Clermont is a farm and national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located near Berryville,

Clarke County, Virginia Clarke County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,783. Its county seat is Berryville. Clarke County is included in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical ...

. The main house was created by Edward Snickers in five parts, beginning in 1756, with additions ''circa'' 1770, 1810 and 1840, with a final addition in 1970. The house has an unusual plan with a stair perpendicular to the central hall. The original land grant was made from

Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (22 October 16939 December 1781), was a Scottish peer. He was the son of Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, and Catherine Colepeper, daughter of Thomas Colepeper, 2nd Baron Colepeper. The on ...

to John Vance in 1751. Vance, born in 1699, was from

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, sailing to America in 1731. In 1753 he sold the property to Thomas Wadlington, who in turn sold to Edward Snickers, who ran a tavern and a ferry on the

Shenandoah River The Shenandoah River is the principal tributary of the Potomac River, long with two forks approximately long each,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 in t ...

near Williams Gap, later called Snickers Gap. His son William inherited the property in 1791. In 1819 William Snickers sold Clermont to Dawson McCormick, whose son Edward inherited the property in 1834. After Edward's death in 1871, his wife Emma sold a of the property to former slaves and other African-Americans in the area, creating the community of Josephine City, now Josephine Street in Berryville.

References

Federal architecture in Virginia Houses completed in 1770 Georgian architecture in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses in Clarke County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Clarke County, Virginia Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia 1770 establishments in Virginia {{ClarkeCountyVA-NRHP-stub