Students of Saint Joseph's Academy in Emmitsburg. Saint Joseph's was founded in 1810 by Elizabeth Ann Seton soon after she established the Sisters of Charity, the first Catholic religious community for women in the United States.
The Johnson Brothers established Catoctin Furnace in 1776. A workforce of skilled enslaved people cut timber and produced charcoal and dug iron ore from the mountainside to operate the furnace. The Ironmaster's Mansion at Catoctin Furnace, seen here, was built around 1785.
Brothers Lawrence and John Creager laid out fifty lots in 1803 and called the new community Mechanicstown. Significant growth came to the community with the opening of the Western Maryland Railroad and it was renamed Thurmont in 1894.
Commemoration of the 190th Anniversary of the founding of the Monocacy Congregation, one of the earliest German churches in Frederick County. Several Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the Monocacy Valley trace their origins to the original congregation at Monocacy.
A Western Maryland Train steaming across a trestle on the eastern ascent of Catoctin Mountain near Thurmont. The Western Maryland Railroad entered Frederick County to the east at Detour and traveled through the northern section of the county, crossing Catoctin Mountain before entering Washington County.
Members of the Boyle family outside their farm equipment business in Emmitsburg. Ploughs, rakes, and planters are visible, all designed to be pulled by teams of draft horses like the two seen in this photograph.
Samuel Emmit laid out the town of Emmitsburg in 1785. The town lies just a mile south of the Mason Dixon Line. This postcard shows the town square in Emmitsburg, looking west along Main Street.
Father John DuBois was born in France and escaped persecution during the French Revolution, immigrating to the United States in 1791. He founded Mount Saint Mary's University in Frederick County in 1808. This view of the campus shows DuBois and Bruté Halls.
The Hilltop State Hospital was established in 1906 as Maryland's first tuberculosis sanitarium. The site for the hospital near Sabillasville was chosen for its environmental qualities and access to railroad transportation. In 1949, the hospital was renamed in honor of its founding director, Dr. Victor F. Cullen. The sanitarium closed in 1965.
An unnamed shopkeeper standing in front of his dry goods store along Main Street in Emmitsburg. The metal bar raised on wooden posts in the front of the store was built for hitching a horse.
Workers building a trestle on the Western Maryland Railroad near Ladiesburg.
Students gathered outside the Sabillasville Elementary School.
A view of Emmitsburg taken from the tower of Saint Joseph's Catholic Church.
Workers inside the Union Manufacturing Company's Emmitsburg branch hosiery factory.
Philips Delight School on Catoctin Mountain was the last operating white one room schoolhouse in Frederick County when it was closed in 1955.
A view of Thurmont's town square looking west along Main Street towards Catoctin Mountain. The building on the left with the spire was built in 1891 as the Birely and Osler Bank. In 1901, a federal charter was secured for the Thurmont National Bank, which moved into the Birely and Osler building.
The Emmitsburg Band marching in a parade along Emmitsburg's Main Street.
Vernon Barbe's general store and the Post Office in Rocky Ridge.
The original Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes on Catoctin Mountain above Mount Saint Mary's University.
Employees gathered in front of Edwin Chrismer's wagon shop in Emmitsburg.
The Western Maryland Railroad depot at Thurmont.
The company store in Catoctin Furnace (building on the left). The Ironmaster's Mansion is visible on the hill behind the store.
Hagerstown and Frederick Railway trolley number 172 at the Thurmont station.
Guests outside the Hotel Slalge on West Main Street in Emmitsburg.
Photographs from Eastern Frederick County
Zion Episcopal Church was completed in 1802 and is one of the oldest surviving religious structures in Frederick County.
Hammond's general store in New Market along Main Street. The tall building to the right operated as one of the taverns serving travelers along the Baltimore Pike, later becoming a restaurant.
The large stone building in the center of this view of East Main Street in Libertytown was built as a private academy for girls in the 1820s.
A view of Monrovia, looking north towards the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The large building on the left was a grain and feed mill.
