Old Stone Jail Museum

Maggie’s House – Home of the Archives & Library

Maggie’s House is the home of the Fluvanna Historical Society and is located beside the Old Stone Jail Museum. At Maggie’s House, visitors can access the archives and research library and work alongside archive volunteers to research topics of interest. The archives contain many original documents including ledgers, photographs, journals, letters, maps, newspapers, genealogical information and much more. Let us know in advance what you’re looking for and we can pull together resources for you for your visit, or let us help you with your research by filling out a  Request for Research form.

To see what is located in the Archives and Research Library, please see our Research page.

While you’re visiting the Historic Courthouse, make sure to take the Palmyra Village Walking Tour to learn this history of the Fluvanna County seat. 

The History of Maggie’s House

Maggie’s House was built prior to 1854. The original house was just three rooms, stacked one on top of the other. The basement room had a separate entrance from the outside. The first addition, a kitchen and dining room, was probably made in the 1850s when James Garnett and his family lived in the house. He was a tailor who became a constable during the Civil War and purchased the house 1854 when lots in Palmyra Village were subdivided. The north room and a Victorian porch were added over the years and lastly, a back enclosed porch. The north room has a separate porch entrance, and it is rumored that it was once used as a post office.

Maggie’s House is named for Maggie Mae Harris Conrad Herndon. Maggie was born February 29, 1908 in Albemarle County to Thomas Ashby Harris and Mary Virginia Childress. She married William Conrad in 1925 and had one daughter with him, Mary Elizabeth, born in 1928. William was a deputy sheriff, and Maggie cooked meals for the prisoners at the Old Stone Jail. William’s family owned and operated a general store called Conrad’s Store in the Village of Palmyra for almost 75 years, across the court green from Maggie’s House. The store burned in 1930 in the fire that destroyed several buildings along Main Street in Palmyra, but was rebuilt and continued to operate.  Maggie helped in the store, and, after the death of William in 1954, ran the store herself until she sold it in 1974. Maggie remarried Kenneth Lewis Herndon in 1965, and died in 1993. The Fluvanna Historical Society purchased the house in 2003 and it is now the headquarters for the Society, housing our archives, library, and offices.  

To this day, we celebrate this well-known and beloved woman entrepreneur, who kept a family business thriving, continuing to serve the community for twenty years on her own, through her name of our archives building. Some still remember the delicious, enticing smell of her pies, set to cool in the windowsill of her kitchen, even after all these years.