A vista atop Magazine Hill overlooks the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers as they converge at Harpers Ferry. From above, visitors can watch the two bodies of water taper into one, cutting east through the mountains.
Today, the overlook is surrounded by chain-link fences and construction equipment — remnants of an ongoing development project. But just a few years ago, something else stood at the site: one of the most iconic buildings in Harpers Ferry.
In 1890, a pair of Black newlyweds named Lavinia and Thomas Lovett opened an inn and restaurant there called Hill Top House. Despite the rampant racial discrimination Black Americans faced in the Jim Crow era, they successfully ran the hotel for 35 years, serving a multiracial clientele.
Yet local historian and author Lynn Pechuekonis says many people who visit town do not know the story of the Lovett family, including some of those for whom Hill Top House was once a familiar sight.
That is why she wrote her latest book, Among The Mountains: The Lovetts And Their Hill Top House — to ensure the Lovetts claim their rightful place in the annals of West Virginia history.
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