After the Civil War, the U.S. Freedmen's Bureau established a school for Black children near Mount Pleasant. Later, a one room public schoolhouse was built, seen in this class photograph from the early-20th century.
A view of Horse Head Rock, a cliff located along Route 75 south of Libertytown.
The public school in Unionville began as a private academy opened in the 1890s. The Unionville School was in use until 1938.
Members of the New Market Band gather for a group photograph with some of their children.
Workers cutting the grass in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery at Bush Creek Church of the Brethren, located in Monrovia.
This is the 1903 two room schoolhouse built to serve the community of Johnsville.
Members of the United Volunteer Fire Company outside of their engine house in Libertytown.
New Market residents gathered in front of Downey's general store on the corner of Main Street and Route 75.
A 1970s view of Main Street in New Market, looking east. New Market is located along the historic Baltimore Pike, a segment of the National Road.
The Eagle Hotel was a historic tavern located along the Baltimore Pike at Ridgeville. The arrival the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad transformed the Ridgeville area through the creation of the neighboring town of Mount Airy.
Two young boys standing on Main Street in Libertytown. This view is looking west at the intersection of Routes 26 and 75.
An aerial photograph of Linganore United Methodist Church, located near Unionville.
The People's Bank of Libertytown was opened in 1914. After several mergers, the bank became a branch of Farmers and Mechanics National Bank.
A high wheel or penny-farthing parked at a tree in New Market. Notice the cat sitting on the pedal.
An early-1960s view of Unionville in front of George Von Eiff's general store and service station.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad depot at Ijamsville was the shipping point for large quantities of slate rock quarried nearby.
Stoll Kemp opened an antique shop in New Market in 1936 and urged others to do the same, creating a brand for the town as the "Antiques Capital of Maryland." Here are visitors enjoying one of the antique shops in the 1950s.
The Mapleville Schoolhouse served white children living in the area between Libertytown and Unionville.
A view of the village of Monrovia, located about a mile south of New Market along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
A group of visitors enjoy the view from Lover's Rock, a promontory located about half a mile south of Libertytown along Route 75.
Photographs from Southern Frederick County
Meredith Davis established the first mill along the Monocacy River at Buckeystown in the 1730s. This mill, constructed in the 19th century, was in operation until 1957.
The brick mansion house built by John Frederick Amelung who operated a large glass factory along Bennett Creek near Park Mills from 1784 until the mid-1790s.
Shocks of corn stacked for harvesting in a field near the village of Tuscarora.
Arcadia Mansion is located along Route 85 between Frederick and Lime Kiln. The large mansion was built by Arthur Shaff around the turn of the 19th century.
This stone building was constructed in 1827 and served as the first Methodist Episcopal Church in Buckeystown. It was razed in 1905.
An abandoned log house near Feagaville, photographed by Nicholas Yinger in the 1940s.
A group of men inspect damage along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks at Point of Rocks after waters receded from the 1889 Potomac River Flood.
A view of Buckeystown's Main Street looking north. The large brick house on the right was owned by the Baker Family who were prominent business and community leaders in Buckeystown.
This one room schoolhouse served the African American community of Sunnyside on the eastern slope of Catoctin Mountain between Jefferson and Adamstown.
Parishioners on horseback and in carriages gather in front of Saint Joseph's Catholic Church on Carrollton Manor near Buckeystown.
This two room brick schoolhouse was built in Feagaville in 1892. It still serves as a community hall today.
The iconic Baltimore and Ohio Railroad depot at Point of Rocks was built in 1873 and designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin.
The Buckeystown Colored School stood next to Buckeystown's African American Methodist Church, seen on the right. The original one room school was expanded to two rooms by the date of this photograph.
These buildings housed the Buckeystown Packing and Canning Company, established in 1892. In 1912, automatic huskers were installed in the Buckeystown cannery and in 1913, machines to mechanically seal cans were added.
This is the main building of the Buckingham Industrial School for Boys, founded by the Baker family in 1898. The building is now part of the Claggett Center of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.
