Adventures in West Virginia

I was in Charles Town, West Virginia twice this week to conduct deed research for a few houses in Harper's Ferry. All of the deeds for Jefferson County are located in the clerk's office at the county courthouse. It's a pretty cool courthouse, and was the site for John Brown's trial in 1863. I liked that the interior hasn't changed a whole lot - the main hallway still has its old creaky floors and doors. It was refreshing to take a step out of D.C. for the day into an entirely different world. Lately, I feel as though you need special security clearance and 4 forms of identification just to get into a Starbucks within a 2-mile radius of the White House. Comparatively, the Jefferson County courthouse was pretty laid back.

Upon entering, I was greeted by an older gentleman who was sitting behind a plain wooden desk next to a simple metal detector. I left my purse on his desk while I walked through the detector and signed in on his clipboard. After I passed the metal test, he asked where I was going. I told him that I was headed to the Clerk's office to research deeds. He looked at me, smiled, and said "you don't have any knives do you?" I told him no and chuckled, and he asked if I was a lawyer. I said no, and explained how I'm a historian and my research didn't involve any legal transactions. He sounded interested, smiled again and said, "sure you don't have any knives?" I laughed, said "no," and he handed me my purse. I wanted to respond by telling him that I gave up knives for nunchuks, but decided to just smile all pretty-like and be on my way. I guess it worked, since he didn't bother to rummage through my belongings.

Two days later, I came back to do more research and the same security guard was at the desk. He gave me a big grin and said "ah my pretty little historian, back to do more research eh?" I got the OK to bypass the metal detector this time, but only after I assured him that I didn't bring any knives. Twice. I wonder if that is standard security protocol in West Virginia, certainly a knife-toter wouldn't lie twice. Right?

I continued my research on Wednesday by stopping by Harper's Ferry Town Hall. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the "Town Hall" building contains the US Post Office, Police Department, Town Hall (mayor's) office, and a liquor store. See the two white doors? The left one leads to the police department, and naturally, I thought the other would lead to the Town Hall office. I opened the door expecting to see the receptionist (who managed to say "blah blah blah" four different times when I called earlier in the day). Instead, I was greeted by the Olde Towne Hall Liquor store owner. I quickly excused myself and decided to stop in at the police department for directions. I was directed to go through the back of the building, make right, and then another right. The Town Hall entrance is in the waaaaay back corner of the building next to the trash dumpster. I walked up the creaky stairs that led me to an office space directly above the liquor store. It's good to know that Harper's Ferry has it's priorities straight with the liquor store located in a prime spot in Town Hall. Jesse said the town gained a few bonus points in his mind - even if the liquor is annoyingly named "Olde Towne."

As it turns out, the research trip to Town Hall was pretty disappointing. I found out that someone made the brilliant decision to chuck any building permits that pre-dated 1998. Almost 200 years of history right down the chute. Oh well, at least I got to put a face (and a healthy helping of gross wrinkly cleavage) to the "blah blah" lady's voice. On the bright side, though, at least my truncated research visit meant that I got to leave about 3 hours earlier than expected. I definitely could get used to getting out of work at 3pm every day!