Breakneck Road Historic District

The Breakneck Road Historic District, a valley wedged between the ridges of Martin Mountain and Warrior Ridge in Allegany County, Maryland, is a present-day survival of an eighteenth-century pioneer settlement and its nineteenth-century development. As an entity, it has few counterparts in Western Maryland, if any, and seldom does one find anything comparable outside the state. Spanning nearly two centuries of development, the fundamental unit of development has been and continues to be the family farm, an item of an increasing rarity today. The character of the valley arises from these units in that they have remained in the possession of the families of the original settlers and have not changed substantially in their physical appearance for more than one hundred years! The escape of modern incursion, the obvious richness of the agricultural and forest land, the age and excellent state of preservation of its dwellings, barns, and outbuildings, and its role as the site of inter-related family histories, all contribute to a quality of rare strength of definition. This is re of the mountains and knobs which surround the valley. The architecture of the valley contributes to and is reflective of this quality, a vernacular architecture of accretive changes and occasional displays of style and prosperity, always in touch with the pragmatic and utilitarian nature of farm life.

The area now known as Western Maryland underwent a period of instability prior to the American Revolution through a number of Indian wars. Fort Cumberland built in the 1750s was one effort to defend against such attacks. By the 1770s, former residents, their confidence restored, began to return to the western mountains. They were later joined by new settlers drawn by the availability of fertile land. It was such a group that laid the foundations for the town of Flintstone at the north end of the valley. Like others who moved westward, the migrants selected a promising valley for their in this case the one situated between Martin Mountain and Warrior Ridge Flintstone and Twiggtown, at the south end of the valley, was the first to be settled.

The National Pike built after the turn of the century provided a major east-west route through Maryland, just north of the valley, and lead to the further growth of Flintstone. Many of the first settlers to the district came from Frederick English, Scottish-Irish, Scottish and French descent.

Analysis of the 1800 Federal census shows the area known as Murley Branch was counted as a separate district, having established its own identity. The rolls show a number of Twiggs, Willisons, Robinettes, and Chaneys, as heads of household. However, only a single Macelfish, Thomas, and a single Perrin, John appear. Most of these families have three to five children under the age of sixteen and two to four persons over that age. Several of the families have one or two slaves. The census does show a numerous household population for the area with middle size and relatively young families as would be expected for a newly settled area.

Development of the valley centered around these key families and their interaction. The Perrin and Twigg brothers were among the first patent holders. They were soon rivaled by the Willisons, a family of Scottish origin, for George Robinette and William House, two Revolutionary War soldiers, who arrived in the late 1790s. Robinette, whose tract was "Robinettes Lot", and his offspring developed several farms. Both House and Robinette constructed log houses, as was typical of the first settlers. Robinette's log house and two others built by the next two generations of Robinettes provide an interesting study of upward mobility within a single family as well as an illustration of architectural evolution within the valley as a result of 19th Century prosperity. The Messick (Captain George Robinette) Log Mansion was the first and most primitive of the houses. The second, built by Moses Robinette, son of Captain George, was a frame farmhouse with a large summer kitchen and is still in the family while the third built by grandson George Tanner is a substantial brick home. George also operated a tannery near Flintstone.

William House erected his dwelling on land purchased from Robinette. The House family remained on one farm as did the Robinettes. The Heavners, Macelfishs, Robinettes, and others in later generations established new farms. House's original homestead remained in his family for 195 years, until approximately 1970.

George Robinette's Log House (Messick) although covered with novelty siding, is a striking example of a log mansion with a massive outside-end chimney constructed of slate. The house is an excellent example of an early 18th Century dwelling in Allegany County and its further evolution and adaption with time.

Robinette played other important roles in addition to establishing his own farm. 1791, authorized by an act of the legislature, Robinette along with three others surveyed a road from Fort Cumberland to Hancock, constructed of logs.

A second major road, now known as Williams Road, running east-west toward the southern portion of the district and leading from Cumberland to the old road at Pratt's Hollow, was blazed by a man named Williams who lived near George Twigg on Warrior Mountain. The road was built by John Twigg and others. The Twiggs, early settlers in the southern portion of the district, established Twiggtown. Once known as "Sink Hole Bottom" it had its origins in a tract of land conveyed from John Perrin to Robert Twigs in 1760. John MacElfish Twi88, a descendant of John Twig, brother of Robert, erected a stone house cut from a nearby quarry in 1820. Built of natural limestone and logs it is one small group of stone structures remaining in Allegany County.

Two other early families to arrive in the valley were the MacElfishes and the Wilsons. The MacElfishes' first house was the Moyer Log House, located on Murley's Branch Road near Flintstone in a tract of land known as the "Re Survey of Deer Path". The family in addition to farming operated a gunpowder mill and game chicken farm.