Students at the Buckingham Industrial School. Boys aged six to twelve boarded at the school and in addition to attending classes worked in the dairy and farming operations on the campus. The school closed in 1944.
Keller's Garage offered residents of Buckeystown gasoline, tires, and service on early automobiles in the 1920s.
The Comstock School was built around 1910 by Gordon Stronge, owner of Sugarloaf Mountain, to serve children of Black families living in the Mount Ephraim neighborhood. On the right can be seen the back section of Bells Chapel Methodist Church.
A Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train steaming out of the western side of the Point of Rocks Tunnel.
Completed in early-1925, this building initially served as the Adamstown High School before becoming an Elementary School. It remained in use until Carroll Manor Elementary School opened in 1965.
Two children take a sled ride down the hill on Doub's Main Street in front of Davis' general store and gas station.
A canoe ferrying stranded residents through the flooded streets of Point of Rocks during the 1936 Potomac River Flood.
A train car hauling tanks during WWII crosses the Main Street in Doubs.
The wreckage of the two-span iron truss bridge over the Monocacy River at Lilypons taken after Hurricane Agnes in 1972.
Photographs from Western Frederick County
A view of the Middletown Valley from Braddock Heights. The valley comprises much of the western third of Frederick County, bounded by South Mountain to the west and Catoctin Mountain to the east.
Middletown was founded in 1767 when Michael Jesserong offered lots for sale on his "Smithfield" tract. In 1768, he transferred his land to Conrad Crone who settled in Middletown and became the new town's proprietor.
The village of Burkittsville was established in the late-18th century near Crampton's Gap, a natural pass over South Mountain, which is visible in the background of this circa 1890 photograph.
A group of visitors, including local historian and Judge Edward S. Delaplaine (second from left) visit the monument to U.S. General Jesse Reno on the South Mountain Battlefield in Fox's Gap. General Reno was killed in the battle on September 14, 1862.
Frederick County was once dotted with nearly one hundred flour mills, including this one known as the Duvall Mill. This mill stood along Easterday Road north of Myersville.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal extends across the full length of Frederick County's southern border. This photograph was taken at Lock 30 at Brunswick. A Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train can be seen on the right.
In 1847, a coal powered iron furnace was built along the C&O Canal and B&O Railroad just outside the village of Knoxville. The furnace operated sporadically over the next fifty years, having long been abandoned when this photograph was taken in 1902.
Author and journalist George Alfred Townsend erected this unique monument to the memory of correspondents, photographers, and artists who covered the American Civil War. Completed in 1896, it is the first known monument in the world to war correspondents.
Workers installing tracks down Myersville's Main Street for the Myersville and Catoctin Railway in 1896, a segment of the future Hagerstown and Frederick Railway.
Once the largest rail yard operated by a single carrier (the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad), the Brunswick Yards were at the height of their operation when this photograph was taken around 1905.
Charles Wenner established this flour mill between the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad in the village of Berlin in 1845. The mill continued to operate for decades as the community around it transformed into the city of Brunswick. A fire destroyed Wenner's Mill in 1972.
Students gathered in front of the Myersville Elementary School.
In 1893, a ten-span iron bridge was opened across the Potomac River at Brunswick. This view of the bridge with people walking across its wooden plank roadbed was taken on the Virginia side, looking north towards Brunswick.
The small village of Myersville grew and modernized with the opening of the Myersville and Catoctin Railway in 1898. This electric trolley line was consolidated into the Hagerstown and Frederick Railway and Myersville became the midpoint stop for passengers traveling between the two cities.
Members of the Harmony Cornet Band gather for a photograph outside Harmony's brick schoolhouse. The band is one of only a couple community bands still active today in Frederick County.
The center of Braddock Height's popular summer resort for over twenty years. Completed in 1905, the three-story hotel stood along Maryland Avenue, overlooking the Middletown Valley. It was destroyed by fire in 1929.
Hagerstown and Frederick Railway car 160 is seen here stopped at the Middletown depot in the 1940s.
A branch of the Commercial Bank of Maryland was opened in Jefferson in 1916. The bank was later merged into the Western Maryland Trust Company and subsequently into the Maryland National Bank.
