M iddle class English Quakers from Pennsylvania were the first to settle Taylorstown , in the 1730s when Richard Brown built a mill and house on the east bank of Catoctin Creek which would become the center of the tiny village and a key place to cross the creek .
gling toward the mighty river were perfect camping grounds . Their day-to-day detritus ( a . k . a . “ artifacts ”) would be left for us to find all around today ’ s village of Taylorstown sitting along that creek .
Middle class English Quakers from Pennsylvania were the first to settle Taylorstown , in the 1730s when Richard Brown built a mill and house on the east bank of Catoctin Creek which would become the center of the tiny village and a key place to cross the creek . Yet Loudoun in its mid-18th century settlement became a polyglot of European cultures and faiths . Just across Catoctin Creek , save for the lone stone Foxton Cottage that faces Hunting Hill , most of the homes are of the log construction favored by German settlers also coming down from Pennsylvania , hailing from the Palatinate region of Germany on the west bank of the Rhine .
If the Quaker side of the creek became “ Taylorstown ,” named after the builder of the currently standing stone and wood mill , the Germans called their side of the Catoctin “ Hoysville ” after a local family who opened a store a mile up the road ( now gone ).
The German farms raised livestock and the grain to sustain it , while their cross-creek Quaker neighbors raised mostly wheat-hence the mill . They shared something crucial in common : they were not from nor did they think like those who had come out to the frontier from Tidewater , Virginia . Unlike those English settlers who settled eastern and southern Loudoun bringing indentured servants and slave labor to plant tobacco — and who would run Loudoun from the get-go — these settlers eschewed such .
Today ’ s Taylorstown includes both sides of the creek as far as locals are concerned , yet there are three tiers of locals . Descendants of the original settlers predominated here until the 1960s . But the mountain , the creek , the stone and log houses , open spaces , handsome landscape , and affordable housing prices led people from Greater Washington to discover Taylorstown in the 1960s through the 70s and beyond . The train could be taken to the city for work as grain had been in the old days . Quaint houses were lovingly restored and an interest in historic preservation fostered . A few new homes were built to experience the off-the-road quiet .
Through the 20th century , these two groups , descendants and newcomers , while culturally separate on the one hand , joined together for others — church , sports , mutual love of the unique and semi-isolated area , use of the Taylorstown General Store , and an annual spring “ Mountain Party .”
All helped residents old and new to rub elbows .
A key factor linked all parties come 1974 : the announcement of a plan by the U . S . Corps of Engineers for a 3,800 acre five-mile-long reservoir to be built for Washington by flooding the Catoctin Valley . Lakeside property might have its merits , but would have destroyed most of the historic structures that made up the village of Taylorstown and in the scenic valley miles below it to the tip of Waterford . Organized into the Catoctin Valley Defense Alliance , the reservoir idea was so vociferously opposed locally that crucial allies were made and the reservoir notion was dropped . The County of Loudoun created the Taylorstown Historic District comprised of the village ’ s oldest buildings and Taylorstown was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 . The Catoctin became a Virginia Scenic River from Waterford to the Potomac in 1976 .
Since 1998 , Taylorstown has been without a functioning store and other changes have come . Several “ hamlet ” subdivisions have been built north of the village along Taylorstown Road and two rather unique “ Eco-Villages ” created with residents committing to environmentally gentle building techniques and activity . The eco-villages in particular have been key players in the community . The mountain party is now gone but an annual barn dance sponsored by the Taylorstown Community Association allows elbows still to be rubbed . Also , Creek ’ s Edge Winery came to the village and Flying Ace Brewery & Distillery opened two miles up Taylorstown Road .
18 wander I spring • summer 2022