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Upcoming Events: Forward to a Friend Become a Member Learn more about Newsletter Archive: January 2008
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The Mosby Heritage Area Association Newsletter - August 2008 Statement From The President The Mosby Heritage Area Association is a membership organization. We depend greatly on our members for many things, not the least of which are their financial contributions. If you are not yet an MHAA member, I urge you to consider joining. Your membership dues underwrites all of our programs, including our expanding educational efforts, which this year for the first time will extend into the area’s high schools. If you are a member, I thank you for supporting what we do. I would like all MHAA members to know about a new challenge grant from one of our most generous contributors. I wrote him a letter last week, asking if he would help underwrite MHAA's expanding education program to the tune of $6,000. Judy Reynolds, our Executive Director, drew up an excellent description of the program and what we want to do with it.
SAVE THE DATE! On Saturday, September 13, 2008 the Mosby Heritage Area Board of Directors and Dr. Betsee Parker will host a musical evening at Historic Huntlands near Middleburg to benefit MHAA's Educational Programs. Virginia’s Senior U.S. Senator John W. Warner will be in attendance to be honored with the Mosby Heritage Area Association’s 2008 Heritage Hero Award for his life-long contributions to the preservation of the Mosby Heritage Area. This is a rare opportunity to tour Huntlands, one of the most stunning properties in the Northern Virginia Piedmont – an evening not to be missed! For invitations, please contact the MHAA office at 540-687-6681.
BROWN!
Mosby Heritage Area Association Education Director and former teacher Rich Gillespie has designed and will conduct this program, with the fine historical interpreters of the Gray Ghost Interpretive Group (GGIG) doing period sketches in costume throughout. GGIG is know for its production of Cavaliers, Courage, and Coffee at Atoka these past four years. A participant fee of $120.00 will be charged for this 2-day program. Click here for a registration form for BROWN! Click here to see an intinerary for BROWN!
Did You Know? Traditionally, presidents have always sought to elude the hustle, bustle, and heat of Washington. President Buchanan vacationed near today’s Dulles Airport. Abraham Lincoln liked to escape to the Old Soldier’s Home in the northwestern part of the District of Columbia. Some presidents like to go to family compounds—John F. Kennedy to Hyannisport, Massachusetts; George H.W. Bush to Kennebunkport, Maine; George W. Bush to Crawford, Texas. President Wilson had come to know Loudoun quite well, often riding the back roads of the northernmost county of the Mosby Heritage Area with Edith Bolling Galt as he courted her. Later they escaped to the Heritage Area’s scenery as a married couple. Several years later, President Calvin Coolidge knew some people in the hunt country, and came out for a visit on several occasions. He apparently was impressed by what he saw, although the frugal Vermonter once got in quite an argument over the toll on the old turnpike from Dranesville to Leesburg, arguing with toll-taker Tillie Downs. It is said Coolidge did not win. Coolidge fell in love with a site on the Clarke County-Loudoun County line on top of the Blue Ridge. The National Weather Bureau had purchased land there for a weather station in 1893, and owned several hundred acres by the 1920s, more than was needed for the nation’s weather. The predecessor to Rt. 601 offered relatively easy access from Washington, Coolidge was game for the arguments with Tillie Downs, the view was stupendous and the air bracing. However, these things often come slowly. It was just as he left office that Coolidge signed a bill authorizing $48,000 for a Presidential Retreat. He himself did not get to enjoy one. President Hoover preferred a simple fishing camp—Rapidan Camp--in Madison County, above Syria on the east side of the new Shenandoah National Park. Hoover just built it with his own money in 1929—he was a millionaire used to getting things done—and then he donated it to the federal government at the end of his term in 1933. It still exists, and one can hike to it. But suffice to say, the next President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, could not. His legs had been paralyzed by polio in 1921. Instead of Mount Weather, Roosevelt chose a site in the experimental conservation-centric Catoctin National Park near Thurmont, Maryland for his “Shangri-La.” This was renamed “Camp David” for his grandson by President Eisenhower. Mount Weather, as we all know, went on to be used as another type of retreat—one focusing neither on its cool air nor its view, but rather for what could be built inside it. Mount Weather is still owned by the U.S. Government, and although not confirmed, it is widely suspected to be the U.S. Government’s underground retreat in time of nuclear war.
Site of the Month: Rectors Crossroads became Atoka at the request of the U.S. Postal Service. Two neighboring communities shared a similar name; Rectors Crossroads and Rectortown. Atoka was on a list of names provided by the Postal Service. Atoka is an Oklahoma Indian name. There is a county and town named Atoka in Oklahoma southeast of Oklahoma City. Atoka is now on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register. The Rector House is owned by the Atoka Preservation Society which works to preserve the village of Atoka. The APS has graciously allowed the Mosby Heritage Area Association to use the house for their offices since 2000. Office hours are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. We welcome visitors, but suggest you call ahead of time to make sure we will be around.
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Explore with us the situation of slavery in Northern Virginia on the eve of the Civil War, simulate a nighttime walk on the Underground Railroad, debate the political options before the Civil War, and follow in the footsteps of John Brown and his raiders as you shadow them when they come to the region and ignite the firestorm. Each participant follows one raider, but also feels the angst of the slave’s situation and the terror experienced by Northern Virginians in the wake of BROWN! This weekend is collegial, participatory, heart-pounding, and intense, and comes with a history of historical epiphany for participants. Some walking will be involved, including by cloak of night, as participants experience being slaves sneaking to a station on the Underground Railroad on the back roads of Loudoun and being Brown’s Raiders making their way into Target Harpers Ferry as they march beside the rushing Potomac. Suggestions for simple background reading will be provided. You’ll long remember this experience. 
