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Front Royal, VA

History

Warren County is located on the eastern side of the Shenandoah Valley at the point where the North and South Branches of the Shenandoah River combine in their northward flow to the Potomac River. Shenandoah (and its variants) means “great plain.” The Shenandoah River offers a source of transportation, beauty and resources.

The Valley is part of a larger geological feature. Primal forces generated a wide band of long mountain ridges, roughly conforming to the southward sweep of the continent’s Atlantic Coast, from Maine to Georgia. The replicated pattern of the ridge and valley shunted migrants from northeastern ports of entry southward as they sought new lands to exploit.

The geological forces that raised the ridges carpeted much of the valley floors with limestone, the substance of the region’s productive soils and filter of its waters. Rich in many other minerals, Warren County has seen the extraction of iron, manganese, copper, quartzite, flint and even jasper. The steep slopes of the county’s mountain ridges have not only been acclaimed for their beauty, but also for lending to the development of over 40 water-powered mills by the time of the Civil War.

The Great Valley of Virginia is the widest and longest of the system’s series of valleys. Not only is Warren County a part of this north-to-south corridor, its Chester and Manassas Gaps in the Blue Ridge make it an entry point from the east.

The first humans in Warren County were Paleo-Indians who, in about 9000 B.C., occupied places on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River near Flint Run. This so-called Thunderbird site probably served as a periodic base camp for generations of hunters and gatherers who, until about 6500 B.C., returned repeatedly to quarry local jasper. They left vestiges of some of the earliest-known shelters in North America. By historical times the Shenandoah Valley had become a no-man’s land traversed by hunting and war parties that never settled permanently.

The Blue Ridge was a natural barrier to the settlement of the Shenandoah Valley for nearly 120 years after the Jamestown settlement. In 1670 John Lederer, an explorer sent west by Virginia Governor Sir William Berkeley, became the first European to climb the Blue Ridge and observe the Valley. In 1671 he twice passed through Manassas Gap (Linden) to explore parts of what he had seen. In 1682 Cadwallader Jones, another of the governor’s agents, continued explorations by way of Chester Gap into the area of modern Front Royal. The future Warren County was part of the great Fairfax proprietary grant, making clear claims to the land a deterrent to settlement. Nevertheless, Robert McKay, a Scottish Quaker, arrived from Pennsylvania in 1731 to become the first settler in the future county.

Much of the Shenandoah Valley was settled by German and Scotch-Irish immigrants entering Virginia from Pennsylvania over the Potomac River. Warren County differs somewhat in that many of its settlers came from eastern Virginia through the gaps in the Blue Ridge, while other easterners speculated in land against later settlement. This meant that the future Warren area was one of those with a higher English ethnic content and more views favoring large scale, slave-based economic activities. In 1736, Thomas Chester received a license from the Frederick County Court to operate a ferry near the two forks of the Shenandoah, assuring the importance of the area.

In 1716 the Sixth Baron of Cameron, Thomas, Lord Fairfax, inherited from his mother, a daughter of Lord Culpepper, a 1649 King Charles II grant embracing 5.3 million acres in Virginia. In 1746, when he discovered that much of his vast proprietary estate was being granted by the province without his approval, he immigrated to America to oversee his holdings. Establishing himself at White Post, Clark County, he divided his holdings into manors, engaged surveyors — including a young George Washington — and embarked upon the sale or lease of his lands. Fairfax’s friendship with Washington allowed him to remain in control of his lands until his death in 1781. At that time his estate came under state ownership, because his nearest heirs, as Loyalists, were ineligible to inherit. Gooney Manor, now Browntown, was one of Fairfax’s land parcels, part of which he leased to growing numbers of settlers. The entire tract was later purchased by Chief Justice John Marshall and his brother James, who broke it up in 1812 and sold it to many of those who held Fairfax’s leases.

The proximity to Chester and Manassas Gaps and the junction of the two forks of the Shenandoah River made the site of Front Royal a natural place for a town to start. The site’s importance was further enhanced because a branch of the Valley immigrant route (now 340/522) also passed through it. Development began in 1754 when Peter Lehew bought 200 acres along Happy Creek and divided them amongst his sons. The town of Front Royal was formally incorporated in 1788, and lots were laid out along Chester and Market (now Main) Streets. Its growth and location ensured the placement of the courthouse there when Warren County was formed in 1836; by 1840 Front Royal’s population had shot past 2,000.

Located at a busy crossroads of migration from Pennsylvania in the north and Tidewater Virginia in the east, Front Royal became a fast-growing town that spawned many industries. At one point or another, from the 18th to the 20th centuries, Warren’s county seat could boast of wagon and wagon wheel factories and repair shops, a piano factory, a silk mill, and a furniture factory. The Locust Pin Company at one time produced the majority of telephone pole pins in the nation, and American Viscose Corporation, which opened in 1939, manufactured synthetic fiber products, such as parachutes, for the U.S. military throughout World War II. Nearby Riverton, now incorporated within the limits of Front Royal, was dominated by industrial operations such as Riverton Lime and Stone, Twin City Furnace, and Riverton Mills.

