Espionage. Spies. Scandal. Not words typically associated with Small Town U.S.A. However, Harrisonburg got its own taste of excitement when Isabelle “Belle” Boyd stopped by the Warren Hotel in 1863.

Boyd, born in Martinsburg, Virginia in 1843, began her career as a spy as a young girl when she overheard Northern officers, who had taken over her home, talking battle strategies. She managed to live the “colorful life as a spy”, as her business in espionage took her all over the South in order to convey messages to Stonewall Jackson.

Harrisonburg newspapers expressed pride in Boyd’s spying, referring to her as the “lovely and bewitching” woman who dropped by the Warren Hotel, perhaps collecting intelligence from the Northern troops that were occupying Harrisonburg during the year of the visit. Newspapers from primarily the 1950’s and 1960’s relish on the notoriety she brought to the hotel, having only positive remarks about her and even lamenting her death.Postcards from Harrisonburg Hotels advertise Boyd’s trip to Harrisonburg, perhaps using her visit as incentive to draw attention to the notoriety that stopped by Harrisonburg.