Point of Rocks, Maryland | |
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![]() Aerial image, 1930 | |
![]() Location of Point of Rocks in Maryland | |
Coordinates: 39°16′42″N77°31′45″W / 39.27833°N 77.52917°W | |
Country | ![]() |
State | ![]() |
County | ![]() |
Area | |
• Total | 1.13 sq mi (2.92 km2) |
• Land | 1.13 sq mi (2.92 km2) |
• Water | 0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2) |
Elevation | 276 ft (84 m) |
Population (2020) | |
• Total | 1,886 |
• Density | 1,674.96/sq mi (646.99/km2) |
Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
ZIP Code | 21777 |
Area code(s) | 301, 240 |
FIPS code | 24-62575 |
GNIS feature ID | 2583673 [2] |
Point of Rocks is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Frederick County, Maryland. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 1,466. [3]
Point of Rocks is named for the striking rock formation on the adjacent Catoctin Mountain, which was formed by the Potomac River cutting through the ridge in a water gap, a typical formation in the Appalachian Mountains. The formation is not visible from the town and can only be seen from boats on the river, or from the southern bank of the river in Virginia.
Indigenous peoples inhabited the Point of Rocks regions for centuries prior to European colonization. The Piscataway were one of the indigenous cultures to live in Point of Rocks, inhabiting an island in the Potomac River known today as Heater's Island. Eventually, conflicts with neighboring tribes and European settlers forced the migration of the Piscataway from their ancestral homelands of Prince George's County to Heater's Island around 1699, though their population was severely decreased by an outbreak of smallpox in 1704.
The Piscataways remained on the island for a few more years before migrating north into Pennsylvania and New York. [4]
About a decade after the Piscataway abandoned their settlement on Heater's Island, the first European settler in Point of Rocks, Arthur Nelson, received a patent for a tract of land called "Nelson's Island." [5] The Nelson Family retained their status as prominent landholders in Point of Rocks in the early-18th century, developing several plantations on which tobacco was grown. Commercial interests in the region led the Nelsons to petition for a road to be built connecting Frederick and "Nelson's Ferry," the first English-language name assigned to the village that became Point of Rocks. [6] This road was eventually constructed and became known as Ballenger Creek Pike.
In the early-19th century, the arrival of the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad led to an increase in settlement and industry in the Point of Rocks area. The village became a temporary terminus for both the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad in 1828 when the companies went to court to determine which would control the right of way through the narrow passage between the Potomac River and Catoctin Mountain immediately west of Point of Rocks. After six years of court battles, the companies agreed to compromise and share the right of way, the B&O Railroad eventually constructing a tunnel through the mountain to broaden its lines through the narrow water gap. [7]
With the construction of the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad and its strategic location on the Potomac River, Point of Rocks was poised to become a regional transportation hub and center of industrial activity. In 1835, Charles Johnson, the owner of the land on which Point of Rocks was built, had lots surveyed and streets laid out for a new town. [8]
From the earliest days of European settlement in Point of Rocks, forced labor through indentured servitude and enslavement of African Americans drove the local economy. Tobacco plantations in the fertile lands of the lower Monocacy Valley were operated based on the labor of enslaved men and women. The plantation owners also used their slaves to build houses, places of business, and public buildings, such as St. Paul's Episcopal Church, completed in 1841 using the labor of enslaved men and women from the Duval Plantation. Nearby Licksville, a small community located near Noland's Ferry crossing the Potomac River was the site of an active slave market. [9]
Situated on the state line between Maryland and the seceded state of Virginia, Point of Rocks was the site of several small skirmishes and military actions during the Civil War. The B&O Railroad and C&O Canal were important targets for Confederate raiders across the Potomac River. In 1861, then Colonel Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson led a raid at Point of Rocks, shutting off the rail lines east of the town and capturing 56 locomotives and 300 rail cars. [10]
Neighboring Loudoun County, Virginia, was home to several small pockets of Union supporters, including Quakers who lived in villages like Waterford and Lincoln who did not support secession or the Confederate cause for defending the institution of slavery. Point of Rocks became a haven for those families who were forced to flee Virginia.
In 1862, Captain Samuel C. Means, a native of Waterford, Virginia but then living in Point of Rocks where he was a merchant and B&O Railroad station manager, raised a cavalry unit called the Loudoun Rangers, the only organized unit from Virginia to fight for the Union. [11] The Loudoun Rangers spent most of 1862 and 1863 fighting alongside Cole's Maryland Cavalry (the First Potomac Home Brigade) to protect the C&O Canal and the B&O Railroad from frequent Confederate raids. Cole's Maryland Cavalry encamped at Point of Rocks, occupying St. Paul's Episcopal Church where they burned the interior furnishings. [12]
Lt. Col. John S. Mosby and his 43rd Battalion of Virginia Cavalry, known as "Mosby's Raiders", crossed the Potomac and attacked Union garrison forces at Point of Rocks in 1864 in a brief campaign called the "Calico Raid." [10] The area was also the scene of military maneuvers and brief skirmishes during Valley Campaigns of 1864 and the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864.
