Page 30 - August Banner 2017_Neat

Page 30 August 2017
mountain talk
Joan (Bittner) Fry is a native Sabillasvillian or Sabillasvillite, depending on which side of the tracks
you’d like to claim. She has written several books of history that serve as collections of memories about
Sabillasville and the surrounding areas. The following is an excerpt from Book 3. It is a reprint of an article
by an unknown author that was published October 5, 1962, in the Record Herald called “Where Do You
Live? Blue Ridge Summit Covers Knob” about Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, and surrounding areas
on the “knob.” To order a book from Ms. Fry, please email [email protected] or call her 301-241-3295. at the new post office building at
Where Do You Live? Blue
Ridge Summit Covers Knob
Blue Ridge Summit shows on the
map of Pennsylvania as a little town
near here, on the Maryland border.
But ask a resident of the area where
he lives and—even if his home is in
Maryland—he may answer “Blue
Ridge Summit.”
He may mean Highfield,
Maryland, or one of a dozen
satellite communities, which have
grown up around the hub of Blue
Ridge Summit. Actually, Blue Ridge
Summit is a geographic location—a
tiny pinprick on the map—but it
has become a term used to cover
all the mountaintop communities
on the knob of the Blue Ridge
Mountains shared by Maryland and
Pennsylvania.
Grew Around Rail Loop
Blue Ridge Summit grew up
around a short Pennsylvania loop
of the Western Maryland Railway.
The builders had intended to keep
the line in Maryland but were forced
north for a few hundred yards
because of the terrain.
A half century ago the railway
carried thousands of weekend
excursionists from Baltimore and
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Washington to the mountaintop
to the now overgrown Pen Mar
Park and to elegant watering places
such as the Blue Mountain House
(burned in 1913), and to Buena
Vista Hotel (burned in 1967) and
now owned by a Roman Catholic
Order.
Smaller summer hotels and
imposing private summer estates
were set among the hemlocks. But
with the motorcar and good roads,
Blue Ridge Summit took a back seat
as a tourist center.
Grew During War
The mountaintop blossomed with
people again during World War II.
They wore khaki and olive green,
went abroad at night, and spoke
strange languages.
Thousands of soldiers received
their Army intelligence training
at nearby Fort (then Camp)
Ritchie, Maryland. The summer
hotels became apartment houses.
Following the war, a nearby
mountain was hollowed out to
house the “Underground Pentagon/
Site R” and Fort Ritchie became
a permanent post to serve as the
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housekeeping headquarters for companies – Monterey-Blue
the Joint Communications Agency Ridge Water Supply Company in
Pennsylvania and the Blue Ridge
and later for the Joint Alternate
Command Element. Everything Water Company of Washington
County in Maryland.
about the latter agency, except the
name, remains classified to this day Telephone users appear in the
(1962). Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania
and Highfield, Maryland
Can Be Confusing exchanges. The United Telephone
But many folks find it more Company of Pennsylvania services
convenient to rent a post office box both but remits Highfield billings
to Maryland’s Chesapeake and
Blue Ridge Summit regardless of Potomac system. Chesapeake and
where they live. This can become Potomac provides physical plant
quite confusing. maintenance on the Maryland side.
In addition, many community
institutions ignore the state, county, Divided Services
The mountaintop is served by
and township barriers. The Blue
Ridge Mountain Volunteer Fire
Company gives service equally four county roads departments
and three township roads systems.
in both states. It’s located in On the Maryland side there are
Washington Township, Franklin two county school systems while
County, Pennsylvania and receives in Pennsylvania there are three
government support from the township school boards.
township supervisors. Most communities, such as
Also in Pennsylvania is the Blue Cascade, Cullen, Highfield, Lantz,
Ridge Summit Free Library. It is and Sabillasville in Maryland;
located in a former railway station Charmian, Fountaindale,
donated by the Western Maryland Greenstone, Monterey, and
Railway and is a member of the Pennersville in Pennsylvania; and
Washington County Maryland Free Pen Mar in Maryland/Pennsylvania,
Library System. Ironically, Franklin have their own post offices.
countians served by the library pay Things get really confusing at
a half-mill library tax, which goes to taxpaying time. The two Adams
support a Franklin County Library, County Townships have occupation
which does not serve the Blue Ridge taxes; the Washington Township
Summit Free Library. School District has a one percent
wage tax and Maryland a state
Twin Water Companies wage tax. Property taxes are levied
Some 500 mountaintop everywhere, and the Pennsylvania
residents buy their water from taxables pay per capita (residence)
twin, privately owned water taxes.
Want to know
Trinket Treasure what it’s worth?
If you’d like to discover the history behind and value
of your heirloom, attic find, flea market purchase,
yard sale item, cherished collectible, or antique item,
please send in a photo and description of your trinket or
treasure to [email protected]. Your piece could
be featured in an upcoming issue of The Catoctin Banner.
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