Robert Harper's Grave

Robert Harpers Grave

NPS/ Claire Hassler

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Visitors can visit the grave of famed Robert Harper - the town's namesake. Harper died in October of 1782 and his grave is in Harper Cemetery.

Born in Oxford Township near Philadelphia in 1718, Harper became a builder and millwright. In 1747, a group of Quakers secured his services to erect a meeting house in the Shenandoah Valley near present-day Winchester, Virginia. Traveling through Maryland on his way to the Shenandoah Valley, Harper visited "The Hole" where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet. He noticed the ample waterpower and strategic location for travel and transport, and he obtained 125 acres in 1751.

Twelve years later, in 1763, the Virginia General Assembly established the town of "Shenandoah Falls at Mr. Harper's Ferry." In 1775, Harper commenced construction of a new home in the Lower Town. The structure was completed in 1782, but Harper, who died that same year, never lived in the house.
Today, the Harper House is the oldest surviving structure in the Lower Town.