Written By Donna Engle
Local legend has it that Pleasant Valley’s name was suggested by a visiting Baltimorean, who in the 1850s strolled the hill that overlooks the glen from the south and remarked, “What a pleasant valley this is.”
The first thing you notice about Pleasant Valley – in addition to its pleasantness – is its peaceful solitude.
Turn right on Hughes Shop Road less than a mile northwest of Westminster, and follow the road as it descends into a cool, shaded passage between the trees.
Nature’s music replaces traffic’s din.
The road opens onto a verdant valley, and with a left-hand turn you’re on Main Street, a narrow quarter-mile street lined by two-story houses with wide front porches. There are no industrial sounds, no bustle of humanity, just the lull of a the small Bear Branch stream, which flows quietly through the valley.
Dubbed “rural village” in 1998 by The Carroll County Planning Department, Pleasant Valley has a population of 135. The village has about 50 houses or apartments, and its social structure rests on a church, a fire company and, until recently, the general store.
“Church” is St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ on Main Street, which is still in its original 127-year-old building, although the pot-bellied stove has been removed and stained glass windows added over the years.
“I think of it as kind of small town USA,” said Barbara Beverungen, county tourism manager. Beverungen also concedes that Pleasant Valley is not a tourist-ready community because it lacks two amenities: public restrooms and a place to buy snacks. But it has assets –natural beauty, activities that draw visitors, and a strong sense of community.
Activities that lure visitors include a train garden which fills half of a 15-foot square room at the Pleasant Valley Fire Co. every year during the Christmas holiday. “Christmas in the Valley”, which is a craft show and bazaar, opens each year in November, and the Pleasant Valley Playgroup offers a weekly play group for infants and preschoolers in Carroll County.
The fire company, which operates out of a four-bay building overlooking the village from the west, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. The company continues community activities such as weekly bingo games and annual bull roasts, public suppers and golf tournaments; but participation in the traditional activities is slowly diminishing as the county changes.
“Probably 100 percent or very close of the prominent citizens were involved in getting the company started,” said Stephen Wantz, vice president of the organization. Founders of the fire company held organizational meetings at the lodge of the Patriotic Order, Sons of America, 1375 Pleasant Valley Road, which became the first fire hall, according to a history compiled by Wantz.
The Sons of America met upstairs; downstairs, a hand-pulled ladder wagon with three ladders and 24 buckets stood ready for fire calls. The company moved to its present station on a 20-acre site at the intersection of Pleasant Valley Road and Pleasant Valley Road South in 1983.
If one energetic Pleasant Valley native fulfills her dream, the village may someday have a museum. Angela Bowersox hopes to turn a two-story white building in the heart of town into a local museum. The building was once Leister’s Store, the quintessential hub to the community’s rural life.
Jane Leister, owner and the last storekeeper, and her late husband, Paul Leister, bought the store in April, 1929. They were the store’s fourth owners.
Open six days a week and a few hours after church on Sunday, just in case “someone down the street might have forgotten something,” the store thrilled Paul Leister. He “loved every minute” of store life, Jane said.
“The old men just sat all day and talked” on the store’s benches, Leister recalled.
Leister’s Store sold cornflakes, plows, canned goods, meats, gum boots, socks, underwear, work gloves and chicken feed.
After 30 residents formed the volunteer fire company, Leister’s Store also became the emergency dispatch center. People called the store to report a fire. Paul Leister then ran across Main Street to the fire hall and sounded the alarm.
Jane Leister took over the store after her husband’s death in 1989. She kept it just as he had, with the old-fashioned, narrow wood and glass-paneled doors, and the diverse inventory. The sign bearing the store’s name hung above the sidewalk until 2003, when the store closed.
“It was so hard,” she said, adding, “It still is. To close a little store like this in a small town, because it’s needed.” But without help, she could no longer keep up the store. She left it looking like it could reopen tomorrow, after a few hours’ work to restock the shelves.
The shelves may not be restocked but old memories may find their way back.
“I wish I could buy the store in Pleasant Valley and make a museum,” said Bowersox, who grew up on the Pleasant Valley farm her grandparents bought in 1906. She now lives on the hill with the view that gave the village its name.
Bowersox would need grant funding to establish her museum–an avenue she hasn’t yet pursued–but she already has an eclectic collection of items to display. There are photos of community life: the annual Memorial Day parade from the church to the cemetery, citizens in historic costumes for anniversary celebrations, dedication of the World War II monument in 1947. There is an invitation to commencement exercises for the graduating class of 1906 at Pleasant Valley High School, old calendars featuring advertisements for Leister’s Store, ribbons that once decked the chests of members of the Patriotic Order, Sons of America, and a program for a “Grand Musical Festival” in 1902 featuring the Pleasant Valley Singing Society.
Stability and continuity make Pleasant Valley what it is. In Pleasant Valley, surnames on the mailboxes tend to be the same as surnames on the gravestones. People shovel a neighbor’s sidewalk or check to be sure a older person is well if they don’t see a familiar face in church.
“Other communities, people just kind of move away,” Bowersox said.
Not in Pleasant Valley – it’s a village people love to call home as long as possible.
