Taylorstown, Virginia

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Taylorstown is a small community in Loudoun County, Virginia built on the banks of Catoctin Creek and the surrounding hillside, about two miles south of the Potomac River. It was first settled in 1734, and is the location of the oldest standing home in Loudoun County, "Hunting Hill".

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[edit] Early settlement

Richard Brown was the first resident of the Taylorstown area, a devout Quaker who arrived in the 1730s from Bucks County, Pennsylvania with the intention of establishing a milling operation. Finding Catoctin Creek to be the ideal location, he acquired a large parcel of several hundred acres of farm and woodland which ranged from the Potomac to as far south as Lincoln. In 1734, Brown constructed a small house that would later bear the name of Hunting Hill, and is today the oldest standing building in Loudoun County. Richard Brown died in May 1745, and left his land divided into tracts for his wife and each of his five sons. His wife was left with the tract that contained the Taylorstown area and its buildings, and she later passed her tract to her youngest son, Mercer Brown, who sold it in 1784. The purchaser was Thomas Taylor, a Quaker from Frederick County, Maryland who also had a strong interest in a milling operation. Living out of Hunting Hill, Taylor erected a new mill of local stone that today is known simply as the Taylorstown Mill. Following the mill's completion, he sold off quarter-acre lots of the land surrounding the mill. The new settlers that arrived made the beginning of the Taylor Town community, later given the combined nomenclature of Taylorstown.

[edit] Establishment as a community

Taylorstown was transformed from a small settlement into a thriving community over the period of about a hundred years. The greatest catalyst for growth was coal mining from the local Furnace Mountain, which attracted miners during the late 19th and early 20th century. According to local information, at one time Taylorstown had general and supply stores and even a movie theatre. Besides the buildings that serviced the mining community there are also records of schools, most notably the Crossroads School built in 1834, which was located near the Catoctin Stud Farm until the 1940s.

[edit] Trouble during the Civil War

Taylorstown was the location of a small scuffle during the American Civil War. As most of the original residents of Taylorstown were Quakers, much of the population was sympathetic to the North, and aided Northern forces by smuggling food and supplies across the Potomac River. In retaliation, a group of Confederate soldiers attacked the locals and burned down the mill and the only bridge across Catoctin Creek. Local legend has it that Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was commanding this operation. While probable, Jackson's involvement can not be confirmed.

[edit] Proposed dam and the Catoctin Valley Defense Alliance

The Catoctin Valley Defense Alliance was formed in 1974 by the citizens of Taylorstown. The group became very active in response to the possibility of Catoctin Creek being dammed. The Fairfax Water Authority, the Washington, D.C. Government, and the Washington Commission proposed plans for a drought relief water supply. This plan deemed the 3,280 acres of the lower Catoctin Valley "the most effective, reliable and cost effective" of a multitude of water supply alternatives considered by the engineers. A dam would be built near where Catoctin Creek empties into the Potomac, which would create a five mile-long, 364 ft. deep "feeder lake" that could hold 14 billion gallons of water. All of the collected water could be released in a time of drought, which would swell the Potomac and provide emergency water as the water flowed down the river to Washington, D.C. If constructed, it would place the Taylorstown Historic District in danger of destruction.

The local community rallied behind the Catoctin Valley Defense Alliance to help stop such a "feeder lake". During this time, local vehicles displayed bright red bumper stickers which proclaimed "Don't Dam Taylorstown," which was changed to "Don’t Dam Loudoun" when it became clear that more land was going to be endangered beyond Taylorstown and its surrounding environs. Phil Erenkranz and Miss Anna Hedrick, two lawyers actively involved in the Defense Alliance, went before the Virginia General Assembly in Richmond. It became Virginia state law that one county did not have the right of "eminent domain" over another. No longer could Fairfax County and Washington, D.C. legally take water or anything else from Loudoun County without permission. Defeated legally, the engineers were no longer interested in building their dam. (However, a group of beavers built a large dam on the exact site proposed for damming not more than a week later.) Compelled to protect the community from future threats, citizens sought out preservation legistlation: Catoctin Creek was designated a State Scenic River, and the town center of Taylorstown was registered as a historical location under the Historical Preservation Act.

[edit] Contemporary Taylorstown

Taylorstown is today a community of about four thousand people (3,216 were recorded in the 2000 census, a number that has grown significantly) who live generally within a three-mile radius of the original town center. It is no longer considered an official township of Virginia, and has consequently been vaguely divided among the distantly neighboring towns of Leesburg, Lovettsville, Lucketts, and Waterford. This has resulted in a confusion of government services: some residents have the address of one town, the phone number of another, and the school of whichever district maintains the nearest bus route.

The population is economically diverse. Some residents are artists and do not possess working plumbing, other residents live in mansions worth tens of millions, and the rest are somewhere in between. Easy access to the MARC commuter rail has also brought in a number of residents who commute to work everyday in Washington, D.C. via an hour-long train ride. Some residents live in the hamlet-communities of the EcoVillage of Taylorstown, and collectively own a large portion of the western farmland.

Despite the confusion of geographical boundaries and the wide diversity, Taylorstown continues to be a close community. It is actively concerned about the well-being of its residents and its land, interests that are represented locally and abroad by The Taylorstown Community Association.

[edit] External links


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Towns

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Unincorporated communities

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