The open windows provided little reprieve from the heat inside the room where the town council of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia met on a recent summer day. Attendees perspired and fanned themselves as they listened to discussions about the Christmas market, town expenditures, and plans to apply for a sign to commemorate a Union army Civil War general.
The temperature seemed to climb even higher when talk turned to a proposed equality ordinance that would prohibit discrimination based on sexuality, gender identity and expression.
Just up the hill from the Town of Bath Municipal Center, a 140-year-old structure loomed large over the proceedings: Berkeley Castle, which since 2020 has been the headquarters for the anti-immigrant website VDARE. The castle has long been a source of town pride. Today, because of VDARE, it’s a wedge driving the town apart.
During his remarks, the man behind the push for the town to pass an equality ordinance alluded to the elephant up the hill.
“Recent months the division in this town, caused by whoever it may be, is making us look like a bunch of white supremacist, antisemitic [people],” said Scott Collinash, co-founder of Berkeley Springs Pride.
Some nodded; others shifted uncomfortably.
Since its 1999 founding, VDARE has become extremely influential in conservative circles. Peter and Lydia Brimelow, the husband-and-wife duo behind it, have claimed responsibility for seeding the right-wing thought ecosystem with the “great replacement,” a white nationalist theory that there’s a conspiracy to replace white Americans with nonwhite immigrants. Rather than being shunned for such views, the pair have been known to associate with big-name Republicans like Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr., and Jack Posobiec—in addition to fringier figures that include some of their writers.
Their time in the sun may be running out, however.
Berkeley Springs potentially banning discriminating against LGBTQ people is another in a string of unwelcome news for the Brimelows. VDARE is being investigated by the state of New York, where the nonprofit is registered, over its purchase of Berkeley Castle and subsequent sale of it and surrounding properties to the nonprofit Berkeley Castle Foundation and for-profit BBB, both of which are helmed by Lydia. VDARE insists they haven’t done anything illegal and that they’ve been cooperating with the investigation. It’s also been fighting the New York Attorney General’s Office’s demand for the names of its pseudonymous writers. In May, it lost its appeal.
Then in July, the 25-year-old website notorious for publishing some of the nation’s most prominent white nationalists made a shocking announcement: it was shutting down and Peter was resigning. Peter blamed New York for “murder[ing]” the site. Its archives remain online, however, though they’ve warned people to access them “while you can.”
The New York Attorney General’s Office investigation continues.
“The closure of VDARE and Mr. Brimelow’s resignation do not impact our ongoing investigation. VDARE must follow the court’s order and comply with our subpoenas,” the office told the Daily Dot via email last month.
Weeks after VDARE posted its farewell, mother nature took a pound of flesh from the site that has long published the likes of Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler. Tropical Storm Debby tore through West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, causing tornadoes, one death, and leaving a path of destruction that included a rockslide in front of the castle.
The rockslide stoked fears that the road by the castle, which is one of the main arteries into town, is structurally unsafe. The West Virginia Department of Transportation did not respond to multiple inquiries. Rumors flew that the rockslide caused a sewage pipe to burst under the castle. On Sept. 4, an X (formerly Twitter) account called Berkeley Springs Castle tweeted, “Port-o-let no longer needed, sewer damage from the rock slide is fixed!”
Peter Brimelow dismissed reports of a sewage leak as “another lie invented by hysterical local communists” and said they’re working with “all local authorities” to repair the damage. He did not respond to a follow-up inquiry about which authorities they were working with and who is paying for the repairs.
The ‘castle people’ make their mark
Berkeley Springs is best known as a tourist destination with lush scenery, natural springs, and a taste of history. George Washington famously frequented the town from the days of his youth. Today the warm springs that run through town include a nod to his patronage in the form of the recreated “George Washington’s bathtub.”
People from the area (including this reporter) will tell you that Berkeley Springs also has a reputation for being run by a good ol’ boys club that resists change and closes ranks on outsiders, perhaps especially transplants from the city.
Residents say VDARE arriving and turning the beloved castle into its headquarters divided the town.
“Up until VDARE came to our town, we were all neighbors,” Trey Johanson told the Daily Dot last fall. “And we could disagree and say, ‘Please pass the mashed potatoes.’”
VDARE also shone an unwelcome spotlight on Berkeley Springs. Reporters showed up. Locals recognized prominent far-right figures believed to be in town for VDARE events. Talk of the “castle people,” as the Brimelows have become known, spread through the mountains. Pretty much everyone in the region has fond memories of touring Berkeley Castle in their youth. It’s a stunning structure made even more so by its incongruous placement deep in the heart of Appalachia.