The county’s location caused it to be a focal point for conflict during the Civil War. Front Royal became a hospital center after the First Battle of Manassas in 1861. Battles at Buckton and Front Royal in 1862 were key in Stonewall Jackson’s famous Valley Campaign. In 1863 Front Royal saw Southern armies advance toward and withdraw from Gettysburg; the July 21 Battle of Wappings in Manassas Gap was the final conflict of the Gettysburg Campaign. The county saw extended cavalry action in 1864 at Guard Hill, along the North Fork of the Shenandoah, and at battles at Milford and Ninevah. The destruction of bridges, property and fields caused enduring hardship and change.

The presence of the Front Royal Quartermaster Remount Depot, 1908–1948, made the county an army town while its citizens continued the tradition of service in World Wars I and II.

The railroad began the county’s career as a holiday destination. As early as 1854 summer boarders came to Linden by rail to rest and spend time away from the Washington, D.C., humidity. After the Civil War the Kenner House in Riverton became a similar resort. In 1905, the Waterlick White Sulphur Springs Company built the Warren Springs Hotel on the hill just south of the Route 55 crossing of Passage Creek. Travelers came by rail to the Waterlick Station, then by horse and coach to the hotel. The building burned in 1939 and was not replaced. Another attraction was the Afton Inn, across from the courthouse in Front Royal. It was known throughout the region for elegant social events.

The numerous motels and attractions, such as Bing Crosby Park and Skyline Drive, perpetuate Warren County as a tourist destination. The park and drive were the ideas of wealthy preservationist George F. Pollock. By 1914 he had the strong support of Hugh Naylor, president of the Front Royal/Riverton Board of Trade, who saw the undertaking’s economic potential. Virginia Governor Lee Trinkle supported the project when in 1924 he proposed development of a national park along the Blue Ridge between Front Royal and Waynesboro to serve as a regional economic stimulus and to provide a green area for the growing eastern cities. His successor, Governor Harry F. Byrd, and President Herbert Hoover secured Congress’ -approval, and the first section of road between Thornton and Swift Run Gaps was completed in 1932. New Deal agencies such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration accelerated the project thereafter, and the park was dedicated at Big Meadows by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in July 1936. World War II temporarily ended tourism; the park facilities became military training areas and storage sites for national treasures evacuated from the Smithsonian. Since then it has become a major attraction for hikers and tourists and a refuge for residents from one of the most populated regions of the United States.

Warren County’s population grew -slowly during the 19th century and actually decreased after the Civil War as a result of the emancipation of slaves and wartime devastation. In the early 1890s, following the post-war period of Reconstruction, recovery and social reorganization, the newly organized Front Royal and Riverton Improvement Company decided to develop the area between the two locations. It optioned all the intervening land, replaced the war-damaged bridges across the Shenandoah, laid off lots and streets, and embarked on a vigorous publicity campaign. Although the company failed — probably as a result of overestimating the expected pace of development — regional growth accelerated. New industries led to a burst of other new construction, producing by 1936 a new courthouse, town hall and elementary school in Front Royal. The opening of Skyline Drive in 1941 necessitated the completion of Route 55 and newer bridges across the rivers, further aiding easy access.

Although World War II curtailed tourism, the region continued its growth because of American Viscose (later AVTEX) and its need for labor. Demand for post-war housing and increased municipal services continued Front Royal’s expansion. The town developed a by-pass in the 1960s (Commerce Avenue) and saw its first large shopping center (Royal Plaza) in 1971, both causing problems for downtown prosperity. The completion of Interstate 66 from Washington, D.C., in 1980 stimulated another growth surge, which completed the county’s transformation from a rural region to its designation as the westernmost part of the Washington, D.C., metro area in 1992. Land-use patterns continue to alter Warren’s landscape; it was once dotted by a bounty of dairy farms, but only one remained by the late 1990s.

A major fire in 1870 prompted the Front Royal Town Council to purchase firefighting equipment, which was placed throughout the town. This led to the formation in 1887 of Volunteer Relief Hook and Ladder Company # 1. Since then, nine more volunteer companies — the most recent, North Warren, started in 1998 — have organized to cover the entire county.

Warren Countians depended on Winchester or Alexandria newspapers until Lemuel Moore established the Front Royal Gazette in 1858. The Civil War caused the paper’s demise in 1861, but in 1869, James S. Trout and Elder Clark founded the weekly Warren Sentinel, which continues to publish today. Several other papers appeared for various periods of time over the next century. The most enduring of these was the Front Royal Record, founded in 1920 by E. E. Keister, which merged with several other papers in 1932 to become the Northern Virginia Daily, providing daily local news for the first time.

Front Royal has designated a large portion of Chester Street as a historical district. Warren County has five sites on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Commission Register: Mt. Zion, Flint Run Archaeological District, Thunderbird Archaeological District, Erin and Killahevlin.

Provided by the Warren Heritage Society