Sunday, February 25, 2007

20070224 Old Hoff Barn off Old Westminster Pike







Old Hoff Barn off Old Westminster Pike
February 24th, 2007 Daily Photoblog

Looking at the old Hoff Barn[1] from Locust Avenue in the Buckingham View - “Tree Street” Development off Old Westminster Pike.

Buckingham View is a pre-World War Two development just outside the Westminster, MD city limits that was developed 1938. The date of the plan is October 1st, 1938.

I spent most of my childhood – from 1961 – 1971 working and playing on the old Hoff Farm. The farm is slated for development.[2] The barn, no doubt, will be torn down. I did not take a picture of the old farmhouse, although I wish I had.

The farmhouse is in a state of disrepair and is undoubtedly also slated for demolition – although it very well may be one of the oldest in Carroll County. The barn and the farmhouse are located right off Old Westminster Pike.

What we now know as the Old Westminster Pike – just east of Westminster, was built between 1804 and 1807. Growing up we called it “Old Baltimore Boulevard. That name (Baltimore Boulevard) seems to have been assigned to Rte 140 in Westminster now.

In 1804 the Maryland legislature chartered the “Baltimore and Reisterstown Turnpike Company” to build a “macadam road” to the Mason-Dixon Line. The road was completed in 1807 at a cost of $1.5 million dollars. It was built to replace an old wagon trail that pre-dated the French and Indian War.

The main reason was to facilitate the better transportation of agricultural goods and commodities to markets outside the county. In those days, Baltimore was the third largest city in the United States and the terminus of seven turnpikes. The turnpike to the Mason Dixon line was built to bring goods and products from southern Pennsylvania to Baltimore instead of Philadelphia.

There have been many farms developed in Carroll County that have made me very sad. The day this barn and farmhouse are torn down will be a life-event sad day for me.

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[1] Not to confused with “this” Hoff Barn: “20060926 Kelsey Volkmann on the Hoff Barn or “20060830 Marlin K. Hoff Memorial Barn” located here or here.

[2] For more information about the story of this development see – “20050121 The Hoff Naganna Annexation – the rest of the story.” or find it here: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/5392.html



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