Today a weariness settles over townsfolk when the subject of the castle comes up. Even people who may not take issue with VDARE worry that being associated with it is doing long-term damage to Berkeley Springs’ reputation and could hurt the tourism that’s vital to many local businesses. Lydia being in the local chamber of commerce as the representative of the Berkeley Castle Foundation sticks in many locals’ craws.
Some feel that banning discrimination would be seen as a means of disassociating the town from the Brimelows and VDARE.
A stand against discrimination. A stand against VDARE?
On its surface, Berkeley Springs’ proposed equality ordinance isn’t particularly remarkable. Cities and towns of all sizes have passed laws protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination in recent decades; often these laws sail through with little pushback. In 2015, the smallest town in the country, Thurmond, West Virginia, made headlines when all five residents voted to ban discriminating against LGBTQ people.
Prohibiting discrimination in a town that is the headquarters of what many deem a hate group—a label the Brimelows reject—is certainly more significant, even symbolic.
It remains to be seen whether local representatives are willing to vote “yes.”
An undercurrent of division ran through the rules committee meeting held two days after the equality ordinance first came before town council. There were many supporters in the audience. Collinash, who proposed the law, suggested that it might help local businesses by encouraging people to visit Berkeley Springs. The representatives on the dais didn’t seem quite as convinced. One opined that she’d never heard of anyone being discriminated against in Berkeley Springs—an allegation some locals scoff at—and suggested she didn’t think it was necessary. Other committee members worried that local businesses would be unfairly maligned if people could sue for discrimination in public accommodation, housing, or employment, as the ordinance provides.
Andrew Schneider, executive director of LGBTQ equality advocacy organization Fairness West Virginia, replied that the last concern was more “a factor of social media.” Schneider also said that of the 19 West Virginia towns that have passed such ordinances since 2007, only three cases have been filed and all in the state capital.
“Let’s hope, if you were to adopt this law, it will never have to be used, but it’s there as assurance. It’s like an insurance policy unless someone has malicious intent to do something,” Schneider said.
To this, Councilwoman Mary Lynn Hickey replied, “We’ve seen that here too, which gives us pause when, you know, folks are just trying to run a business and they get caught in the crosshairs of things.”
As the discussion dragged on, an obviously exasperated audience member wearing a Kamala Harris button pointed out that they’d get more bad press if Berkeley Springs doesn’t pass the ordinance.
“We got lots of press about the castle and stuff, which isn’t even in town,” Hickey said a few minutes later.
(Berkeley Castle is a few feet outside town limits.)
Michael Edison Hayden, who is writing a book about the Brimelows’ impact on the town, agrees that VDARE has sullied Berkeley Springs’ image and passing the ordinance could help rehabilitate it.
“Although Berkeley Springs has a complex history, the last four years have been overshadowed by the area’s most prominent residents and that’s Peter and Lydia Brimelow. There’s anecdotal evidence to suggest that their purchase of the castle has harmed the town’s reputation,” Hayden, who is a friend, told me.
“I think at minimum this would represent a step towards reshaping Berkeley Springs’ identity in the aftermath of their purchase of the castle.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Peter is displeased with the law proposed in his relatively recently adopted hometown.
“VDARE has no official position on the ordinance. Personally, I think it will just morph into a way to persecute Christians and should anyway include Viewpoint Discrimination, i.e. ban local communists from trying (unsuccessfully) to get our neighbors to refuse to work with us,” he told the Daily Dot via email.
The proposed ordinance includes exemptions for churches and religious groups.
The tide may be turning against the Brimelows in Berkeley Springs. Between residents’ irritation over being known as the home of VDARE, the potential the town could ban discriminating against LGBTQ people, and the possibility that the presidential election will put the final nail in former President Donald Trump’s political coffin, there is a sense of cautious optimism among people who oppose VDARE and everything it stands for.
Trey and Paul Johanson are among them.
“In my lifetime, we have shifted from homosexuality being abhorrent and immoral to now where we can really go into rooms and say the moral choice is to make laws that codify equality,” Trey recently told me.
“The backlash is a test of our convictions,” Paul said. “Where is our American consciousness? Have we really moved there, or will it fold under pressure? And it’s a mix of both.”
The equality ordinance comes before the full town council on Sept. 19. Between now and then, there are certain to be a lot of feelings expressed about it around town. If it passes, it may be taken as a rebuke of VDARE and the Brimelows. If it fails, it may be seen as a sign that the town isn’t ready to take a strong public stance against them and what they represent.
Either way, it doesn’t appear that the Brimelows are leaving Berkeley Springs anytime soon.
As people filed out of the rules committee meeting on that August day, they passed a flier advertising a $175 per person Halloween murder mystery dinner at Berkeley Castle.
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