News
Waterford Corner Store opens anew with history exhibits
With the move of the Waterford Foundation staff from the Corner Store to the Old School complete, our goal is to make the Corner Store better than ever. Given its location in the heart of the village and its wonderful history, we have a lot to build on.
We aim to retain the Corner Store as a corner store and offering a welcoming and educational presence consistent with the Foundation’s mission. At this point that includes
- A new, rotating exhibit in the store launches this weekend with a unique opportunity to see a mourning dress and a goat cart, both of which hail from 1902 Waterford.
- The full selection of Waterford products we have always had at the store: honey, note cards, wrapping paper, ornaments and more.
- For visitors, there are chairs to sit in and friendly neighbors to talk with.
The store has new hours — Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
More plans are in the works for the store, and you’ll be the first to know.
See our Upcoming Events page for more news on what’s happening in our beautiful village.
View our archived newsletters. Check our special concerts, tours, and other events on the calendar on your right.
The First “Waterford News”
During the Civil War three young Quaker women dared to publish a defiant pro-Union newspaper in the village.
It’s been nearly 150 years since three young Quaker women—Sarah Steer, Lizzie Dutton, and Lida Dutton—launched The Waterford News, a defiantly pro-Union newspaper inside Confederate Virginia. They declared their objectives were “to cheer the weary soldier, and render material aid to the sick and wounded.” Risking arrest or worse, they leavened their eyewitness accounts of hardship and horror with youthful wit and unabashed patriotism. The little paper’s fame quickly spread beyond Loudoun County. It was praised by 
Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, and a Maryland resident passed along the first editions to President Lincoln. The accompanying letter to the President reported that the “fair Editresses” had by late June already raised nearly $1,000 for the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a non-government organization providing health and medical care to Union troops.
The newspaper was issued eight times during the final grinding year of the war. The last edition appeared less than a week before Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. After the war The Waterford News was quickly forgotten. Fortunately, over the years, issues long lost came to light. A copy of the eighth and last edition was finally found in 1998.
—From the Introduction by Taylor M. Chamberlin, Bronwen C. Souders, and John M. Souders to the annotated collection—The Waterford News: An underground Union newspaper published by three Quaker maidens in Confederate Virginia 1864-1865—published by the Waterford Foundation in 1999.
To order The Waterford News collection, please click here.