After the Civil War, Point of Rocks remained a place of conflict. In 1879, James Carroll was lynched in Point of Rocks after being accused of breaking into the home of Richard Thomas and raping his wife. Having fled down the C&O Canal towpath to Georgetown, Carroll was apprehended on April 16, 1879. While being transported to Frederick for trial, a mob swarmed the train as it approached the station in Point of Rocks, removed Carroll from police custody, and hanged him in an adjacent field. The death of Carroll, whose alleged crimes have never been proven or disproven, was one of three recorded lynchings to take place in Frederick County. [13]
In 1873, the B&O Railroad opened its Metropolitan Branch, connecting Washington D.C. to its Old Main Line in a junction at Point of Rocks. A new station, which has become a noted town landmark, was erected the same year. The Gothic Revival styled brick building was designed by E. Francis Baldwin and is situated in the center of the junction of the two lines.
Several other prominent structures were built in the town during the Victorian era, including the town's Methodist Church (1894), Holy Trinity Episcopal Church (1887, replaced in 1912), St. Luke's Lutheran Church (1889), and Masonic Temple (1898). [14]
In 2001, Duke Energy filed an application with the Maryland Public Service Commission to construct a power plant on the north edge of town. In November 2002, however, Duke officially canceled its proposal, though it retains property in the area. [15]
The Point of Rocks railroad station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and St. Paul's Episcopal Church was listed in 1978. [16]
Older portions of the town are on the Potomac River floodplain and have been repeatedly inundated. An ongoing Federal Emergency Management Agency program to reduce flood insurance payouts has resulted in the purchase and demolition of a large portion of structures on the lowest-lying properties.
Point of Rocks is located in southern Frederick County, on the north bank of the Potomac River, and is bordered to the west by U.S. Route 15, which here runs along the eastern base of Catoctin Mountain. Via US 15 it is 13 miles (21 km) north to Frederick, the county seat, and 12 miles (19 km) south across the Potomac River to Leesburg, Virginia. Maryland Route 28 leads east from Point of Rocks through rural Frederick County and Montgomery County 29 miles (47 km) to Rockville. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Point of Rocks has a total area of 1.10 square miles (2.85 km2), all land. [3]
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | 1,886 | — | |
U.S. Decennial Census [17] |
The community contains the Point of Rocks Bridge of U.S. Route 15 over the Potomac River into Virginia. The bridge is the first such crossing of the river upstream of the American Legion Memorial Bridge on I-495 in Montgomery County. The only other crossing between them is White's Ferry.
Rail service through Point of Rocks began with the 1834 opening of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's main line, which ended at the next stop in Sandy Hook, Maryland, before the Harpers Ferry Crossing across the Potomac and into Virginia opened in 1839.
Point of Rocks is a passenger station stop on the MARC Brunswick Line. The station, designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin, was built by the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad and completed in 1876. Marking the junction between CSX's Metropolitan Subdivision (the current main line) and the Old Main Line Subdivision, it remains one of the former B&O's signature landmarks, and is a popular subject of railroad photography.
Frederick is a city in, and the county seat of, Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Frederick's population was 78,171 people as of the 2020 census, making it the second-largest incorporated city in Maryland behind Baltimore. It is a part of the Washington metropolitan area and the greater Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States. It operated as B&O from 1830 until 1987, when it was merged into the Chessie System; its lines are today controlled by CSX Transportation.
U.S. Route 340 is a spur route of US 40, and runs from Greenville, Virginia, to Frederick, Maryland. In Virginia, it runs north–south, parallel and east of US 11, from US 11 north of Greenville via Waynesboro, Grottoes, Elkton, Luray, Front Royal, and Berryville to the West Virginia state line. A short separate piece crosses northern Loudoun County on its way from West Virginia to Maryland.
The Potomac Heritage Trail, also known as the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail or the PHT, is a designated National Scenic Trail corridor spanning parts of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States that will connect various trails and historic sites in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. The trail network includes 710 miles (1,140 km) of existing and planned sections, tracing the natural, historical, and cultural features of the Potomac River corridor, the upper Ohio River watershed in Pennsylvania and western Maryland, and a portion of the Rappahannock River watershed in Virginia. The trail is managed by the National Park Service and is one of three National Trails that are official NPS units.
The Monocacy River is a free-flowing left tributary to the Potomac River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean via the Chesapeake Bay. The river is 58.5 miles (94.1 km) long, with a drainage area of about 970 square miles (2,500 km2). It is the largest Maryland tributary to the Potomac.
Catoctin Mountain, along with the geologically associated Bull Run Mountains, forms the easternmost mountain ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are in turn a part of the Appalachian Mountains range. The ridge runs northeast–southwest for about 50 miles (80 km) departing from South Mountain near Emmitsburg, Maryland, and running south past Leesburg, Virginia, where it disappears into the Piedmont in a series of low-lying hills near New Baltimore, Virginia. The ridge forms the eastern rampart of the Loudoun and Middletown valleys.
