Courtyard By Marriott ($130)
Lancaster, PA
August 11, 2024
Highlights:
Felt pretty good to get back on the road. Some trepidation but that doesn’t surprise me.
Played nine holes at Schoolhouse Nine. I hit some good shots and some “where did that come from” shots. Still a work in progress. Hard to accept that age is robbing me of distance.
I called an audible in Front Royal and headed toward Amish County to visit the funny named towns here. Fun audible. Ended up in the mountains of Maryland. Very pretty. Near Camp David. Drove narrow mountain roads. Noticed how close to the road houses and businesses are. I assume that has to do with dealing with snow?
Drove on or across US 50, US 40 and US 30. Now I hopefully can remember that US 30 is the Lincoln Highway. I have already driven US 50 from Virginia to Colorado.
Came across Foxville, Maryland:
Foxville is an unincorporated community in Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Foxville is located on Maryland Route 77, 4.7 miles (7.6 km) west of Thurmont. Settled in the late 18th century, the historic village is situated between South Mountain to the west and Catoctin Mountain to the east. Catoctin Mountain Park, Cunningham Falls State Park, and the Appalachian Trail are all within a few miles of Foxville.
The village of Foxville was settled in the late 18th century by second-generation German immigrants to the United States as they moved southward from their original settlements in Pennsylvania. Early settlers in Foxville included the Brown, Fox, Wolfe, Hauver, and Poorman (Buhrman) families.[2] Foxville was situated on the main road leading between Hagerstown and Emmitsburg. The Wolfe family built a tavern along this route circa 1800.[3] As the area became more permanently settled in the early 19th century, the developing village took the name of Foxville from the area's largest landowners, the Fox family.[4] In 1830, Mount Moriah Lutheran Church was organized and erected a stone building on the northern edge of the village. A few years later, the Mount Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church was established in 1836 and constructed a log building approximately one mile south of the village. In the latter half of the 19th century, the village further developed with the establishment of a public school, wagon shop, and general store, operated by Thomas Fox, a third-generation descendant of the original settlers.[5] In 1877, Mount Moriah Lutheran Church was largely rebuilt and Mount Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church erected a new building in 1902.
During the Great Depression, WPA workers constructed Camp Hi Catoctin on the mountain a few miles northwest of Foxville as a retreat for Federal Government employees and their families. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt converted the camp into a presidential retreat called Shangri-La. President Dwight D. Eisenhower renamed the retreat Camp David during his administration. The Eisenhowers donated a significant library of books to the Foxville School, where the children of some of the workers at Camp David attended. Closed in 1962, Foxville's school was the last two-room school in operation in Frederick County, Maryland.[6]
Much of the historical architecture which survives today in Foxville is of vernacular design and employs local resources such as log and stone. Several notable structures in the village have been preserved. These include the Wolfe Tavern, a two-story log structure built around 1800 to serve as a stage stop along the main road leading from Hagerstown to Emmitsburg. Mount Moriah Lutheran Church, founded in 1830, occupies a stone structure originally built in 1877 and rebuilt in 1919 after a fire. In its rebuilt form, Mount Moriah Church displays Gothic Revival style. Mount Bethel United Methodist Church (originally Methodist Episcopal Church) occupies a frame structure built in 1902 and rebuilt with a brick veneer in the 1960s. The adjoining churchyard at Mount Bethel contains relocated graves of some of the earliest settlers of Foxville, including those of the Buhrman family.
The person at the front desk of my hotel is a traveling concierge working for Marriott and Hilton. When a hotel is short on staff, they bring her in for a month — all expenses paid. She lives in the hotel. At the end of the month, she returns home to North Carolina for a week before flying out to her next assignment. Who knew?
Lancaster surprised me. Came into town through an area of I assume 1900 vintage mansions. Drove through a pretty downtown area. A city of 60,000 people — I had no idea.
The photos/video:
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