The Elias Wilson family, which settled in the valley in the 1830s, again illustrates both early pioneer settlement and later expansion as prosperity was achieved. Elias Wilson's plantation included both the Gay Stonestreet and Scott Robinette Log Houses. The two houses were on part of six different tracts of land originally surveyed for Wilson in 1838. The log portion of the Robinette house was built circa 1830. This simple log structure served as the Wilson family home until the farm prospered. At that point, a 24' x 30' frame addition was built and the entire structure was covered with clapboard. Prosperity is evident, not only from the size of the house but from the detailed molding found in the frame section. In addition, as was common on several farms, a small slave quarter was located near the main house. Local legend has it that a slave, named Brady, lived in the building until he grew old, at which point he was moved into the house and later buried in the family graveyard. Small-family cemeteries are also a common feature of several farms. One particular farm, Earl Stonestreet's, has a separately maintained slave cemetery. Wilson, who deeded the land to his own son, Issac Crum Wilson, in 1858, also built and operated a mill on the property which was destroyed in the 1882 flood. As the Wilson family expanded and prospered, it acquired other farms including the George Robinette (Patterson) farm in 1892, which it retained for over half a century.

About 1840, two new farms were settled to the north and south of the Robinette lands further developing the core area of the district. Henry Jamison purchased a tract of land from Amon Chaney in 1840 and erected a frame structure (Heavner). A few years later he built the new Jamison farm (Earl Stonestreet), another frame structure. This complete complex of extant outbuildings includes a barn, log smokehouse, and slave quarters. Another Heavner later constructed the current Erickson House on land earlier obtained from John Twigg.

Jeremiah Berry had purchased his land from the tract "Robinette's Lot" in 1800, but the house, a brick dwelling (Fletcher), similar to and erected about the same time as George Robinette's (Patterson) was not built until 1845, Over the years it became known as Rose Hill Farm and was later purchased by a Wilson.

Jesse Chaney erected the Liller Farm House in about 1845 on land acquired from George Slicer in 1836. The main beams and supports of the house are hewn logs but the building itself is of frame construction. A frame addition housed a summer kitchen and slave quarters. Like other farms, it was acquired by the Wilson family in 1864, when Issac Wilson purchased it. The family retained it for four generations.

Expansion by kin of early settlers in the mid-century 19th Century is again seen in the erection, by Thomas MacElfish circa 1850, of the Riggleman House. The rectangular block frame house in near original appearance is an excellent cultural reminder of the way of life once found in the rural Flintstone area.

Another mid-century frame farm, the Browning House, is believed to have been constructed by a member of the Twigg Family and was known as the Francis Twigg Farm as late as 1909. The house is of special interest in that it is very similar in both size and mode of construction to several other houses in the area. The Summerfield Hinkle and Stickley houses are large shaped balloon-frame buildings with gabled roofs and brick-end chimneys which are typical of antebellum architecture in Allegany County. The Browning House has a particularly well-preserved group of outbuildings. These include a barn, a smokehouse, tool sheds, a chicken house, and a small building located next to the main house.

In addition to the development of family farms throughout the 19th Century which cemented the valley's reputation as one of Maryland's finest agricultural areas, more short-lived enterprises also drawing on a natural resource was the local warm spring. For decades a popular resort in the county was at Flintstone on Mountain Vale as the town was called until the 1830s. The warm springs with a constant temperature of 680 attracted a number of vacationers. One brick and one frame hotel were built in Flintstone and the guests were transported about two miles by wagon to the Warm Spring Road area. Flooding in the late 1850s filled the Springs with mud and gravel and washed away the bath houses ending the resort era of the valley.

Mid-19th Century prosperity led to the development of new farms in the second half of the 19th Century as a number of frame structures arose. "According to the 1878-79 County Directory, there were 133 farmers in the Flintstone area, a very distinctive rural
community." The main agricultural commodities at this time were wheat, oat, potatoes, and corn, and most farming was done in the valleys and the low hills.

The final period of farm expansion appears to begin about the 1870s and is generally carried out by families settled in the valley.
The May Long house, circa 1870 on land acquired from Argyle Twigs, abuts the Tewell Stone house property. The little altered frame house served as the dwelling for a simple farmstead.

The Stickley house, in the same vicinity circa 1875, was erected by Luther MacElfish. Also on the site is the "Big Spring" with a board and batten spring house. One of the earliest grist mills of the Flintstone area was built by Joseph Robinette about 1790, about 100 yards below the "Big Spring".

