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Pictured in two of these images is the Powhatan Hotel, first in the background of an 1899 photo of Deering Farm Equipment day, meant to market Deering binders to local farmers, and second as a lithograph of the hotel created by a Philadelphia artist after it opened in 1892. The proprietor of the Powhatan Hotel was Dr. James T. Wormley, a dentist and hotelier from Washington, DC. Wormley's family, however had a much further reaching connection to Jefferson County. ![]()
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His grandfather, Lynch Wormley, was enslaved at The Rocks (third image) an estate near Kabletown. The man who enslaved him, Ralph Wormeley V, lived there during the American Revolution while he was under suspicion of Loyalism and unable to return to Rosegill, his property on Virginia's middle peninsula. When Wormeley sold The Rocks and moved to England in 1798, Lynch Wormley was sold to the Cocke family and taken to a plantation in Albermarle. Lynch Wormley eventually was able to buy his freedom and relocated with his wife, Mary, to Washington, DC. Wormley legally proved his status with the assistance of lawyer (and poet) Francis Scott Key, who petitioned on his behalf for a “Certificate of Protection” to allow him to continue to live and work in DC (see fourth image, courtesy of NARA). ![]()
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In 1819, the couple had a son, James C. Wormley, who became a prominent hotelier in Washington and well connected among high ranking politicians in the Nation's Capital. It was his son, James T. Wormley, who returned to what is now Ranson to open the Powhatan Hotel, which later became St. Hilda's Hall at Powhatan College before the building burned in 1937.![]()
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For more information on the Wormley family, see this White House Historical Association blogpost: www.whitehousehistory.org/an-early-black-familys-life-in-lafayette-park
Happy Valentine's Day from the Jefferson County Museum! 🕊![]()
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Here are some valentines from the Museum collection, when doves were apparently very en vogue. Doves have historically been a symbol of peace, purity, and romantic love, and frequently appeared in Victorian Valentine's day cards, wedding invitations, and other greetings.