The rustic log house sits on a stone foundation at the end of a dirt track at 2406 Chestnut Grove Road, about seven miles above Harpers Ferry, W.Va. It could be just another ramshackle abandoned farm building found throughout the area. But it isn’t. It could have been left to the ravages of the weather and time. But it wasn’t. Thanks mainly to the late South Lynn, a history buff with a preservationist’s passion, it is now a National Historic Landmark, managed by a nonprofit, 501c(3) foundation, and has undergone extensive renovations to return it to its original form. Known locally as the Kennedy Farm, after its onetime owner, it served as the rendezvous point and headquarters for John Brown as IN PERSON he prepared for his notorious raid on the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry in the fall of 1859.
That summer, the nondescript building would be home to 21 prospective raiders recruited by Brown, whose youngest daughter, Annie, and daughter-in-law, Martha, did the cooking and housekeeping—and served as lookouts. Posing as Isaac Smith, a New York cattle buyer, Brown rented the secluded house and farmland for $35.
Brown and his raiders set out at dawn on October 16, 1859, and seized the armory and adjacent fire engine house. The
