26-549: The Bluemont Historic District comprises the historic core of Bluemont, Virginia . The town is located on the eastern side of Snickers Gap , with the majority of the district fronting on the Snickersville Turnpike , also designated Virginia State Route 734. The district includes 43 buildings, of which 36 are houses, five are commercial structure, a church and a community center. The oldest structure in Bluemont
52-482: A ferry across the nearby Shenandoah River ). The new connector road greatly reduced the distance one had to travel to get to Winchester from points east along the Winchester Pike and quickly became widely used. At the intersection of these two roads (present day Clayton Hall Road and Snickersville Turnpike) a small community began to develop, centered around the home of William Clayton , Clayton Hall, and
78-651: A pickle and pie contest, a 10K race, and live music in a variety of styles. While the fair is spread throughout the community, the primary site is the grounds of the Bluemont Community Center. Sponsored by the Bluemont Citizens Association, the proceeds from the fair are used to fund street lighting, local student scholarships, community beautification, historic building improvements within the community and to support local service organizations. Painter William D. Washington
104-721: A population of 2,834. At 700 feet (210 m), it is the highest community in Loudoun County. Every fall on the third full weekend in September it is home to the Bluemont Fair, an all-volunteer-organized fair that began in 1970. A nearby landmark is Mount Weather , an operations and training facility above ground for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and is rumored to contain an underground facility designed to house or replace
130-420: A trestle immediately east of Round Hill, combined with a lack of rail traffic, led to the abandonment of the line between Purcellville and Bluemont. By the 1940s, Bluemont had become a sleepy community of about 140 inhabitants. Still its scenic location continued to be a lure, especially artists and musicians, including artist Clyde Beck , who with Evelyn Johnson, founded the Bluemont Citizens Association and
156-480: Is Clayton Hall (1797), a large stone house. The Amos Clayton farm was located at the junction of Routes 734 and 760, now in the center of town. Relatively few pre- Civil War structures remain in Bluemont. Apart from Clayton Hall, the most significant is the Bluemont Methodist Church ( circa 1851). Most of the district's houses date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The completion of
182-649: Is within 1 mile (1.6 km) of the Appalachian Trail and the Bears Den and Raven Rocks formations in the Blue Ridge. Originally named Snickersville, the village renamed itself to Bluemont to help it attract visitors from Washington, D.C. when a predecessor of the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad extended its line westward from Round Hill in 1900. As of 2010, the Bluemont postal area had
208-615: The Southern Railway (which had acquired the Washington & Ohio's route) to extend its tracks to the town, which became the final western terminus of line. The extension permitted the steam railroad's passengers to travel to the base of the Blue Ridge from a terminal in Washington, D.C. To promote the resort nature of the town, the railroad petitioned the United States Postal Service to change
234-618: The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad line in 1900 to Bluemont brought prosperity and growth to the town. Two hotels, the Loudoun House Hotel (1900) and the Blue Ridge Inn (1904), served summer visitors to the mountaintop town. The Bluemont Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1984. This article about a property in Loudoun County, Virginia on
260-569: The House of Burgesses, Bartholomew Dandridge . That fall, Clayton won election as one of New Kent County's two representatives in the new Virginia House of Delegates . In 1788 he won his last election and represented New Kent County in the Virginia Ratification Convention . He voted to ratify the federal constitution. Clayton called his home plantation "Chestnut Hill" (not to be confused with nearby "Chestnut Grove" nor
286-613: The House of Burgesses, and re-elected him until 1772. As a burgess who lived somewhat close to the colonial capital, he served on the Committee for Courts of Justice in 1766 and 1769, and in the latter year also on the Committee of Propositions and Grievances and the Committee to Proportion the Public Levy. As relations with Britain grew strained over the mother country's attempt to levy taxes, Clayton joined nonimportation associations in 1769, 1770 and 1774. Beginning in 1774, Clayton
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#1732797937955312-698: The National Register of Historic Places is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bluemont, Virginia Bluemont is an unincorporated village in Loudoun County , Virginia located at the eastern base of Snickers Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains . The village's center is located along Snickersville Turnpike ( Virginia Route 734 ), 4 miles (6.4 km) west of the incorporated town of Round Hill . The village borders Virginia's fox hunting country and
338-500: The U.S. government in the event that it is destroyed in an emergency (such as nuclear warfare ). The settlement of the area that is now Bluemont began in the 1770s when a connection was made between the old Winchester Pike, which led from Loudoun to Winchester via Keyes' (Vestals) Gap , and the Colchester Road which ran from the port of Colchester to Winchester via Snickers Gap (named after Edward Snickers, who operated
364-607: The annual Bluemont Fair in 1968. Around the same time, the commune of Skyfields was established by local musicians Howard Bass and Peter Dunning. From the commune and the musicians it attracted was founded the Bluemont Concert Series in the 1970s. In 1984, the Bluemont Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . A historic marker at the intersection of Clayton Hall Road and Snickersville Turnpike identifies
