In January we looked at the history of St. Louis, an African-American community in Loudoun County near Middleburg.
Let’s now turn to another one just to the west of St. Louis. Like St. Louis, Willisville is steeped in stories. Its recent listing on the National Register for Historic Places gives us terrific updated information.
We also benefited from Carol Lee’s new book, "A Path Through Willisville.” It’s a treasure trove with dozens of photos and maps and 421 footnotes. Lee grew up in Willisville and spearheaded the effort that resulted in it becoming the first historically African American village in Loudoun County to be listed on the NHRP.
We were also pleased to see that Welbourne Road maintains its historic and rural character by not being paved. With almost no traffic, it affords the walking visitor a pleasant and calm experience.
This small community, about four miles west of Middleburg and just two from St. Louis, has just 16 primary resources along a third-of-a-mile stretch. However, their stories pack a mighty punch. Several of the homes pre-date 1860 and as the form points out, Willisville’s origins start with some of these dwellings. Their building types indicate they could have been slave quarters, who were enslaved at the nearby farms and mansions at Crednal, Catesby, and Welbourne.
This collective landscape tells a rich story. Some of those that were enslaved at the mansions and some of their descendants are part of this story of resilience and families forming a community. The mansions and their lands form a buffer of protection around Willisville and have themselves retained their rural look and feel.
After the Civil War, some of the free and formerly enslaved who formed the community found employment at those mansion homes and farms as domestics, farm hands, cattlemen, and grooms. When Welbourne hosted the opening day of Great Hound Match in 1905, it is possible some residents of Willisville played some roles. In her book on the landmark event that put the area on the map, Martha Wolfe points out the formerly enslaved at Willisville showed a strong entrepreneurial spirit after the war.
Willisville is indeed a remarkable place. As the form points out, there are few surviving examples in Loudoun County of dwellings built by enslaved African Americans prior to the Civil War. Lee adds that the “lives of this fixed settlement of free and enslaved African Americans were intertwined through kinship and friendship and marriages connected people across plantations.” Some of the homes tell multi-generational stories.
All this adds up to something very special. In some ways, Willisville and those historic mansions could be considered its own historic district with intertwined stories.
Note: Our map uses information provided by the NRHP form. We added labels and reduced the size for the overlay. It is not to scale but close enough to give an idea of where it located in relation to the mansions.
Also please note that the Clifton name tag gives a rough idea of its location, off the map to the west. I was not able to determine if Clifton had or still has a mansion home.
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