Front Royal Town Council propels McKay house stone request forward

The Front Royal Town Council is poised to follow the Warren County in approving the use of stones from the destroyed Robert McKay house on the county’s north side near McKay Springs in constructing the Blue Ridge Heritage Project memorial chimney.  The Warren County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the request on April 3.

And at an April 16 council work session a unanimous consensus was reached to follow suit.  The Town approval comes as no surprise as Town Planning Department official Darryl Merchant is the point man locally for Warren County’s participation in the eight-county project memorializing the lifestyle and sacrifice of families relocated to make way for Shenandoah National Park.

The Madison County monument – Courtesy Photo/Blue Ridge Heritage Project

Before it was destroyed by fire several years ago, the Robert McKay house, circa 1731, was believed to be the oldest surviving house in Warren County.  Merchant pointed to the historical connections being made in the plans for the county’s Blue Ridge Heritage monument, from its location; information being assembled on the 32 locally-impacted families; and now the use of stone from a specified, historical county structure.

The site, already approved by the Town, is near the Happy Creek Trail just east of Burrell Brooks Park, close to the Criser Road intersection with Remount Road.  Merchant has previously noted that Happy Creek runs into the Town of Front Royal from Harmony Hollow near the Shenandoah National Park boundary.

The basis for the monument design – an actual chimney standing at a park site of one of the displaced homes – Courtesy Photo/Blue Ridge Heritage Project

As Royal Examiner reported in covering County approval of the McKay house stone request, the Blue Ridge Heritage Project effort involves the eight counties where land was acquired for Shenandoah National Park.  Each county – Albermarle, Augusta, Greene, Madison, Page, Rappahannock, Rockingham and Warren – will construct a similar chimney monument to anchor their Blue Ridge Heritage Project site.  Those sites will also contain kiosks with information on each community’s impacted families.

Those 32 identified Warren County families are Aleshire, Bailey, Barnhardt, Beaty (also spelled Beatty by some descendants who left the area), Borden, Carter, Clatterbuck, Compton, Cook, Corbin, Fox, Fristoe, Hartley, Hickerson, Hillidge, Johnson, Jones, Kenner, Manual, Marlowe, Matthews, Merchant, Millar, Miller, Overall, Morrison, Pomeroy, Settle, Thompson, Vaught, Walters and Weaver.

“You’ve got a go ahead,” Mayor Hollis Tharpe told Merchant after a brief, five-minute summary and discussion to open the April 16 work session.

Darryl Merchant, in whose Town office the above sign awaits placement, briefs council on progress and plans for the county’s Blue Ridge Heritage Project. Photo/Roger Bianchini

Asked how project fundraising is going, Merchant replied slowly at this point.  He added that he planned to have informational booths at upcoming events, including Browntown’s spring Redbud Festival and this coming fall’s Festival of the Leaves.  He added that he hopes to have the chimney memorial constructed by the Festival of the Leaves, if not the full kiosk display.  So far Albermarle and Madison Counties have erected their Blue Ridge Heritage memorials.

Additional detail on the Blue Ridge Heritage Project can be acquired from a Facebook page – Front Royal Warren County Blue Ridge Heritage Project.  A display on the Blue Ridge Heritage Project is also in place at the Great Meadows Park visitor site at Milepost 51 on the Skyline Drive.