INN BOONSBORO

The founding date of the small Washington County town of Boonsboro is usually identified as 1792, when brothers William and George Boone, cousins of the famous Daniel Boone, sold the first building lot on subdivided land along the wagon road between Frederick and Hagerstown at the crossroads to Sharpsburg. One of the town’s earliest commercial buildings is this one at the northeast corner of the “square” or the U.S. 40 and MD 34 crossroad. The original two-story 1796 stone inn includes a late-nineteenth-century brick expansion to the rear, unified under a slate mansard roof and with a two-story porch.

Subsequent development of various turnpikes and the National Road in the early nineteenth century continued Boonsboro’s growth as an important node in the movement of goods and people between Baltimore and western Maryland. Indicative of the linear development typical along the National Road, Main Street (now Alternate U.S. 40) still includes many early-nineteenth-century buildings with later porches and additions that combined commercial and residential use. The former U.S. Hotel (1811; 2 S. Main) was built by physician Ezra Slifer and briefly used as his residence. The retail establishment at 14 S. Main is housed in c. 1802 log building; similarly, the brick building (1821) at 2–6 N. Main has been altered by two early-twentieth-century storefront windows. Boonsboro’s prosperity has remained linked to road transportation, shifting to automobile travel in the twentieth century with the construction of U.S. 40, MD 68, and I-70.