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| Benjamin Chambers built a log house, grist mill and sawmill on this site in 1734 |
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| Falling Spring Creek became the mill trace |
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| An advocate of religious freedom, he offered various Protestant churches land in exchange for a single rose as the annual rent. |
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| Fort Loudoun, 1756. A reconstruction of the not well-regarded but none-the-less practical stockade stands on the site. |
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| Patton House. The family moved back to the Fort Loudoun site once the Indian wars were over. |
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| Franklin County courthouse |
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| Chambersburg, as county seat, was laid out in 1764. The county was incorporated in 1784. |
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| Benjamin Chambers welcomes his son James and grandson Benjamin home after 6 years of fighting in the Revolutionary War. |
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| George Washington really did sleep here. |
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| Old Jail, Active from 1818 to 1971 |
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| The jail served as a station on the Underground Railroad. |
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| John Brown planned the raid on Harper's Ferry in this boarding house. |
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| Chambersburg is located at the head of the Shenandoah Valley. It is also an important railroad crossing and close to Gettysburg |
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| The light patch of road surface marks the spot where A.P Hill met Robert E Lee. Lee then decided to move his army towards Gettysburg, July 1863 |
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| As the town was rebuilt, carpenters added these distinctive wooden and gaily painted eaves. |
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| Over 500 buildings burned with damages reaching almost 1 million 1864 dollars |
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| Civil War commemoration. The Union soldier faces due South, watching for another invasion. The memorial fountain is out for repairs. |
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| The 75th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg |
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| The town grows |
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| The confluence of the Conococheague and Falling Spring Creeks |
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| Unique brick barn |
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| Another brick barn at a stud farm on a rural road near Chambersburg |
Thanks for the visual tour and historical commentary! Your love of history and photography are good companions on your excursions, Elizabeth. The barns must mark a zenith in stylized brickwork construction for such utilitarian buildings. I wonder if the open pattern provides functional ventilation?
ReplyDeleteYour appreciation of what remains reminds me of less-well-preserved relics at sites of former residents removed so others could recreate in Shenandoah NP - something I'm becoming steadily more attuned to over time, after initial cluelessness.
I like your blend of larger views and telling architectural and narrative details. I like the framing of the Patton House, nestled behind the tree and paralleling mountain background. You might consider carrying a small, possibly collapsible, stool on your journeys. In this case perhaps one might have allowed the extra height to separate the tree from the mountains.
Multiple strains of historical strife play against the snug sense of idealized well-being in bucolic countryside and handsome town.
Slight technical recommendation: When including significant amounts of sky or other light-toned elements, use exposure composition (+ EV) to open detail in primary darker areas.
Keep going...