Locust Hill stood on a section of the Harwood property in Berkeley County that had once been part of land George Washington surveyed for his brother Samuel Washington. Dr. Samuel Washington, grandson of Colonel Samuel Washington, gave this portion of the home property to his daughter Lucy Elizabeth, and in 1840, after marrying John Bainbridge Packette, she built a square mansion there and named it Locust Hill. The house was designed both for hospitality and protection, with a broad central entrance that could welcome guests or be secured with an oak bar and iron slots, a spacious hall, front rooms on either side, and two large rear rooms that could be opened together into a drawing room or ballroom. During the 1870s, the basement kitchen was moved to its present location and a former porch enclosing the full length of the house was added. Facing east, Locust Hill overlooked the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Harper’s Ferry Gap eleven miles away, and an old stone smoke house and carriage house remained on the property. During the Civil War, Locust Hill became a fort when General Philip Sheridan and his men occupied the estate in the summer of 1864, confining the Packette family, servants, and guests in the basement under guard while he used the house as headquarters. On August 21, General Jubal Early warned that the house would be shelled and that any civilians should be removed. Waiting at the back of the stone fence that marked Locust Hill’s western boundary with Sulgrave, Early grew impatient, and his troops fired a cannon ball down the chimney, blowing the stove to pieces as the family was leaving the kitchen under guard. Some Federal soldiers then put on clothes left behind by the women and appeared at the windows in hopes that Early’s men would believe the family was still inside, but the ruse was discovered and all were killed. After burying their dead on the estate, Sheridan and his troops withdrew toward Harper’s Ferry. After the war, the bodies were removed from Locust Hill and reburied in the National Cemetery at Winchester. Bullet and cannon-ball damage remained visible on the rear wall of the house, and a long north porch destroyed in the fighting was later restored.