Frederick, MD Summary

Although the first settlers arrived in the area surrounding presentday Frederick as early as 1725, the town’s formal beginnings can be traced to the laying out of Frederick Town in 1745.

A historic community, the very first act of rebellion against the English occurred in Frederick — the hated British Stamp Act was first repudiated by jurists in Frederick County in November, 1765. Frederick was also the launching spot for an expedition westward led by General Edward Braddock, along with a young Colonel George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, who met in Frederick to plan the march to capture Fort Duquesne from the French in 1755. In 1778, during the Revolutionary War, the town of Frederick sent 1,700 men to support General George Washington at Valley Forge.

Frederick lies 51 miles northwest of Washington DC at the junction of I-70 and Hwy 270 and contains examples of almost every major architectural influence found in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America: Federal, Greek Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Second Empire. Its clustered church steeples grew from an early mix of Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed traditions that were present in the town from its inception.

A walking tour of the Frederick Historic District, covering 33 city blocks, takes you past streetscapes of adjoining buildings, two to five bays in width and two to four stories in height, with gables or shed roofs. A few frame and log houses can also be found.

Frederick is Maryland’s thirdlargest city with soil so rich it is said you can grow corn “as high as an elephant’s eye.” Today it has a population of approximately 50,000 and is a vibrant agricultural center. Fort Detrick, site of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, ensures that Frederick is home to many firms specializing in biotechnology.