The Boones’ Borough Grows

Congress approved the construction of a federal road from Cumberland to the Ohio River in 1806.  This new road would use the existing wagon road through Boonesborough to connect with the port of Baltimore.

The Frederick-Hagerstown wagon road which the Boone brothers had built along became a part of a much larger series of formal bank-funded toll roads by 1810, connecting Baltimore to Hagerstown.

The increase of traffic on the road brought a rapid increase in demand for services.  Town lots began to sell and several hotels and many businesses opened up along the main streets, joining the original stone “Eagle Hotel” (now the Inn Boonsboro) which had been built in 1796.  The first annex with new parcels were soon added.

In 1823, the Boonsboro-Hagerstown Turnpike Company upgraded their portion of the road from our town west to a paved road using a stone paving process invented by Scotsman John Loudon McAdam.  This was the first use of “macadamization” in all of North America and became the standard for many roads over the next several decades.

The town was incorporated as Boonsboro, the present spelling of the name made official in the process, in 1831.   Jonathan Shafer was elected the town’s first official Burgess.