Adamstown: History and Architecture

Adamstown brings together several distinct historical themes: the development of a vocational school, archaeological traces, and buildings with distinctive details. The Buckingham House and Industrial School Complex comprises 13 buildings and eight sites. From the 1870s to 1944, it was the only vocational school for boys in Frederick County. This period gives the complex a clear institutional context, while the other stories of construction and discovery open up different periods and perspectives.

History Between School Days and Prehistory

Seven sites in the complex have yielded evidence of settlement dating from around 4000 BC to 1900. The archaeological span covers earlier millennia and extends to 1900, providing a different timescale from the school’s history.

Architecture with Distinctive Accents

Saleaudo is an architecturally significant example of a vernacular style that was widespread in the nineteenth century in north-central Maryland and south-central Pennsylvania. Its entrance hall contains unusual murals believed to be by Constantino Brumidi and Filip Castaggini. Here, a regionally widespread building style meets an unusual interior design.

St. Luke's Protestant Episcopal Church offers a different architectural accent: it is a brick church in the Gothic Revival style. Late nineteenth-century design details include an openwork frieze board, carved brackets, and stained-glass windows. Compared with Saleaudo, the focus shifts from the entrance hall murals to the Gothic Revival style and its architectural details. The comparison brings out three levels: regional building style, Gothic Revival form, and individual window or glass details.

Distinctive features of the George T. Kohlenberg House include tall, arched Victorian windows on the second floor, an elaborate bracketed cornice, and an etched-glass fanlight bearing a monogram. The windows, cornice, and fanlight offer three clearly distinguishable points of comparison with the church’s details. St. Luke's is Gothic Revival; the Kohlenberg House has Victorian windows.

Pleasant View Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1910. This specific construction year differs from the late nineteenth-century date of St. Luke's design details. Thus, a precise construction year and a more general date for architectural details stand alongside each other.

The Adamstown Bank can also be placed in time: according to local sources, it closed in 1929 during the Great Depression and never reopened. The years 1910 and 1929 both fall within the school’s operating period, which lasted from the 1870s to 1944.

A Different Focus: High Ropes Course

For a different kind of activity, Upward Enterprises offers a high ropes challenge course with low and high elements. The course provides a different focus from the buildings: it is an activity option, while the other topics center on history and architecture. When planning your trip around your interests, you can weigh historical architecture against a high ropes challenge.

Discover more destinations: Thurmont, Frederick, Point of Rocks, Sabillasville, Mount Airy, Emmitsburg

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