Ferry Hill Inn

Ferry Hill was the boyhood home of Confederate officer Henry Kyd Douglas, and the property was occupied by both armies at different times during the Civil War.

In 1765 Thomas Van Swearingen bought property on both sides of the Potomac between Shepherdstown, VA, and Sharpsburg, MD, and began operating a ferry. Through marriage, in 1816 John Blackford acquired the property and the rights to operate the ferry. Between 1812 and 1820, the mansion house was built atop the heights that overlooked the river on the Maryland side, which was called Ferry Hill. The house operated as an inn and tavern, and the land was worked by slaves. With the arrival of the nearby Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in the 1830s, the plantation flourished and the small community of Bridgeport developed as a result of the commercial activity in the area.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Henry Kyd Douglas, a young lawyer not long out of college, lived at Ferry Hill with his parents, Rev. Robert and Helene Douglas. Young Douglas had enlisted in a Confederate regiment and was among those troops that burned the toll bridge across the river opposite his family’s house in June 1861. On September 19–20, 1862, during the Battle of Shepherdstown, Union artillery occupied positions on the high ground around the Douglas property and shelled Confederates who were retreating from the battlefield at Antietam. The house was occupied by Union officers and Douglas’ parents were held captive. During the Gettysburg Campaign, the nearby ford was among those used by the Confederates during the invasion of Maryland, and Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson occupied Ferry Hill en route to Pennsylvania.

The Douglas family owned Ferry Hill until 1903. In 1941 the house was converted into a restaurant.  The National Park Service bought the property in 1973. From 1979 until 2001 it served as headquarters for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park. In 2012 Ferry Hill reopened as a National Park Service visitors center with exhibits focusing on the historic property, Henry Kyd Douglas, the Civil War, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.