Point of Rocks, Maryland

Coordinates: 39°16′42″N 77°31′45″W / 39.27833°N 77.52917°W / 39.27833; -77.52917
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Point of Rocks, Maryland
FIPS code
24-62575
GNIS feature ID2583673[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.

History

Pre-settlement

An aerial view of Point of Rocks
Historic St. Paul's Episcopal Church, built in 1841 by enslaved men and women of the Duval Plantation and consecrated in 1843, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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.

19th and 20th centuries

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

Noland's Ferry crossing the Potomac River was the site of an active slave market.[9]

American Civil War

Captain Samuel C. Means, who organized the Union Army-aligned Loudoun Rangers
Point of Rocks railroad station, built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1873

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

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.

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

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]

21st century

In 2001,

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]

Flooding

Flooded rail yard, 1945

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.

Geography

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]

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
20201,886—
U.S. Decennial Census[17]

Infrastructure

Transportation

The community contains the

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

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.

Notable person

  • Craig Davis, author and international development expert

See also

References

  1. ^ "2020 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  2. ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Point of Rocks, Maryland
  3. ^ a b "Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Census Summary File 1 (G001), Point of Rocks CDP, Maryland". American FactFinder. U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
  4. ^ Curry, Dennis C. (April 24, 2015). "Heater's Island and the Piscataway Indians". Our History, Our Heritage. The Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  5. ISBN 0-8063-1183-5
    .
  6. ISBN 0-8063-1183-5
    .
  7. ISBN 0-8063-7973-1
    .
  8. ISBN 0-8063-7973-1
    .
  9. ^ "Nolands Ferry". C&O Canal Trust. C&O Canal Trust.
  10. ^ a b "Point of Rocks during the Civil War". The Historical Marker Database. Maryland Civil War Trails. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  11. ^ Crouch, Richard. "The Loudoun Rangers". The History of Loudoun County, Virginia. Waterford Foundation. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  12. ^ "History of St. Paul's Parish". St. Paul's Point of Rocks, Maryland. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  13. ISBN 0-9661278-0-3
    .
  14. ^ Davis, Janet. "Point of Rocks Survey District" (PDF). Maryland Inventory of Historic Places. Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  15. ^ Maryland Public Service Commission. Baltimore, MD. "In the Matter of the Application of Duke Energy Frederick, LLC for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to Construct a 640-MW Generating Facility in Frederick County, Maryland." Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine Case No. 8891. June 18, 2001ff.
  16. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  17. ^ "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Point of Rocks, Maryland.


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