390-661: The clerk of New Kent County, a position he would hold for the rest of his life, as had his father and younger brother in nearby Gloucester County. He was first elected to the vestry of St. Peter's Parish in New Kent County in 1758. During his long tenure as county clerk, Clayton managed to save the records when the courthouse burned in March 1775, but lost many records (and his late father's scientific papers) during an arson fire in 1787. Beginning in 1766, voters in New Kent County elected this man as one of their representatives in
416-501: The community, and the last major growth it would see for the next half-century. Despite the strategic importance of Snickers' Gap during the Civil War , Snickersville saw surprisingly little action save the coming and going of the armies through the gap. The only major action in the town was one of eight small partisan skirmishes in the area which took place May 23, 1864, when 14 Confederates surprised and routed 22 Federals resting in
442-602: The dependencies he built for his farm at the gap. The settlement was christened Snickers' Gap in 1807 when a post office was established there. Seventeen years later, in 1826, the town was incorporated by the General Assembly as Snickersville , though it would take another six years for the post office there to change its name. The completion of the Leesburg and Snickers Gap Turnpike in 1832 (present day Virginia State Highway 7 ) brought new prosperity and prestige to
468-575: The former Elizabeth Whiting and her husband, Rev. John Clayton , his family also included several sisters. His birth date is uncertain because Gloucester County records were destroyed in several fires, Gloucester County was divided into several parishes in 1752, and his uncle Edward Clayton also lived in Gloucester County and used similar names for his children. In addition to his spiritual duties and operating his farm, his father also served as clerk of Gloucester County for more than five decades,
494-488: The location of the Historic District, which is a Virginia Historic Landmark. The Bear's Den Rural Historic District was listed in 2008. The Bluemont ZIP code (20135) encompasses parts of three counties and two states (Loudoun County, Virginia; Clarke County, Virginia ; and Jefferson County, West Virginia ). The Bluemont Fair is held annually on the third weekend in September. It features juried crafters,
520-536: The name of the town to Bluemont . The Postal Service acquiesced to this request on September 7, 1900. The zenith of the town came in 1908, when its population peaked at 200. In 1912, interurban electric trolleys of the new Washington and Old Dominion Railway began to serve Bluemont on the Southern Railway's former steam route. However, with the advent of the automobile , the town's rail-based tourism began to decline. In 1939, deteriorating conditions on
546-550: The provisional seat of the US government following a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack . The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Bluemont has a humid subtropical climate , abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. William Clayton (burgess) William Clayton (c. 1717 – December 14, 1797)
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#1732797937955572-535: The town. In 1875, the Washington and Ohio Railroad, which began in Alexandria , was extended to Round Hill. The lure of the Blue Ridge some four miles west prompted a livery service to run from Snickersville to Round Hill to pick up travelers and take to them to one of the several hotels that began to spring up in and about the town. In 1900, the success of the resorts in the vicinity of Snickersville, including Jules DeMonet 's Blue Ridge Inn at Bear's Den, prompted
598-605: Was Virginia planter, officer, patriot and politician who served as the clerk of New Kent County, Virginia for decades, and also represented the county in the House of Burgesses (1766–1771), in the final Virginia Revolutionary Convention and first session of the Virginia House of Delegates , and in the 1788 Virginia convention to ratify the United States Constitution . The middle of five sons born to
624-577: Was a member of New Kent County's Committee of Safety. During the American Revolutionary War, he was the county lieutenant and responsible for securing men and materials for the patriot forces. He also served as clerk as county voters met to instruct their delegates to Virginia's First Revolutionary Convention. Clayton himself served in the fifth Virginia Revolutionary Convention which ended on July 5, 1776; he replaced Burwell Bassett for that session and served alongside his successor in
650-693: Was born in Bluemont when it was still known as Snickersville. Writer Barbara Holland (1933–2010) wrote many of her most famous books and essays while living in Bluemont. She spent the last 20 years of her life in a family home passed down through her mother, the writer Marion Holland . Bluegrass Artist Philip Corcoran was born in Cleveland, Ohio and, later, relocated to Bluemont where he recorded his critically acclaimed bluegrass cover of "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" by 1980s pop star Boy George . In William R. Forstchen's John Matherson book series beginning with 2009's One Second After , Bluemont becomes
676-662: Was the president of the Virginia Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge, and was succeeded as clerk by this man's brother Jasper (who died in the American Revolutionary War and whose estate this man would supervise in 1779). Their grandfather, John Clayton emigrated from England and held important posts in the colony's government, as well as acquired and operated several plantations in Virginia's Tidewater region. Around 1756, William Clayton succeeded his mentor as
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