The Connorton House

The Connorton House was the home of town sergeant Bud Connorton. On Sunday April 11, 1920, Connorton shot and wounded 17-year-old Roland Parks while trying to enforce a town ordinance forbidding loafing on store porches and streets on Sunday and requiring residents to be in church during the hours of service or in their homes. Parks said he was simply getting ice cream to take to his invalid mother. Connorton turned himself in to county authorities, stood trial, and was sentenced to one year in prison. After serving a brief prison term, he was pardoned by the Governor and returned to Tangier as deputy sheriff. A few months later he was shot and killed, and his assailant was never identified. Roland Parks survived his wounds, later ran the family store, served on the town council, and died peacefully in 1973.

Tangier, Virginia · United States