Agriculture and Retail

As a National Road “pike town” surrounded by fertile farmland, natural resources, and gentle water sources, Boonsboro was founded in a prime location for various industries to grow and prosper once the town finally began to grow.

Agriculture

Our region has been a productive agricultural area since the early days of our country’s 250 years.  While the Middletown valley on the other side of South Mountain was known for its wheat and grains prior to a transition to dairy, Boonsboro became known for its fruits.

Cantaloupes

In particular, many still recall Boonsboro’s nearly legendary cantaloupes.  Local farms grew a particularly large and sweet variety of “Heart of Gold” cantaloupe which were exported to nearby communities and on the trolleys to other regions.  According to descendants of some of these farmers, the exact variety that made Boonsboro’s fruits popular no longer exists, however some local farms continue to provide Heart of Gold melons which can be purchased at farm stands, the Boonsboro Farmers Market, and Cronise marketplace.

Other Fruits

At one time, Boonsboro was also known for raspberries and peaches.  Wild raspberry patches were fostered and cultivated on the slopes of South Mountain, and peach orchards dotted the landscape outside of town.

Big Cork Vineyards can now be found outside of town, and other orchards and vineyards exist in the surrounding area

Boonsboro area peach and raspberry pickers. Photos courtesy of Boonesborough Museum of History – Gerald Bast Collection.

Additional Products

In addition to these primary products, various grains and other vegetables have been and continue to be grown by local farms.

As with in Frederick county, dairy farms also began appearing in the area after the turn of the century, and smaller poultry operations also began nearby.

Retail

Industry

The area surrounding the National Road Museum was once the town’s industrial center.  In addition to the stream which has been diverted under Orchard Avenue, Warrenfeltz Spring is located deep under the property and they together attracted various businesses wishing to make use of the available water sources.  Warrenfeltz Spring is one of several sources that now feed the town’s water system.

Because of the National Road, and later the trolley system, locally produced goods could be transported far easily and farther distances than was afforded to other communities in the region.

Basket Factory

Where the Dealership for Life office is, just next door, and stretching back into Shafer Memorial Park, there was once a large structure which over the years served as a basket and crate factory, warehouse, grist mill, coal seller, and lumber yard – some times serving multiple functions at a time.  For some years it also served as the ticket office and freight warehouse of the trolley system before the present trolley station was constructed.

Sawmill

The steam-powered sawmill supporting the basket factory and later lumber yard stood in the general area of the back half of the National Road Museum.  It was abandoned and later torn down to construct the original Warrenfeltz Hardware store.  That store burned down in 1933 and the present building which now houses the museum was built that year.

Ice Factory

In the space between the National Road Museum and Trolley Station Museum, there was once a building nearly the size of the Road Museum building.  This was the Boonsboro Ice & Supply Company, a local ice provider which also provided other items for sale.  The plant likely used the common ice production practice used at the time which involved the use of a steam engine to compress a chemical (often ammonia) which then cooled to below zero when allowed to expand into a gas in a series of pipes.  Such machines ran those pipes through salt water which would not freeze and within the salt water would be molds or an inner chamber filled with molds where fresh water was placed that would freeze because of the cold temperature.

According to the York County History Museum in Pennsylvania (where one of the country’s ice machine builders was located), this industry grew popular in the 1890s after warm winters reduced available lake and river ice and resulted in an increase of food borne illnesses.

Ice would be delivered daily to homes and businesses.  Residents would use these blocks in ice chests, cabinet-like coolers which were the precursors to refrigerators, and businesses used these ice blocks into the middle of the century where early soda fountains used them to keep beverage dispensers cool.  (one ice customer was Earl’s Lunch, where Subway is today.  They used the ice blocks in their Coca Cola dispenser.  Our museum’s front counter comes from Earl’s Lunch.)

Power Plant

Construction began around 1890 for Boonsboro’s South Mountain Railway & Electric Light Company power plant.  The project was abandoned before the structure was completed, and it was later torn down before the Boonsboro Trolley Station was built on the same site.

Canning Factory

From the far edge of Shafer Park Drive to the Laundromat, a large building once stood which held a canning factory.  It was not uncommon for communities with large agricultural business to have their own canning factory, and Boonsboro’s was rather large for the size of the town.

Shafer Tannery

Because of the spring and the streams, the land around Shafer Park was once very marshy.  This and the available water made it an ideal location for Jonathan Shafer to begin a tannery business in the early days of Boonsboro’s existence.

Bowman Pottery and others.

The house which now houses the Bowman House Museum of the Boonsboro Historical Society was once the home of a local redware potter named .  Especially in the early days of the town, there would have been many local makers of goods needed for daily life.