HARPERS FERRY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Happy 79th birthday to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park!
On June 30, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill to create what was then called Harpers Ferry National Monument. It was the culmination of years of work to save the town.
According to the National Park Service, African American efforts enshrining John Brown paved the way for Harpers Ferry to become a National Historical Park. Later, Henry T. McDonald, the president of nearby Storer College took up the cause.
In 1936, he invited members of the federal government to Harpers Ferry to see if the struggling town could be preserved under the previous year’s Historic Sites Act. But before they could meet, the worst flood in recorded history devastated the town. That made the push to save it more urgent.
It took eight years before Congress passed the bill to make it a national monument. Even so, because of World War II, it did not appropriate any funds to acquire the necessary land. McDonald continued to call for funding until he died in 1951.
At that time, Mayor Gilbert Perry and Mary Vernon Mish, the first woman to head the Washington County Historical Society, took up the torch. Finally, in 1953, the National Park Service acquired the first parcels of land needed to preserve Harpers Ferry.
Today, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park spans three states, preserving sites connected with John Brown’s Raid, the American Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, and many other moments in history.
“We hope to continue to share these stories to many future generations,” Harper’s Ferry NHP stated in a Facebook post.