A brick one room schoolhouse was built for Black students in Brunswick in 1905 on Wenner's Hill. This school remained in use until the integration of Brunswick's other public schools in the late-1950s.
The Brunswick YMCA, located next to the rail yard, was a social hub for the community and provided housing for transient railroad workers for over 70 years until it was destroyed by fire in 1980.
This four-room schoolhouse served children in Wolfsville from its completion in 1915 until the present Elementary School opened in 1959.
The large Queen Anne styled house of Dr. Levin West on A Street in Brunswick.
A view of Main Street in Middletown, looking east. Middletown's Main Street is part of the Baltimore Pike, a section of the historic National Road.
The covered bridge that carried the Baltimore Pike over Catoctin Creek west of Middletown near the hamlet of Spoolsville. This bridge was replaced with a concrete structure in 1923.
Brunswick's Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Depot was built in 1891 and continues to serve as a passenger station for MARC service.
Students gathered outside the Middletown Elementary (right) and High (left) Schools, located along Prospect Street.
A busy scene along Potomac Street in downtown Brunswick.
A view of Braddock Heights from the top of the observation tower in its amusement park. The large building near the center of this view was the Hotel Braddock.
The Hagerstown and Frederick Railway built a branch line starting at Braddock Heights which ended in the town of Jefferson, though it was originally intended to continue on to Brunswick. The trolley station seen in this photograph still survives at Jefferson today.
Children on the playground in Braddock Heights Amusement Park. Opened in the mid-1890s, the park was the centerpiece of the Braddock Heights Resort, entertaining visitors until its closure in 1964.
Photographs from Central Frederick County
Indigenous peoples inhabiting Frederick County for centuries built stone structures called weirs which trapped fish in local rivers and creeks. This weir was photographed near Monocacy Junction.
The Baltimore and Frederick Turnpike was constructed in 1807-1808 to connect Baltimore with the start of the National Road in Cumberland. The pike crossed the Monocacy River east of Frederick where this tollhouse was built to collect fares from travelers on the road.
In the age of horse travel, blacksmiths and farriers were essential roadside services. This blacksmith shop was located near Woodsboro.
The Monocacy River Bridge on the Baltimore and Frederick Turnpike was hailed as a triumph of engineering upon its completion in 1808. The bridge was built of four 65-foot wide arches and had a decorative demijohn monument on its eastern end, leading to the nickname "Jug Bridge." The structure collapsed in 1942.
The Kemp Family acquired several large tracts of land northwest of Frederick in the Yellow Springs area in the early-18th century. This view of one of the Kemp Farms shows the tracks of the Hagerstown and Frederick Railroad passing in front of the farmstead.
From the beginning of colonial settlement until the Civil War, wheat was Frederick County's chief cash crop, requiring mills to process the grain into flour and meal. Kelly's Mill at Ceresville was built in 1813 by William E. Williams, replacing an early mill dating from 1795. The mill remained in operation until 1988.
J. Davis Byerly captured this view of the Monocacy Junction during a flood in 1889. During the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864, United States soldiers defended the B&O Railroad Bridge from the hillside visible to the left.
The Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad was completed between Frederick and Kingsdale, Pennsylvania, in 1872. Further branch lines in Pennsylvania connected the railroad to Lancaster. The Woodsboro Train Station was completed in 1882 and served both freight and passenger operations.
One of three historic covered bridges surviving in Frederick County is located near the village of Utica. Originally part of a two-span bridge across the Monocacy, the bridge was rebuilt in its present location over Fishing Creek in 1891.
Members of the Snook Family pose for a photograph with their new automobile on the family farm near Utica. The Snook Farm is now preserved as the centerpiece of the Utica District Park.
Jousting or tournament riding is the official sport of Maryland. Mounted riders use a pointed lance to spear rings hung from posts on the course as seen in this tournament held near Woodsboro.
Students pose for a photograph on the steps of the Daysville School, located between Walkersville and Libertytown.
