Middleway Day, held annually in mid-October, brings out the community to celebrate this historic Jefferson County village located seven miles west of Charles Town. Middleway traces its history to a land grant of 420 acres from the Governor of Virginia to John Smith in 1734 — the same year the Governor granted 222 acres to Thomas Shepherd for the similar purpose of establishing a settlement in the western part of the Virginia colony.
The plentiful water of Turkey Run figured prominently in attracting English settlers to this location, according to “The Story of Smithfield (Middleway)” by Robert Bates published in 1958. A grain mill powered by the stream was the first commercial enterprise to be established. The village sat near the intersection of two early thoroughfares through the lower Shenandoah Valley, both of which by the mid-1700s had evolved from Native American trails into primitive roads. The east-west route (now Route 51) ran westward from Keys Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The north-south route, known as Queen Street within the village limits, was one of the early paths of the Great Wagon Road, connecting Pack Horse Ford at the Potomac River near Shepherdstown, the settlement at Berryville, and continuing southward into the valley.
In the book’s introduction, Bates quotes an early 20th-century visitor who remarked “Time has changed the place but little. Log houses that date back to the 18th century are still standing and still occupied. The tourist, by a short detour from the main highways, can here see a relic of the past. Log, brick and stone buildings abut the streets. An old tavern stands as it did in the days of Washington.”
The Middleway Conservancy website has a brief history of the area. It notes that the village’s current name originated with the post office that was established in 1807, designated “Middleway” to avoid confusion with another town with the Smithfield name in the tidewater region of Virginia. The Conservancy website states that there were numerous shops in the village by the early 1800s, but the decision by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to bypass Middleway ultimately led to a sharp decline in commercial activity within the village. The Civil War also wreaked havoc upon the village, particularly with the battle of Smithfield in August of 1864.
The Middleway Historic District was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 with 50 contributing structures. The Middleway Conservancy Association (MiddlewayConservancy.org) was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to focus on preserving the historic village. The Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission (JeffersonCountyHLC.org) also provides guidance and recommendations for preservation efforts.