White's Ferry, originally Conrad's Ferry, is an inactive cable ferry service that carried cars, bicycles, and pedestrians across the Potomac River between Loudoun County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Maryland, and is the last one of its kind to cross the Potomac. The location offered fishing services and water recreation including canoeing. It transported between 600 and 800 customers daily until its operations were suspended indefinitely in 2020 due to a legal dispute over the land surrounding it.
Adamstown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Frederick County, Maryland, United States. It is named for Adam Kohlenberg, a station agent and first town merchant who owned much of present-day Adamstown. As of the 2010 census, the Adamstown CDP had a population of 2,372.
Maryland Route 17 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The state highway begins at the Virginia state line at the Potomac River in Brunswick, where the highway continues south as Virginia State Route 287. MD 17 runs 29.49 miles (47.46 km) north from the Brunswick Bridge to the Frederick–Washington county line near Wolfsville. The state highway serves as the main north–south highway of the Middletown Valley of western Frederick County. MD 17 connects Brunswick and Wolfsville with Rosemont, Burkittsville, Middletown, and Myersville. The state highway also connects those communities with the valley's main east–west highways, which include U.S. Route 340, US 40 Alternate, Interstate 70 (I-70), and US 40.
Loudoun County, Virginia, was destined to be an area of significant military activity during the American Civil War. Located on Virginia's northern frontier, the Potomac River, Loudoun County became a borderland after Virginia's secession from the Union in early 1861. Loudoun County's numerous Potomac bridges, ferries and fords made it an ideal location for the Union and Confederate armies to cross into and out of Virginia. Likewise, the county's several gaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains that connected the Piedmont to the Shenandoah Valley and Winchester were of considerable strategic importance. The opposing armies would traverse the county several times throughout the war leading to several small battles, most notably the Battle of Ball's Bluff.
Buckeystown is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Frederick County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 1,019. Buckeystown Historic District and Buckingham House and Industrial School Complex were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Carrollton Manor was listed in 1997. Former Congressman Roscoe Bartlett lives on a farm in the town.
The Metropolitan Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in Washington, D.C. and Maryland.The 53-mile line runs from Washington, D.C., northwest to Weverton, Maryland, along the former Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
U.S. Route 15 (US 15) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs from Walterboro, South Carolina, north to Painted Post, New York. In Maryland, the highway runs 37.85 miles (60.91 km) from the Virginia state line at the Potomac River in Point of Rocks north to the Pennsylvania state line near Emmitsburg. Known for most of its length as Catoctin Mountain Highway, US 15 is the primary north–south highway of Frederick County. The highway connects the county seat of Frederick with Point of Rocks, Leesburg, Virginia, and Charles Town, West Virginia, to the south and with Thurmont, Emmitsburg, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to the north. US 15 is an expressway throughout the state except for the portion south of MD 28. The highway is a freeway along its concurrency with US 340 and through Frederick, where the highway meets US 40 and Interstate 70 (I-70). US 15 has a business route through Emmitsburg.
Monocacy is a passenger rail station on the MARC Brunswick Line between Washington, D.C. and Frederick, Maryland. This station is one of two stations on the Frederick extension. It is also the only station on the Brunswick Line other than Union Station to have a high-level platform. There is also a low level platform at the north end of the station.
The action at Mount Zion Church was a cavalry skirmish during the American Civil War that took place on July 6, 1864. The skirmish was fought between Union forces under Major William H. Forbes and Confederate forces under Colonel John S. Mosby near Aldie in Loudoun County, Virginia as part of Mosby's Operations in Northern Virginia. After successfully raiding the Union garrison at Point of Rocks, Maryland, Mosby's Rangers routed Forbes's command, which had been sent into Loudoun County to engage and capture the Rangers. The fight resulted in a Confederate victory.
Nolands Ferry I Archeological Site is an archaeological site near the historic Noland's Ferry boat landing at mile 44.58 on the C&O Canal and Tuscarora. The Archeological Site is a prehistoric occupation site located in the Monocacy region of southern Frederick County, Maryland. Diagnostic artifacts at the site indicate that the site was almost continuously inhabited from the Paleo-Indian period to the early 19th century, with the most substantial inhabitation occurring during the Late Woodland period.
The 1st Maryland Infantry Regiment, Potomac Home Brigade was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
1st Maryland Cavalry Battalion, Potomac Home Brigade, originally organized as the 1st Potomac Home Brigade Cavalry, "Cole's Cavalry" was formed under the guidance of Henry A. Cole. There are also references to it being designated as Cole's 1st Volunteer Maryland Cavalry. The unit, a battalion, originally consisted of four companies, A, B, C & D and was initially enlisted between August 10 and November 27, 1861.