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(Alexander Heilner) -
(Alexander Heilner)
This is one of the oldest positively dated houses in the region and among the few built of stone during a period when most domestic buildings were of crude log construction. Like many in this mountainous region, the house is banked into the hillside on a raised basement to include a ground-level kitchen entrance with the primary entrance to the street-level front. The house is built of irregularly coursed stone with decorative lintels, quoining, and interior end chimneys. It follows a traditional German three-room plan with a large room with fireplace and enclosed stair adjoining two smaller rooms with a shared chimney.
Owner John Van Buskirk was an early settler to the region, possibly one of many to receive land in exchange for military service. In 1843, he opened his house to a Redemptorist priest from Baltimore, Father John Neumann, who offered in-home Catholic Mass to German immigrant farmers and miners. The house sits on the extension of the old Legislative Road, the primary early route between Frostburg and Lonaconing.