Historic Preservation Plan - Adopted June 12, 2007

Historic Preservation Interim Design Guidelines

Historic Preservation Ordinance

The commissioners adopted the County Historic Preservation Plan, the formal policy document, on February 18, 1997. The plan is the county's statement of the goals and objectives that it wants to achieve regarding the preservation of historic properties in the unincorporated areas of Frederick County. Within the incorporated municipalities, the local governments have the powers under state law to adopt their own legislation about historic sites. The City of Frederick and the Town of New Market are the only 2 municipalities thus far to have adopted local historic preservation ordinances. The implementation of the Historic Preservation Plan is the way in which the county government will proceed to reach the goals and objectives. The Historic Preservation Ordinance is a legislative tool that sets up a program of recognition of historic sites by owner-initiated designation to a landmarks list, called the County Register of Historic Places, and protects those designated sites through the requirement for review of exterior alterations by the Historic Preservation Commission.

Designations to the County Register are encouraged by the availability of certain financial and regulatory incentives. A local property tax credit for approved rehabilitation work is offered. State and/or federal income tax credits for rehabilitation that meet the standards of the National Park Service may be used, and loan and grant programs through the Maryland Historical Trust, the state agency for historic preservation, are available to owners of County Register properties.

On January 1, 1998, the Historic Preservation Ordinance became effective. The ordinance established the County Historic Preservation Commission as the reviewing body and the County Register of Historic Places as the official landmark list. The program is voluntary and owners wishing to have their properties listed on the County Register must nominate them for designation. The Historic Preservation Commission must hold a hearing and the Commission's recommendation is forwarded to the Board of County Commissioners for action. After listing on the County Register, exterior changes to the structures and their setting within the designated area must be reviewed by the Preservation Commission and, if the changes meet the established guidelines, a Certificate of Appropriateness is issued.

Frederick County became a Certified Local Government (CLG) on July 19, 2001. This agreement with the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) under the National Historic Preservation Act provides eligibility to the County Government for certain funds through the MHT and allows the Preservation Commission to participate in the National Register of Historic Places nomination process. As a CLG, the Preservation Commission also can participate in the review of publicly funded and/or licensed projects in the County through the Sec. 106 process.

Other Related Links

• Catoctin Mountain Scenic Byway Plan
• Civil War Heritage Area Management Plan
• Historic National Road
• National Register Sites in Frederick County

Please click below to scroll to the property information for the Frederick County Register of Historic Places site.

• Elisha Beall House (Boxwood Lodge)
• Smith’s Store and Residence
• Whiskey Ridge
• Howard Marvin Jones House
• Linganore Farm
• Petersville Methodist Episcopal Church
• Newton Schaeffer House (Charles Huseman House)
• Thornbrook

Elisha Beall House (Boxwood Lodge)

3739 Urbana Pike Urbana vicinity (Private property) 

The Elisha Beall House, also known as Boxwood Lodge, was built in at least 3 stages beginning about 1810 and ending about 1830. The L-shaped stone house has a twentieth-century sun porch on the east side. The property includes several surviving outbuildings. A stone smokehouse and a stone building, which possibly served as a slave quarter, date to about 1810-1830. A frame stable/carriage house was erected about 1890. Several barns north of the house and other buildings were also associated with the farmstead but are now separately owned. Elisha Beall (1745-1831 or 1838) built the house, replacing a log structure on the property possibly erected prior to 1744 by Elisha’s father, Nathaniel Beall. Elisha Beall was born in the log building. Elisha became a wealthy planter who owned many slaves and generally led a privileged lifestyle. In the 1930s, the stone house was used as a tourist home intermittently under the name Gray Stone Inn. The name Boxwood Lodge became associated with the property in the 1940s. The Elisha Beall House was nominated to the County Register by the owner, Monocacy Land Company, L.L.C., and was officially listed on October 5, 1999. 

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Smith’s Store and Residence

3513 Urbana Pike Urbana (Private Property) 

Smith’s Store and Residence is a brick structure built in 2 sections about 1830-1840. The original residence section is a 2-story dwelling with a rear wing on the east side. A 1-and-1-half-story commercial building adjoins the dwelling. The store and residence have separate entrances. The store’s double doors are still in place but are not currently in use. Thomas A. Smith, the tenant of the residence and the storekeeper, purchased the property in 1863. In the same year, the post office for Urbana was transferred to Smith’s Store from Cockey’s Store. In 1864, Smith had a narrow escape from raiding Confederate troops who took Smith and his assistant postmaster captive. The assistant was killed during the incident, according to a contemporary newspaper account. Smith continued to run the store for another 20 years, erecting a stable and other outbuildings on the property, none of which still stand. Later, the store was operated by Beverly U. Feinour until 1897. Having been a private residence for most of the twentieth century, the property was returned to commercial use in early 2000. Smith’s Store and Residence was nominated to the County Register by the owner, the Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc., and was officially listed on October 5, 1999.

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Whiskey Ridge 

8001 Green Valley Road Libertytown vicinity (Private Property)

Whiskey Ridge consists of a brick house and frame-and-stone bank barn built between 1852 and 1858 by William Jones, Sr. (1782-1869). The name Whiskey Ridge refers to a larger tract mentioned in an 1820 deed, which included this farm and several other properties in the area. The house has an original rear ell extension and 5 bays on its main elevation with a newly installed portico roof over the central doorway. In the 1970s, an extensive remodeling resulted in an originally freestanding log building, probably a smokehouse, being moved and attached to the south elevation of a new addition. In 2000, the current owner redesigned the roofline of the addition and built new additions, including a sun porch on the north elevation. Other modern additions within the designation boundary include a swimming pool and pool house, a gazebo, and a newly erected log building using salvaged logs. Also planned for construction is a new garage. The Swisser style barn, or bank barn, has a concrete-block milk house and a loafing shed, both added during the property’s use as a dairy farm in the early and mid-twentieth century. Whiskey Ridge was nominated to the County Register by the owners, Wayne and Karen Six, and was officially listed on October 3, 2000.

