This historic building currently houses the municipal offices of the Town of Elkton. The Jennings house was used as a hospital during the Civil War. Wounded Confederate soldiers were treated under an ancient oak tree that still stands in the front yard. (At this time this Oak tree was already 147 years old!) This house is located at 173 West Spotswood Avenue beside the tennis courts and across the street from the McDonalds in Elkton. Listed below is the rest of the story about this historic Jennings house.
1862 & 1864 Valley Campaigns.
This eight-room brick dwelling was built in 1840 for Dr. Simeon B. Jennings, a former resident of Port Republic. At the time of the Civil War, it was one of only half a dozen houses located in the Conrad's Store (present-day Elkton) community.
On the evening of April 19, 1862, Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's 6,000-man army marched by here and into a bivouac that stretched to Swift Run. After Jackson's men departed on April 30, Gen. Richard S. Ewell's division crossed through Swift Run Gap east of here and occupied the still-burning campsites for the next two weeks. According to Cpl. Randolph H. McKim, Co. H, 1st Maryland Infantry (C.S.A.), the monotony of camp life was "varied for some of us by visits to Doctor Jennings', whose charming daughters [Ann, Elizabeth, Virginia, Marietta, Mary, and Malinda] greatly attracted us. ... There we had music and song and bright and merry converse, which speedily banished the memory of the hardships of the past two months."
After the Battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic (June 8-9, 1862), Jennings and his wife Barbara ministered to dozens of wounded Confederate soldiers in their house. The more severely wounded soldiers are said to have been placed beneath this giant burr oak, where they were treated before being transferred to hospitals.
In October 1864, during Union Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's burning of the Shenandoah Valley, Jennings' nearby flour mill was destroyed by fire.
This information obtained from the Historical Marker Project website.
http://www.historicalmarkerproject.com/markers/HM1B0_jennings-house_Elkton-VA.html
