Mt. Airy

Mount Airy (Mt. Airy) lies in the extreme south-western corner of the county and is well-known for its antique and art shops.

 

In 1830 there was as settlement of houses and stores along Parr's Ridge. During its early days, however, the settlement had no name. In the 1840's the Town's few citizens felt the need for a church and education for their children. In 1846 the Ridge Presbyterian Church was built and a private school conducted in the basement for the next 20 years. This church building has been preserved and is now know as Pine Grove Chapel.

 

The years between 1833 and 1850 were growing years for the B&O Railroad which ran between Baltimore and Frederick, and then on to Cumberland and west. Parr's Ridge was a challenge to the engineer's ability to design engines capable of pulling cars over the summit. Track was run into the village and a station built. As the railroad grew, so did the town. Much of its prosperity can be traced to the B&O Railroad.

 

History tells of an Irish B&O brakeman whose ears were freezing from the keen, cold air which crosses Parr's Ridge. He suggested the name Mount Airy would be appropriate. The name met with the favor of the people and became the Town's legal name.

 

The next decade, 1860 forward, brings the Civil War period when Mayland stayed with the Union, but Mount Airy was very definitely southern in its sympathies. The railroad system to carry northern troops and supplies to the southern battlefield was to be jealously guarded by a New Jersey regiment stationed in Mount Airy. The officers and men were quartered at Pine Grove Chapel and the mess tent was erected to the rear of the church in what is now the cemetery. A sick and delirious soldier who wandered into Ridgeville and died was the first person given a Christian burial in the land back of the church.

 

By the 1890's the town had grown considerably and the Episcopal Church was built, followed by the methodist and southern Methodist churches. In 1895, the B&O Railroad, trying to cope with the crossing at Parr's ridge, conceived the idea of a tunnel which in its day was a great engineering feat, and is one the longest tunnels east of the Rockies even today. The laboring force used to construct the tunnel brought turbulent times to Mount Airy with drunken brawls and shooting parties.

 

The B&O Railroad for many years brought children and the ill to Mount Airy for medical care in the Garrett Sanitarium.

 

No longer economically tied to the railroad, Mount Airy is home for many who work along the Baltimore/Washington corridor, as well as families who have lived there for generations.