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Howard Marvin Jones House

1213 Jefferson Pike Petersville vicinity (Private property)

The Howard Marvin Jones House is a brick Foursquare dwelling with Colonial Revival exterior details. A popular house form in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Foursquare consisted of a basically square floor plan with 4 main rooms on the first floor, a hipped or pyramidal roof, and usually 1 or more dormers. The exterior decoration often reflected a variety of historical styles. The Howard Marvin Jones House has Palladian-inspired, 3-part windows in its dormers, a strong Colonial Revival element. The dwelling was built in 1913-14 by Dr. Samuel Claggett (1873-1914), who died shortly after the house was completed. Howard Marvin Jones (1874-1955) purchased the property in 1920 and raised a family of 8 children there. He was a magistrate in Brunswick and also dealt in real estate. The property remained in the Jones family until 1981. The Howard Marvin Jones House was nominated to the County Register by the owners, Joan Porter and Michael Wozny, and was officially listed on January 2, 2001.

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Linganore Farm

6229 Linganore Farm Frederick Vicinity (Private Property)

Linganore Farm is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The main dwelling is a large 2-story, L-shaped brick house dating from the 1850s-60s. The house displays the influence of the Greek Revival and Italianate styles. Outbuildings include the ruins of a brick smokehouse and a stone root cellar. A 2-story brick secondary house that appears to date from the early nineteenth century also stands on the property. Linganore Farm represents the heritage of agriculture and grain milling in Frederick County. The property served as the location for mills and a distillery, with at least 1 mill present by 1808. The main house was likely built shortly after 1858 during the ownership of Aaron Anders and John Reifsnider. In 1891, Henry C. Brown purchased the farm and converted it to a summer resort known as the Linganore Hills Inn, which could accommodate 45 guests. Linganore Farm was nominated to the County Register by the owners, Ivan and Norma Nottingham, and was officially listed on May 8, 2001.

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Petersville Methodist Episcopal Church

1341 Jefferson Pike Petersville (Private Property)

The Petersville Methodist Episcopal Church is a 2-story building of local sandstone construction. Designed in the Greek Revival style, the structure features a front gable and 2 Doric columns at the central entrance. Former Maryland governor Francis Thomas originally constructed the building as a town hall around 1850. Governor Thomas, then owner of much of Petersville, resided at the nearby family estate, Montevue. The town hall perhaps functioned as a political gathering place as well as the social center for the rural population. The building has a colorful history of adaptive use. It was converted to a Methodist Episcopal Church in 1860 and to a Reformed Church in 1900. More changes occurred in 1938, when the church became a residence. While each adaptation resulted in dramatic interior alterations, the exterior has remained remarkably unchanged. The Methodist Episcopal Church was nominated to the County Register by the owners, Joan Porter and Michael Wozny, and was officially listed on November 13, 2001.

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Newton Schaeffer House (Charles Huseman House)

3447 Buckeystown Pike Buckeystown (Private Property)
The Newton Schaeffer House is located in the Buckeystown National Register Historic District. The 2-story frame dwelling was built about 1896. This late Victorian-period house features Colonial Revival and Carpenter Gothic detailing. Newton R. Schaeffer, a local carpenter and builder in the Buckeystown area, constructed the house for himself and his family on a corner town lot. The dwelling was typical of those Schaeffer had been building in the area but lacked the characteristic gingerbread trim that he often used as an embellishment. In 1911, Schaeffer erected an addition on the back of his house. Reportedly used for the Buckeystown telephone exchange, the addition was accessed from an outside porch. Schaeffer’s daughter Ada, assisted by several other local women, operated the exchange in an upstairs room. The operators provided telephone service twenty-4 hours a day. The Newton Schaeffer House was nominated to the County Register by the owners, Samuel and Ellen Pucciarelli, and was officially listed on August 20, 2002.

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Thornbrook

Thurmont vicinity (Private Property)

Thornbrook is an Italianate country "cottage" that was constructed in 2 sections: a frame section erected about 1860 and a brick addition built in 1869. The dwelling is an example of the vernacular adaptation of Italianate-inspired romantic cottage architecture, espoused in the pattern books of Andrew Jackson Downing and others. The first owner of Thornbrook was Professor George Henry Miles (1824-1872), poet and professor at nearby Mount Saint Mary’s College. Miles joined the faculty in 1858, teaching English literature. Thornbrook was reportedly built by Miles’ father-in-law, William Tiers, following Miles’ marriage to Adeline Tiers. During the Civil War, Miles (under the pseudonym Earnest Halpin) wrote "God Save the South," the first song to be published in the Confederacy. The words were set to music by Charles W. A. Ellerbrock, the arranger of "Maryland, My Maryland." Miles entertained numerous college and intellectual visitors at his home. Thornbrook was nominated to the County Register by the owners, Linda Franklin and Owen Schwartz, and was officially listed on May 12, 2003.

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Please read all instructions carefully prior to completing the form. Once the form is complete print, sign, and return to The Division of Planning and Permitting, Historic Preservation Office, 30 North Market Street, Frederick, MD 21701.

• Certificate of Appropriateness Application
• Frederick County Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
• Frederick County Register of Historic Places Nomination Form Instructions
• Historical District Tax Credit Application Form