Information Panel: Park Headquarters

Information Panel: Park Headquarters

Photo: NPS / Claire Hassler

Quick Facts

Amenities

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Benches/Seating, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

Camp Hill

You are in the Camp Hill area of Harpers Ferry. Explore Camp Hill's history with exhibits in front of the Morrell, Brackett, and Lockwood houses and Mather Training Center. Side trails in Harper Cemetery and in front of Mather Training Center connect to the world-famous Appalachian Trail (AT).

Early Settlement: 1700s

Town founder Robert Harper ran a ferry business and a gristmill in the Lower Town area. Harper and other notables are buried in Harper Cemetery at the end of Fillmore Street. The Camp Hill area takes its name from an encampment of US Army Soldiers here in the late 1700s.

Armory: 1848-1861

The hilltop position of the armory paymaster's house "made a statement about the presence and power of the paymaster and the armory." A stroll along Fillmore Street takes you by three of the original four armory mansions on Camp Hill which have been preserved by the National Park Service.

Civil War: 1861-1865

The armory and its Camp Hill housing were abandoned at the war's outbreak. Camp Hill served as an encampment for both Union and Confederate troops. The buildings on this street served as hospitals, prisons, bivouacs, or quarters. 

Storer College: 1867-1955

An oasis of learning and freedom in the segregated south, Storer College was "open to all regardless of race or gender." Here in 1906 the civil rights leaders of the Niagara Movement- precursor to the NAACP- used the campus for their first conference in the United States.