionary Society who ran a fundraising campaign through the Northeast and Midwest. Lewis William Anthony, a deacon in the church and a trustee of Storer College, donated $5000 and the building was named in his honor. The original design had four rooms on each floor of the two wings, largely classrooms, with a dining hall, music room, offices on the first floor of the central section. The second floor of the center section was an auditorium space used as the campus chapel. The two wings were segregated by gender with female students in the north wing and male students in the south wing.On October 16, 1927 a fire began at the back of the chapel and quickly destroyed most of Anthony Hall. The structural damage alone was estimated at $50,000-$60,000 but the insurance settlement was only $15,000. Storer College had to initiate a new fundraising campaign and reorganize the campus, moving the library and science laboratories into other buildings. Anthony Hall was rebuilt in 1928-29 to the same basic design but with changes to the roof structure and a smaller, glass-enclosed cupola instead of the original open-air cupola. Two more fires, on November 2, 1939 and again in 1943 damaged sections of the building. This damage presented challenges to Storer College as they struggled with enrollment and finances.Anthony Memorial Hall, like the other Storer College buildings, was acquired in 1962 by the National Park Service. The building was rehabilitated the following year and renamed Wirth Hall after Conrad L. Wirth, the Director of the National Park Service who was crucial in establishing the NPS training center at Harpers Ferry. The Stephen T. Mather Training Center opened in 1964 as a training facility for NPS employees as part of the Mission 66 program to improve the national parks. Description from the 1980 National Register of Historic Places Nomination for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park:“Armory Dwelling No. 25, first Armory Superintendent’s quarters and later Anthony Hall of Storer College, is on the western crest of Camp Hill south of Fillmore Street. The original building was designed by Maj. John Symington and erected in 1847-48 at a cost of more than $21,700. It was a large two-story brick house over an elevated basement with a two-story wing on the north joined to the main block by a passageway. The roofs were hipped and covered with slate. Four chimneys on the main block and one on the wing served ten fireplaces with marble mantles. In 1851 a brick storehouse about 16’ by 20’ was erected north of the house. Trees were planted on the grounds, the roads around were graveled, and a garden with walks and interior fences were developed. West of the house in 1859 were a brick stable and four acres of pasture enclosed with an eight-foot-high paling fence. Until 1861 the house was occupied by the superintendents of the Armory. In 1864 it was headquarters for Brig. Gen. Max Weber, then commanding the Harpers Ferry defenses. By July 1865 many of the mantles and much woodwork had been removed and the building, then used as Union officers’ quarters, was in bad condition. After the war the building was transferred to Storer College, which occupied it until 1955. In 1881 the college demolished the north wing and incorporated the main house as the south wing of the extant Anthony Hall (Park Bldg. No. 59), which contains a large pedimented central section and a north wind balancing the south. The building was badly damaged by fire and repaired in 1927-28. In 1963 the National Park Service made extensive interior alterations and built new porticos on the east elevations on the wings and a flagstone terrace on the east side of the central section. In the late 1960s an underground bomb shelter was added north of the north wing and connected to it. Now known as Conrad L. Wirth Hall, the building contains classrooms and offices of the Service’s Mather Training Center.”Description from the 2000 National Register of Historic Places Registration for Storer College:“Anthony Memorial Hall is situated at the center of the main campus on a high point, facing east onto a wide grassy lawn. The National Park Service currently uses the building as an educational facility. Designed in the Greek Revival style, the two-story brick building rests on a stone foundation. The center section is 2½ stories with a pedimented gable, projecting in the front and rear. This portion of the building has 5 bays with a central entrance; a full stone terrace with white iron railing is situated along the front. The three-part entrance includes 3 light and panel sidelights, a 16 light transom, and decorative trim around the door with pilasters and bull’s eye corner blocks. The 9 over 9 sash windows have stone lintels on the first story and are capped with sunburst windows and brick arches on the second story. The façade is embellished with four brick pilasters, two on the corners and two on either side of the central bay, which rise tow stories to a brick frieze with brick dentils below the pedimented gable. Within the gable pediment is a four-light circular window. The pediment is articulated with a brick corbeled frieze and brick dentils. Centered on the asphalt-shingled roof is a square cupola with paired 6 over 9 sash windows on each elevation, capped with a hipped roof.The north and south wings are identical in design. Each is two story, three bays with a central entrance identical to the three part door of the central section. Each entrance in the wings is protected by a one bay porch with a stone base, six smooth narrow columns capped with a stylized lily, and a massive entablature, the frieze decorated with triglyphs. Windows on both wings, all with louvered functional shutters, have 9 over 9 sash with stone lintels on the first story. The 6 over 9 sash windows on the second story abut the wide brick cornice band above. The cornice is decorated with brick dentils. The asphalt-shingled roofs on both wings are hipped with brick interior chimneys.In 1927, a catastrophic fire gutted Anthony Memorial Hall, leaving only the brick walls standing. Photos from the Storer College Catalogue, dated 1905, prior to the fire, and 1947, after the fire restoration, show a pedimented entrance porch, in the Greek Revival style, on the center section’s entrance. The porches shown in the photos on the south and north wings of the building, appear to be much lighter Victorian style entrance porches with scroll cut decorative elements. In the 1905 photo the cupola was not enclosed with windows but was open with a decorative wood framework.”