The Woodsboro Concert Band was organized in 1897, the successor to an earlier community band from this central Frederick County community.
The Woodsboro Savings Bank was established in 1899. This three-story brick building was opened in 1901 with the bank on the first floor and the Woodsboro Opera House on the second. The building continues to serve as the Woodsboro Bank today.
Creagerstown was established in the 1770s when Isaac Kolb constructed the first house in the newly-laid out village. Creagerstown grew into a bustling crossroads with stores, a tavern, and tannery, but much of the town center was destroyed by a fire in 1914.
James LeGore established a limestone quarry north of Woodsboro on 200 acres of land in 1861. This early view of the quarry shows the massive stone kilns where crushed limestone was burned to create quicklime. Housing for quarry workers and their families built by LeGore can be seen on the top of the hill in the background.
Workers load crushed limestone into rail cars near the LeGore Quarry at Woodsboro. Limestone was used for construction both as a building material and an element for making plaster and cement. Powdered quicklime was used as a fertilizer for farm fields throughout Frederick County.
The use of crushed limestone for macadamizing roads in the United States began in Maryland in 1823. Frederick County's ample supply of limestone helped macadamize roads throughout the country. This view shows LeGore Quarry in the early-1920s when improved machinery helped to mechanize the processing of limestone.
James LeGore funded the construction of a five-arch stone bridge across the Monocacy north of his limestone quarry in the early-twentieth century. The bridge was intended to carry both vehicle and railroad traffic, though the planned railroad was never built. The bridge remains in use today.
The town of Walkersville was established near Biggs Ford, where the historic Monocacy Road crossed the Monocacy River before heading south into Frederick. The town is named for John Walker who purchased the land on which it is located in 1814. An earlier village nearby called Georgetown was subsumed by the growing Walkersville in the late-nineteenth century.
Early colonial settlers in the Walkersville area referred to the gently rolling landscape as "The Glades." The Rev. Michael Schlatter of the German Reformed Church established a congregation here in 1750 which continues today as Glade United Church of Christ. This structure on Fulton Avenue in Walkersville was built in 1896.
The building in this photograph was opened in 1922 to serve Walkersville students from grades one to eleven. The school continued as Walkersville High School until a larger building was constructed in 1960.
In July 1911, the Maryland National Guard encamped at the Putnam Farm near Rocky Springs for three weeks of training and drilling. Known as "Camp Warfield," the guardsmen also played baseball and other sports for local spectators during the encampment.
In 1929, a tornado caused considerable damages to farms near Ceresville and Harmony Grove. Potomac Edison linemen are seen here repairing damage to electric lines and poles after the tornado.
A family poses for a photograph at Braddock Spring, located on the eastern slope of Catoctin Mountain west of Frederick. The spring has long had an association with General Edward Braddock whose British soldiers marched over the mountain near the spring in 1759 on the way to Fort Duquesne.
Until the 1970s, the area along the Old National Pike west of Frederick was covered by farms, including Elmwood, seen here. Owned by the Wertheimer Family, Elmwood became the site of the Fredericktown Mall in 1972, the county's first indoor shopping mall.
The Civilian Conservation Corps built a camp in 1933 near the Wertheimer Farm. In 1944, hundreds of German prisoners of war were detained at the camp, later working on area farms throughout the duration of World War II.
The Frederick Junction Depot housed a telegraph office, waiting area for train passengers, and post office when this photograph was taken. The station stood at the junction of the B&O Main Line from Baltimore and the Frederick Branch.
Marion Coleman opened the Sycamore Service Center along the Old National Pike east of Frederick in 1928. Overtime, subsequent owners added a feed and grocery store and in 1954, Melvin and Virgie Bowers purchased the service station, adding a redwing shoe store. The service center closed in 1996.
Local historian and retired judge Edward S. Delaplaine and beloved Frederick County artist Helen Smith are seen here in front of the Utica Covered Bridge. Along with the Loys Station and Roddy Road covered bridges, Utica Bridge remains a historic landmark today, one of only six surviving covered bridges in Maryland.
