Catoctin Furnace group receives more than $400K in grants for preservation

By GABRIELLE LEWIS

glewis@newspost.com

The Catoctin Furnace Historical Society received three grants in November, totaling over $400,000, that will help with historic preservation efforts, including building restoration and a traffic control study. The historical society received a $400,000 federal earmark sponsored by Sen. Chris Van Hollen to restore the Carty-Miller House.

The Delaplaine Foundation awarded the society $10,000 to do a traffic calming feasibility study. The Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area awarded about $2,000 for a historically accurate marquee tent for outdoor events.

The historical society, which is 50 years old, aims to preserve the history of the Catoctin Furnace near Thurmont and the surrounding ironmaking village.

The organization is run on a volunteer basis, according to the society’s president, Elizabeth Anderson Comer.

“These grants are essential, absolutely essential, to helping us share the history of Catoctin Furnace with the public,” Comer said.

The buildings in the village there were built between 1774 and 1820, according to the historical society’s website. The furnace produced iron for household and industrial products throughout the 19th century before stopping production in 1903.

Comer said the furnace is “a site of industrial enslavement,” as many skilled iron workers from Africa were taken and enslaved within the ironmaking village.

She said that component is part of the history visitors can learn at the furnace and village and by viewing historic buildings and artifacts.

The federal earmark will go toward renovating the Carty-Miller House at 12606 Catoctin Furnace Road — a log worker cottage that is over 200 years old — to its original condition.

The house was one of many homes built for families working and residing in the village.

Comer said the restoration process will likely include creating a new foundation, restoring the roof and chimney, and adding a modern wing including a kitchen, bathroom and laundry room.

The house will become a residence for the society’s new Furnace Fellows program. Emerging professionals will live at the village for a year while getting experience in historic preservation and museum management, Comer said.

In a statement to The Frederick News-Post, Van Hollen said direct federal investments such as the earmark will help highlight America’s history, both good and bad, and the lessons people can learn from that history.

“This funding for the Carty-Miller House will help do just that by painting a living picture of our tumultuous foundational years, early American industry, our shameful past with slavery, and more — all while ensuring the craft of historical preservation can continue on in Maryland for years to come,” Van Hollen said in the statement.

The Delaplaine Foundation’s grant will fund a traffic control study, so new safety measures can be implemented in the village.

From 2022 to 2023, Catoctin Furnace saw a large increase in visitors, including people attending major events and school children visiting each year, according to a news release from the historical society.

Comer said the road in the village isn’t made for 21st-century traffic, so the study will allow the society to figure out how to slow down traffic and improve safety for visitors and residents.

Marlene Young, the president of the Delaplaine Foundation, said the foundation has provided $65,000 in grant money over the past four years to the historical society for other historic preservation projects.

Historic preservation is one of the foundation’s areas of focus as part of its mission to enrich communities, families and quality of life.

“Delaplaine Foundation has approved funding of a grant ... because of [the site’s] importance to the County’s heritage, industrialism, and economic impact over time,” Young wrote in a statement. “Particularly in light of the extreme growth in visitorship to the village ... we understand and support this need.”

Comer said the historical society is grateful for the grants and how critical they are to achieving the organization’s mission of preserving the village and its history.

“It just speaks to, in my opinion, the vision of those ... organizations in saying, ‘OK, we get it. We understand what you’re trying to do, and we wanna help you do it,’” she said. “Without that generous support, we would be able to do very little.”

The Catoctin Furnace Historical Society received three grants related to historical preservation in November. The Carty-Miller House, shown, will be restored through one of the grants.

Staff photo by Katina Zentz