Anthony Hall began as a dwelling constructed in 1847 to house officers from the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry. After the Civil War the armory building was granted to Storer College. Between 1881 and 1955 Anthony Hall was the main building for Storer College, being damaged by multiple fires during that time. When the National Park Service acquired the building in the 1960s they renamed it Wirth Hall and it is now part of the Mather Training Center.

Anthony Memorial Hall (Conrad Wirth Hall/Mather Training Center)

The Freewill Baptist Church was a Protestant Christian denomination prominent in the United States in the 19th century Abolition Movement. In the early American religious debates between predestination and having the ability to earn salvation, the Freewill Baptists emphasized personal choice and education. During the Second Great Awakening of the early 1800s the Freewill Baptists quickly announced their anti-slavery stance and advocated for education of free persons of color prior to the Civil War. During and after the Civil War, the Freewill Baptist Church was dedicated to setting up schools for freed people and educating African American men as ministers. Members of the church, including clergymen Alexander Morrell and Nathan C. Brackett, were crucial in establishing Storer College at Harpers Ferry. Bracket and Morrell, along with establishing the college, also established a Freewill Baptist congregation in Harpers Ferry that met at different times in the Brackett and Morrell Houses and the chapel in Anthony Hall. In the 1880s the congregation decided to build a separate church building for their meetings. The church plot was initially part of the federal property granted to the trustees of Storer College in 1867. Storer College’s trustees signed the deed for the lot to the grantees of the new church on February 1, 1890 for the cost of $1 (although the change in deed was not officially put into record by the county clerk until 1894). Much of the funding for the new church building came from donations from members of the Freewill Baptist Church. The estate of Silas Curtis donated $800 on the condition that the church be named in his memory. Curtis was an ordained Freewill Baptist minister and a founder of the church’s educational society. The cornerstone and foundation for the church were laid September 29, 1889 but the rest of the building was not finished until after 1894. Most of the construction occurred in 1895 and the church was dedicated May 27, 1896. The church remained closely tied to Storer College and in the 1900s was a primarily African American congregation. The deed of ownership for the Curtis Freewill Baptist Church passed between the church and the college during the years of its operation. As early as 1913 the General Conference of Freewill Baptists indicated that the deed should be transferred back to Storer College, although it seems to have not been officially transferred and filed until 1952. By the 1950s it appears that there was no active congregation using the church for worship. Curtis Freewill Baptist Church was part of the property purchased by the National Park Service in 1962. After 1976 the NPS renovated the church for use as an auditorium and meeting space and in 2004-2006 members of the Historic Preservation Training Center did restoration and repairs to the masonry, roof, and windows. Description from the 1980 National Register of Historic Places Nomination for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park:“The Curtis Freewill Baptist Church (Park Bldg. No. 75) was erected in 1892 on the west side of Jackson Street between Fillmore and Washington Streets. It has a stone basement, a brick main story, and a crenelated square brick tower at the east end of the south elevation containing the entrance doors. It was named for Rev. Silas P. Curtis of New Hampshire, a Storer College founder, and served the college until 1955. The basement has been refurbished.”Description from the 2000 National Register of Historic Places Registration for Storer College:“The Curtis Freewill Baptist Church occupies the end lot along the west side of Jackson Street and the corners of Fillmore Street. The church is a one-story brick structure on a half story stone foundation built into the hill with six over six windows with wooden lintels. A replacement shed roofed entrance (a similar structure appears in historic photographs) protects the door in the western-most bay of the lower level, south elevation. The foundation stones are stuccoed on the south elevation and struck to appear as cut stone. The body of the church is five bays deep and three bays wide in the gable ends. Windows along the south and north elevation are sash, multipane over two with colored glass and brick arched over the scroll cut wooden arched lintels. Windows in the east gable end include a central three part large arched arrangement with paired multipane colored sash windows with a fixed arched glass above; it is topped with courses of arched brick headers. Two arched colored sash windows with two courses of arched brick headers are on either side of the central window. The gable peak is slate shingled with a diamond shaped ventilation window. The steeply pitched roof is sheathed with slate with several rows of scalloped slates adding a decorative element.The battlemented square bell tower, located on the southeast corner of the church body, has the main church entrance on its south elevation. The entrance consists of double four paneled doors with a fanlight window above, capped by three courses of brick header round arches. Immediately above the brick arches is the sandstone date stone engraved with the date “1894” and the name “Curtis Freewill Baptist Church.” Above the date stone is a diamond shaped four-pane colored window; a matching window is located on the east elevation of the tower as well. The tower then has a slight recess in the brick wall with a decorative zigzag top course, within this recess is a large slatted ventilation window with a two course brick header arch above; this arrangement is repeated on all four elevations of the tower. Finally the battlements at the top of the tower are stepped out several courses from the surface of the tower below. A very shallow hipped roof covers the tower within the battlements.”

The Curtis Freewill Baptist Church was dedicated in 1896. The Freewill Baptist Church was instrumental in the establishment of Storer College and prior to the church’s construction the congregation held their meetings in buildings on the college campus. The church remained closely tied with Storer College through its years of active operation and was primarily an African American congregation in the 1900s until the college closed in the 1950s. Curtis Freewill Baptist Church is now owned by the National Park Service.

Storer College

Storer College Soliders Gate and Alumni Fence

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information