Montgomery Hall Park offered respite in troubled times
Talk about significant history in our own backyard … that is Montgomery Hall Park, now one of the city of Staunton’s two big parks. Montgomery Hall is history times two, as in two centuries. Montgomery Hall started its life as a fine country home and working wheat farm built for John Howe Peyton and his family. Peyton’s personal story as a lawyer and statesman is fascinating, but the story of his agricultural pursuits and the African-American slaves who lived at Montgomery Hall are also important parts of our Valley history. However, the fact that this 19th-century estate, built on the sweat and labor of African-American slaves, became a unique and prosperous park for Virginia’s African-American community during the period of the Jim Crow South is really the most remarkable part of the story.
But first, there was Peyton. When 30-year-old John Howe Peyton, a Princeton-educated lawyer from Stafford County moved to Staunton, he was positioning himself at the top tier of Virginia’s society. In 1821, upon his marriage to Ann Montgomery Lewis of Sweet Springs, two of Virginia’s historic families were joined. Peyton’s family went back to 17th-century Tidewater plantation owners, and Lewis’ family went directly back to patriarch John Lewis, considered among the earliest and most important settlers in Augusta County when it was the western frontier of American settlement.
The marriage was the second for Peyton, his first wife having died in 1820, leaving him with one child. Peyton’s new marriage prompted him to provide an appropriate living arrangement for his bride and he began building an expansive residence on his property of several hundred acres. It took two years, from 1822-1824, to build Montgomery Hall.
As one of America’s early Republic leaders, Peyton’s social and political circles included U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and U.S. statesman Henry Clay, all of whom stayed at Montgomery Hall. As a lawyer, he served as Augusta County’s commonwealth attorney for 32 years. Some contemporaries called him the “greatest lawyer west of the Blue Ridge.” He also served as mayor of Staunton in 1816 and 1817.
Peyton died in 1847. Exactly a century later Montgomery Hall entered into its second significant phase of history as Montgomery Hall Park — a place for the recreational needs of the African-American community in the Jim Crow South.
Until the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, African Americans in the Jim Crow South lived under the harsh social and legal laws that created a separate and very unequal society. That was as true for African Americans in Staunton and Augusta County as it was anywhere else. However, in 1947, thanks to the perseverance and leadership of Staunton’s African-American community, a small beacon of light was created in the form of Montgomery Hall Park.
As a segregated African-American park, Montgomery Hall was not alone in the Old Dominion, but it was unique in its size and the quality of its amenities and in the fact that it was operated by African Americans with virtually no interference from the white community and officials.
By contrast, the 9.5-acre Washington Park in Charlottesville had no pool, bowling alley or camping space, and very limited picnic facilities. Other facilities in Virginia included state park, Prince Edward Lake, which was opened in 1950 beside the whites-only Goodwin Lake. Today the two are combined as Twin Lakes State Park. In Shenandoah National Park, there was the Lewis Mountain Negro area for camping. And Buckroe Beach had a segregated resort area called Bayshore Beach. Two other segregated parks were Green Pastures Recreation Area (now called Longdale Recreation Area), located in the National Forest near Clifton Forge, and Happyland Lake in Lynchburg — a private reservoir with swimming, boating, and fishing and a dance hall, bar, and restaurant.
Staunton and Augusta County’s white residents had long enjoyed Gypsy Hill Park. Black residents, however, were only allowed to visit that park one day each year. On that single day after the African Americans used the pool, the water was drained from it and it was closed for the season. Rather than submit to such humiliation, many area African Americans refused to step foot on the grounds of Gypsy Hill. However, shortly after World War II, leaders in the black community began asking for more use of Gypsy Hill. The Staunton City Council minutes recorded in January of 1946 the fact that Dr. C.J. Waller as well as other members of “several colored organizations” began pushing to have the opportunity to visit Gypsy Hill Park on certain days every week. This was not an option that the City Council approved of, however, the governing body did listen when African American leaders like the Rev. T.J. Jemison of Mount Zion Baptist Church suggested the city give his community a park of its own.
That was an option the city elders might be able to accommodate. In June of 1946, the city purchased 150 acres and the house known as Montgomery Hall from A.C. Thomas and his wife for $42,500. The city then turned the park over to the African-American community and put the Rev. Jemison in charge of the Negro Recreation Committee. George Taylor was his assistant. For the next two decades, the park was embraced by the African-American community, not just from Staunton, Augusta County, and Waynesboro, but from across the state. It became a haven of recreation, fun, social gatherings, spiritual gatherings, and educational classes for all ages. To its credit, Staunton’s City Council gave the community full control for the operation and maintenance of the park under the control of the park committee. The committee set the rules of the park, established programs, hired employees, oversaw repairs and improvements, and created budgets. Although the city gave the park a limited budget, money for most improvements, equipment, and other extras came from admission fees, concession stand sales, and other fundraising activities.
The formal dedication of the new “recreation center” as the Staunton newspaper called Montgomery Hall Park, took place on July 4, 1947. According to the newspaper, 1,500 persons attended the opening ceremonies including folks from seven other states and “many white friends.” The park formally opened its gates at 10 a.m. with fun and games taking place throughout the day. Activities included volleyball, ping-pong, croquet, horseshoes, bowling, and softball. An afternoon matinee was held with an admission charge of 35 cents. At 8 p.m. that evening, Staunton Mayor William A. Grubert officially turned the park over to the “Negro Committee,” in a short ceremony and reception.
It didn’t take long for the reputation of Montgomery Hall to spread across the state. It was not unusual for several dozen buses from the Valley of Virginia down to Roanoke and Clifton Forge and even east of the mountains from the Charlottesville and Lynchburg area to make the day-long visit to Staunton. In some cases, groups camped overnight at the park. In a summer season that lasted from the beginning of June until Labor Day, visitation often topped 18,000.
In the first seasons of the park, there was one glaring difference between the white park in Staunton and the black park — a swimming pool. Almost from opening day at Montgomery Hall, the recreation committee began weighing options, including obtaining a bank loan, in order to rectify the situation. Then Elizabeth Catlett, a member of a prominent white family in Staunton, died and left $10,000 for the “benefit of the colored people of Staunton.” Catlett’s sister and executor, Amy Catlett, decided to use the money to build at pool at Montgomery Hall Park. The pool opened in 1949.
Montgomery Hall’s time as a segregated park closed in the 1960s, and it went through a period of neglect and disrepair. However in recent years the city has embraced the park, upgraded the fine facilities and the mansion house, and has even erected an historical marker to remember that centuries of history that have taken place at this spot. Today it is a gem of a place for all to enjoy and reflect upon the history that has been a part of this piece of land for more than two centuries.