Home » West Virginia » Shannondale

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.

Shannondale

West Virginia

Basic Information

Type of Place
CDP, Unincorporated Borough, or MCD
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Unions, Organized Labor?

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?
Possible
Was there an ordinance?
Sign?
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?
Don’t Know

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010 3,358 68
2020

Method of Exclusion

Main Ethnic Group(s)

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

Email: “Shannondale started out as a vacation home area along the Shenandoah River in Jefferson County WV. While I was pursuing a debate with the planning commission I ran across an early 1970’s (1974 I think) home owners association document that stated that ‘no persons of non-Caucasian persuasion’ would be allowed to purchase or build in Shannondale. This matched a story I was told by an older African American friend of mine that when she was dating her husband they would take Rt. 9 across the Blue Ridge into VA. She told me that he used to tell her that if the car broke down on the WV side of the mountain after dark they needed to run off the mountain. I also remember seeing something like this in the Sterling Park area of Loudoun County VA in the late 1990’s in the Newberry Condominium Association Bylaws from back in the 1970’s. Perhaps there may have been more ‘sun down’ communities that were not incorporated thus escaped notice of the public or the media.”