Where Charm And History Meet Midd letown

Maryland House And Garden Pilgrimage

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Throughout Middletown

Tickets: $36.50 available online. Day-of tickets can be purchased at event headquarters, 19 W. Main St., Middletown. Info: mhgp.org powerhouse. And with those literal roots, the in-town gardens on the tour become themselves indicative of the cultural heritage within the space they exist — little windows into the bounty that has long fed all of those who call the Middletown Valley home. build up Middletown’s heritage tourism lure, we have focused consistent attention on its architecture,” Axilbund noted. “Within the town’s three-mile stretch along the National Road, we have examples of almost every major architectural style.” Among them are the Federal Style, Queen Anne and Gothic Revival, just to name a few.

The tour is about 0.6 miles in length and can be walked or driven. Downtown parking is free. A boxed lunch can be pre-ordered for pick-up at the Christ Reformed and Zion Lutheran Churches (both on the tour) from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for $15.

“We selected properties that express Middletown’s personality” writes the MGHP selection committee, “the quirky outbuilding now turned to a Visitor’s Center, an early 20th century doctor’s suite and operating table, commercial buildings converted to single family homes and vice versa, two churches whose congregations are the foundations of the Middletown community, and much more.”

Down In The Valley

All of the properties range from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, including that 1906 surgical sanitarium of Dr. Lamar. Long before then, however, the verdant valley was long an agricultural

And about that visitor center? Well, it’s not quite finished. “Proceeds from the tour will help us continue the rehabilitation of two circa 1870s Carpenter Gothic commercial structures, which will become the Middletown Welcome Center and Main Street headquarters,” according to Axilbund.

Perhaps the true stroke of good fortune is that when the age of modernity brought with it the interstate system, this time the road didn’t go right through town. It skirted the edges of the valley instead, thankfully leaving what MGHP describes as “a remarkably high degree of historical integrity” for the town and its architectural wonders.

The May 6 event, then, becomes a culmination of heritage and luck, intentional preservation and splendid natural beauty. For the visitor, it’s an opportunity to indulge a little curiosity or awaken a sense of wonder about the kinds of buildings — and the stories they house — that give an area its own unique charm. For Middletown, at least according to MHGP, it’s worth making a pilgrimage to witness it — or just a short drive down the old National Road.