On_Site with Insight: A Loudoun History Series

Have you ever wondered about Loudoun County's history, but didn't know who to ask? Are you curious about why things are as they are on Loudoun's historic landscape? Are you interested in tying together the themes of our past and tracing our heritage? Then this informative and fun series is just right for you! Join public historian and former educator Rich Gillespie for our 13-part series on the sites of many of Loudoun's historic locations.

Series includes:

1. Introduction to Loudoun History?Overview of course and of Loudoun. Our first field trip will be to Mt. Zion Church showing the range of Loudoun?s stories and the feel of history after dark.

2. Loudoun as the Southern Back Country: Our pluralistic society, 1731-1774 using Lovettsville & Taylorstown, maybe a bit of Waterford. Class will meet at Lovettsville Elementary School parking lot.

3. Understanding the American Revolution through the Eyes of Loudoun County?Leesburg Tour.

4. Era of Revolutions: Loudoun?s Agricultural, Industrial, and Transportation Revolutions--Aldie Mill.

5. Slavery as an Underlying Theme in Loudoun?Underground Railroad stories and Simulation.

6. John Brown?s Raid, Turning Point in Loudoun?s History--Harpers Ferry, St. Paul?s, Potts-Neer Mill, Hillsboro barracks and old turnpike. Class will gather at Hillsboro Elementary School.

7. That Year the War Began: Tour of Ball?s Bluff Battlefield Regional Park. Class will meet at the park.

8. Loudoun?s Legendary Figure: John Singleton Mosby, Guerilla of the Potomac Frontier.

9. Loudoun?s Civil War Landscape at Risk: The Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville

10. What We Don?t Talk About: Loudoun and Reconstruction. Using historic Waterford, we?ll examine freedmen and whites in a changing time. Class will meet at the Waterford Elementary School parking lot.

11. Urbanizing Loudoun in the Victorian Era: A Walking Tour of Purcellville. Using the historic district to view the evolution from coach stop to railroad town to commuter community (includes the W & OD

Regional Park). Class will meet at parking lot at East Main Street and Hatcher Avenue.

12. Loudoun Before the Modern Era. Leesburg Revisited?World War I, Segregation, and Civil Rights. Class will meet in front of the old courthouse at King and Market Streets in Leesburg.

13. Loudoun?s Historic Roads Network: Our Gem! We?ll walk the ?Lincoln Loop? on dirt roads through Quaker Loudoun to view evolving land practices, with a stop at the Goose Creek Friends Meetinghouse, one of the earliest homes, a Quaker farm, and a haunted Civil War battlefield bulldozed for development. Class will meet in the parking lot opposite Goose Creek Friends Meeting. Three-mile walk involved.

Sessions are not sold individually. Transportation will be provided by the participants themselves or by the group car-pooling.

The course will be based at Aldie Mill Historical Park, sessions starting at the Old Granary Visitor Center. The course will consist of presentations, discussions, sharing of our own knowledge, and a weekly field trip. Sponsored by NOVA parks and co-sponsored by Loudoun Museum, Loudoun Preservation Society, Lovettsville Historical Society, Mosby Heritage Area Association, Purcellville Historical Society, Short Hill Historical Society, and Waterford Foundation.