Middletown Daily Photo: New Too

Monday, June 16, 2008

New Too

Middletown is 241 years old, but it is also a new town, with new housing developments sprouting like mushrooms after a spring storm. This shot shows three slices of both old and new. The foreground is part of a golf course, the middle ground is a housing development that is about 10 years old and the rear strip is a working farm. We don't even have to ask the farmers how they feel about the houses and the golf course, do we?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: Unfortunately, the farmer will come to realize one day that his property taxes makes farming nonsense. Then he will be told by a real estate developer how much is "land" is worth for new home construction.

Then it is goodbye to everything from earthworms and bird and foxes to milk cows, horses and goats.

It is a slice of life and as much as I hate it, it happens.; June 17, 2008 at 7:27 AM
Bernie said...: Everything you just described is a much-too-regular occurance around here. We moved to this county to get away from the insane amount of development that was going on one county closer to Washington DC, where we used to live, but one day the sprawl will catch up to us.; June 17, 2008 at 10:03 AM

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About Middletown

Middletown, Maryland was founded in 1767 and is said to be named either for its position midway between South Mountain and the Catoctin Mountains or its central location between the larger Maryland cities of Frederick and Hagerstown. A few years earlier, a visiting surveyor and future “Father of our Country” George Washington referred to Middletown Valley as one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen.

The town was incorporated in 1833. After the Civil War battles of South Mountain and Antietam, Middletown churches served as hospitals for both Union and Confederate soldiers.

Today Middletown boasts a delicate balance of old and new. Instead of a Mayor, the town leader is a Burgess. Some of the buildings were built in the 1700s and 1800s. There are large Victorian homes as well as the typical cookie-cutter subdivisions that dot the edge of the Washington DC commuter exurbs.

The only franchise restaurant in town is a Subway; the only Starbucks is inside the Safeway.

If you really want to understand what small-town America feels like, visit Middletown during the Independence Day festivities and fireworks at Middletown Park, the Volunteer Fire Department’s annual mid-July Carnival or the Middletown Heritage Festival held in the fall.