Written By Jane Frutchey
Blink your eyes as you drive on Uniontown Road and you might miss Uniontown entirely. That’s one good reason to park your car and walk, savoring the sights and sounds of one of Carroll County’s most memorable small towns.
Because Uniontown’s main street extends only about a mile, Barb Beverungen, manager of Carroll County Tourism, agrees. The tiny town comprises only 1,220 acres and 69 buildings, according to the National Register of Historic Places, so the walk down its main street is a short one.
What Uniontown visitors can expect during their brief journey is a glimpse into a simpler time. Because much of Uniontown–one of the county’s oldest villages–has remained intact since the late 1800s, a historic district was established in 1970. The entire town has been included on the National Register since 1986.
Steeped in Victorian charm, the area is a study in small-town rural living, particularly for those who appreciate local history. Structures along Uniontown Road bring to mind a pre-railroad era when farmers in the outlying agricultural community came into town to conduct their business. “It’s a real old-timey experience,” Beverungen said.
Leaving your car on Uniontown Road, the main street that defines the center of town, you may feel that you have been transported to another century. The place has a Christmas-garden like quality. Massive trees line the roadway and form a leafy canopy that serves as a gateway to the town.
As you follow brick sidewalks along Uniontown Road, ornate Victorian-era homes, painted pastel hues ranging from blue, green, aqua and yellow, to deeper shades of burgundy and aubergine, catch the eye like a colorful slide show.
Peek inside the one-room schoolhouse and imagine sitting at one of the wooden desks, learning by the light of a lantern or enjoying the warmth of a potbellied stove that stands at the center of the classroom.
Or imagine a time when everyone relied on a four-footed mode of transportation, and you tied your horse to a hitching post in front of the bank and shops before conducting your business inside. During your walk, you may even hear the soft mooing of cows in nearby pastures, reminding you of the rich agricultural heritage of the surrounding community.
Visitors can familiarize themselves with the town’s layout and must-see historic buildings by using the Uniontown self-guided walking tour brochure, available at the Carroll County Office of Tourism in Westminster and recommended by Timmi Pierce, executive director of the Carroll County Historical Society.
The brochure highlights the background and significance of 18 structures along Uniontown Road. “The main attraction to Uniontown is that [the town is] almost untouched since the early 20th century,” said Pierce. “The buildings give a diverse look at 18th-, 19th-, and 20th-century structures. It’s very much like a museum of architectural styles and details.”
In its mid-19th century heyday, Uniontown was a bustling center of commerce, with a general store, post office, hotel, tavern, newspaper and print shop, blacksmith, tannery, tin shop, and millinery. Notable about most of the homes, dating back to the early to mid-1800s, are additions or outbuildings that once served as previous owners’ places of business.
The advent of the Western Maryland Railroad in 1862 redirected travel–and with it commerce–to more populated towns. Once-thriving Uniontown businesses closed, and the village stayed small and quaint.
What remains, however, is a well-preserved Victorian-period community. Homeowners and members of the Carroll County Historic Preservation Commission take avid interest in maintaining the historical and structural integrity of homes and points of interest, including the one-room schoolhouse, known as the Uniontown Academy, established in 1810, and a turn-of-the-century bank dating back to 1907.
Because Uniontown is not incorporated, there is no mayor.
“We’re governed by Carroll County, and there are three organizations that play a part in the town,” said Nick Vincent, a blacksmith and 20-year resident of Uniontown. The Uniontown Improvement Association is a homeowners’ group that addresses issues of concerned community members; Historic Uniontown, Inc., holds the titles to the academy and bank; and the Carroll County Historic Preservation Commission oversees historic districts countywide.
Russ Clarke, a former chairman and longtime board member of the commission, and a Uniontown resident for more than 40 years, said, “The commission is responsible for overseeing any changes to the exteriors of the buildings. Residents need to file applications for changes before work can be done to a home.”
Because the entire town is included on the National Register of Historic Places, Clarke said, compatibility with adjoining structures, as well as with the other buildings throughout town, is a major consideration. The commission therefore needs to approve any changes that are visible from the main road, including landscaping, but not changes to the homes’ interiors or backyards.
Clarke and other community members were instrumental in creating the historic district more than 30 years ago, when they decided they didn’t want to lose their town to “sprawl,” he said. “We sat down with families in town and discussed what we could do to protect it and keep it from vanishing.” At a town meeting, the consensus was for preservation, with only five residents opposed to creating a historic district.
Clarke and his family moved from Baltimore to Uniontown in 1962. “Development, or overdevelopment, has not been an issue here for residents,” he said. “The thing that’s impressed us the most is how very little [the town’s] changed.”
The longtime Uniontown resident said that throughout the year he receives a number of requests for tours, particularly of the bank and academy. “The old bank [inside looks] like someone closed the door in the 1930s and never came back,” Clarke said. “It’s like something out of a Jesse James movie.” The Academy, he said, was a storage facility for many years. When the building was cleaned for restoration, community volunteers discovered boxes of Victorian-style shoes and high-button collars.
Historic documents indicate that Uniontown began as a large portion of land called the “The Orchard,” granted in 1779 to Thomas Metcalf, an Englishman.
Shortly thereafter, construction on the first house began at the intersection of two main roads, Buffalo Road, now Trevanion Road, and Hagerstown Turnpike, now Uniontown Road. Because of the layout of these thoroughfares, the village that subsequently developed into Uniontown was first known as “The Forks.”
“At the west end of town,” Clarke said, “Uniontown Road went on to Cumberland and Trevanion went northwest to Pittsburgh.” As Carroll County formed from Frederick and Baltimore Counties, Uniontown vied for a county seat but lost to Westminster.
Also noteworthy about Uniontown is its place in Civil War history, and perhaps its name derives from its Union sympathies. A Civil War Trails marker in front of the small, brick Uniontown Elementary School, established in 1833 and set back from the main road, details the Union Army’s advancement and occupation of the town during June 1863 as it attempted to hold off the Confederate Army and protect Washington, D.C.
The marker indicates that the former Segafoose Hotel served as recruiting headquarters for Maryland’s volunteer infantry during the war, and Union Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock’s troops reportedly stayed there. Gen. Hancock stayed at the residence of Dr. Jacob. J. Weaver, the town physician, whose former home, originally a log structure, is on the north side of Uniontown Road. A one-story wing on the side of the house served as Dr. Weaver’s office.
Living in a rural historic district always has been interesting for Clarke and his family. He recalls a time in 1990 when a Rockville-area Civil War buff contacted him.
“He was getting ready for a reenactment in Gettysburg and was following the course of a particular unit from Ohio,” said Clarke. “He had relatives in that unit.”
The man had traced the path his relatives followed, and it had led him to Clarke’s
field. For the sake of authenticity, he wanted to spend the night in the same field before journeying to Gettysburg, just as his relatives had done more than 120 years before him. Clarke said he has a photo of the troop standing in front of his house before they left for Gettysburg. He also said that people with Geiger counters have searched his yard for artifacts and found some Civil War-era coins.
In some ways, Uniontown is typical of idyllic places where most of the residents know one another and work together. But as ideal as small-town rural life is for residents there, Nick Vincent said, “We’re running through the same issues as everyone else. Lots are available, and controlling subdivision development is worrisome to the commission.”
Vincent previously lived in Historic Reisterstown and restored a house there before moving to his current residence, which dates back to 1810. He says everything about Uniontown attracted him to it, especially its small-town, 19th-century feel.
In order to truly appreciate the town, he said, “You’d have to have an interest in what was here before,” he said. “The town has been protected since 1970, and some may say that nothing ever changes here,” Vincent said. “Well, that’s by design.”
