The National Park Service will be adding 13 acres to the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park which tells the story of John Brown’s 1859 anti-slavery raid on the federal arsenal.
The land, called Allstadt’s Corner, was the scene of several events during the raid, including the freeing, temporarily, of seven slaves belonging to the owner, Jacob Allstadt and his son. The son, John Thomas Allstadt, owned the house until his death in 1923; he was the last survivor of the raid. The house originally belonged to members of Virginia’s Lee family.
The land was purchased recently by the American Battlefield Trust, which is dedicated to preserving historic battlegrounds and educating about their importance. The Trust donated the land to the Park Service.
Photo: Allstadt’s Ordinary Corner, 2009 by Acroterion/Wikimedia
