Site of Buckeystown Methodist Episcopal Church

Site of Buckeystown Methodist Episcopal Church. . , To your left is a street scene of the intersection in Buckeystown around 1899. The house immediately on your left was built around 1898 as the residence for the superintendent of the Buckingham School for Boys, located south of town (now ClaggettCenter). The house on the intersection is one of three buildings built of stone quarried from the same vein as the church that was on this site. In 1939, Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, visited this home as he was passing through Buckeystown after visiting Sugarloaf Mountain. He admired the south facing stone wall and stayed for tea. Heading north up the hill and across the creek, note the white frame tannery buildings torn down in 1904, and at the top of the hill can be seen the brick home of George Buckey, now Catoctin Inn. To your right is the Inn at Buckeystown, built as a private residence in 1897 by Charles Keller who made his fortune in the lime and stone business., Here stood the stone Methodist Episcopal Church and cemetery. The building was constructed in 1824 on 1/2 acre of land donated by Ignatius Davis, with money raised by subscriptions. The church measured 33 feet by 45 feet and cost $1000. Wide galleries lined three sides and seven benches were placed in the center. The Civil War divided Buckeystown, and the church doors were closed when a Northern minister was appointed. According to the History of Carrollton Manor, the building was used as a library for a short time at the turn of the century. In 1905, Charles Thomas, who lived across the street in the white brick house with black shutters, dismantled the church and used the stone for foundations of houses that he built for the Thomas and Son Brick Yard employees and Buckeystown Packing Company employees. These ten houses were built on Buchingham Lane, a short walk uphill to your right. The stone for this church was quarried along the Monocracy River, east of Buckeystown, form a rare iron-rich vein. As you look to your left , two stone buildings across the street and the one on the right were all built of this unusual stone., Erected by Buckeystown Preservation Society, 1995