Betcha didn’t even know it was here …
by David Marks
A visitor to northeastern Baltimore County in the early Nineteenth Century or early Twentieth Century would have strained his or her eyes to find Perry Hall on a map.
Riding horseback along the dusty country lane that became Belair Road, the visitor would have climbed Putty Hill to come across three villages, none of which were named Perry Hall. Moving north, these were the villages of Necker, Indian Rock, and Germantown.
Today, the villages are lost to history, absorbed into the grid of streets and neighborhoods that is modern Perry Hall.
The only evidence that any of them existed is Necker Road, named for the southernmost village. But they were all noteworthy places in the history of our community.
The three villages developed partly because Belair Road was the only route leading from the northeast into Baltimore. Belair Road was then known as the Baltimore and Jerusalem Turnpike.
The first settlement, Necker, developed around St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps the most distinctive feature of this village was Waldman’ Seven-Mile Tavern, named because of its location from Baltimore, which was demolished to build the Olde Forge office building. There was also an apple orchard along the road at what was then the Klosterman farm.
The second village, Indian Rock, was located at what is now the junction of Ebenezer, Joppa, and Belair roads. Frank J. Goettner settled in the area from Indian Rock, Pa., opening the Indian Rock Butcher Shop at the tollgate house and inn along the turnpike. That building was unceremoniously bulldozed in 1985 for the Kentucky Fried Chicken eatery, and Indian Rock disappeared forever.
Indian Rock will soon, however, have a namesake.
In 1998, Baltimore County purchased the woods next to Perry Hall High School in order to prevent the land from being developed.
The Perry Hall Improvement Association has asked that this land be named Indian Rock Park. It’s not exactly at the location of the village, but it will preserve the identity of this forgotten town. Plus, there is rumored to be an Indian burial ground near the spot.
The final village, Germantown, was the largest of the three.
In 1852, investors from Philadelphia bought 900 acres of land from the Gough family, carving up the old Perry Hall estate. The land was subdivided among immigrant families who had originally settled in Baltimore but wanted farms in the county. Since many were from Germany, the settlement at Belair and Chapel roads became known as Germantown.
The area changed from a rural wilderness populated by a few landowners, mostly of English ancestry, into a country hamlet with many German farming families. These families brought new religious faiths, too. St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church had started in 1850, and St. Michael’s Lutheran Church began in 1859.
The 1870 census showed there were 500 people in Germantown, compared to 63,142 in the rest of the county. These settlers included families who are well known in Perry Hall today, and many have streets named for them: the Butts, Mohrs, Ryes, Soths, and Walters. The village had several inns, blacksmith shops, wheelwright barns, and a general store.
Farmers raised “stoop crops” that required families to crawl along the ground to weed and harvest. They sold their carrots, beans, celery, and onions at the markets in Baltimore, and deposited the money in the Germantown Savings and Loan. They personified the stereotypical German work ethic.
Earlier this year, the Perry Hall Improvement Association submitted an application for a grant to erect a historic marker near Belair Road and Baker Lane.
The marker will let people know that about the long-forgotten village of Germantown.
The Perry Hall Improvement Association has also asked that our new public library include prominently placed photographs of Germantown and the other villages when it opens in 2009.
While they browse the Internet and pick up their books-on-tape, there is no reason why people cannot also get a fleeting glimpse of the villages that created Perry Hall.
David Marks is a longtime community activist, author of a book on the history of Perry Hall, and president of the Perry Hall Improvement Association.
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