A Hinkle farm is established within this valley in the 1870s with the purchase by Summerfield Hinkle in 1876 of the Branch farm originally owned by the Willison family. Summerfield operated the old mill built about 300 yards below the barn. On the main floor was the grist mill and beneath was the sawmill.

The B.M. Hinkle House, circa 1875, was constructed by Harvey Wilson. In 1895, Summerfield purchased the adjacent James Willison farm and in 1902 George Bonman and Dennis Bennett erected the handsomely trimmed Summerfield Hinkle House for him. This is the final piece of the last stage of architectural development as well as farm expansion. The 20th Century is characterized by the marked stability of existing farms, preservation of the status quo, and quiet, unnoticeable functional improvements.

With the proximity of Flintstone and Cumberland, the valley did not develop many service institutions. However, a small town center" now defunct, arose at Rush, with some stores and services and a post office. A small church, the Murley's Branch Methodist Church, was erected about 1850 on land purchased from George Slicer. Methodism was extremely popular in Allegany County as early as 1791. In 1886, the old structure was demolished and the cemetery was erected. A one-room church circa 1875.

Architecture in the Breakneck Valley is characterized chiefly by aspects in the nature of a "pioneer farming enclave". The early buildings, leaving aside the more recent accretions and updatings, were built of home-grown, home-quarried, and home-milled materials, entirely hand-crafted. The most visible aspect of this character is a large number of very old barns and outbuildings, the pegged, mortised and tenoned barns at Earl Stonestreet, Martin Gordon, and Patterson properties and elsewhere, as well as the brick, stone, and log slave quarters, smokehouses and springhouses are found throughout the valley. Handworked heavy timbers, fitted and pegged, and rough-hewn or simply stripped-log beams may be found exposed in the attics and basements of nearly all the older houses (pre-balloon frame).

In style and plan, the majority of these houses reflect a pragmatic approach to the needs of agricultural life. Initially, there were very few concessions to comfort or elegance, but in the first houses, these deficiencies were corrected gradually as the prosperity of the settlers grew. This occurred mostly in the form of clapboard siding and frame additions.

Stages of development in the architecture of the valley may be seen in methods of construction. The first dwellings to be erected were log houses chinked against the elements. A number of these, notably the Messick and Moyers Houses, were two-story "log mansions", of considerable size for this type of construction. The Gay Stonestreet House, parts of the Tewell House, and the House and Robinette Farmhouses were also built of logs. These were sided later in the 19th Century. The original portions of the House and Messick Farmhouses probably date from the end of the 18th Century, the others from the early decades of the 19th Century.

The next phase of construction was that of heavy timber framing. Many of the barns of the valley are from that era and are the most visible relics of it. The barn of the Earl Stonestreet Farm is a particularly fine example, especially notable because of a latterday enlargement that used the same construction technique. Houses built in this way were generally nogged with brick, for insulation, and covered with clapboards. The Heavner and Earl Stonestreet Houses are fine examples of this, dating from the 1840s.

The anomalous house of this period is the Martin Gordon House, built of wide verticle" boards secured at the basement and roof levels, siding on the exterior, and plastered inside. The basement reveals heavy stripped timber beams, the attic lighter pole rafters. This method of construction is unique in the valley and seems to be little known elsewhere, at least in Allegany County. The Cardinal Mooney House (1837) at Mount Savage, one of a row of houses, is said to be built in this way, roughly contemporary to the circa 1830 Martin Gordon House.

The latest method of construction is the balloon frame. Its best representative is the Summerfield Hinkle House, being of a plan which either copies or was copied by nearly all other houses in the valley (those built of a piece of well as those which achieved the plan gradually through accretions and additions) a matter of a main block of three-bays, ridge parallel to the facade, with a wing of the rear wall, two or three bays long, perpendicular to the main block and set off-center. The Summerfield Hinkle House has, furthermore, the most comprehensive collection of architectural details to be found in the valley, and it is reasonable to look to it as a sort of standard for the numerous similar details which may be found in lesser quantity in other houses.

It would be difficult to chart precisely the changes, accretions, additions, deletions, and improvements that were made in the valley throughout its life. Doubtless, improvements in the operation of the farms always had first priority, and improvements in the appearance of the houses would have occurred only when there was sufficient prosperity to allow it. It may be safely assumed, however, the physical appearance of the valley, its man-made aspect, was for most of the 19th Century a constantly changing thing, an organic response to changing conditions, mutually reinforced by the residents of this closely knit community. The fact that it has not changed appreciably since the turn of the century is not clearly explicable. To be sure, plumbing, wiring, and heating has been improved where needed, and the spring houses which still exist seldom function as intended. But the buildings stayed the same The likeliest conclusion to be drawn is that they had reached some kind of optimum form for their overall function.