Middletown Daily Photo: Heritage Festival 2

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Heritage Festival 2

Middletown is just across South Mountain from the site of the Civil War battle of Antietam. The town provided various forms of refuge for soldiers from both sides and Mt. Zion church was used as a hospital.

The church was open during the festival yesterday. There were displays aftifacts from the era as well as photographs. During the was, the pews were removed to make room for cots for the injured.

A reinactor points out various features of a mannequin dressed like a wounded soldier.

Visit my other photo blog for more pictures in the church.

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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.