Country Churches: Camp Chapel UMC

Freeborn Garrettson, a Methodist circuit rider and conscientious objector who served his calling with Bishop Asbury, wrote in his journal on July 6, 1809:

"Accompanied by our cousin, Presbury and other relatives, we repaired to what is called Camp Chapel. It is beautifully situated in a forest, at a distance from any house. As I rode up my mind was solemnly impressed when I saw such a number of horses and carriages, fastened to the trees, and the people waiting for the word. I had a sweet time speaking from Cor. V. 11-21." Read on.

The Mysteries of Pit Beef

Maryland has given the world three great treasures: steamed crabs, Dashiell Hammett, and apparently, pit beef.
I say apparently because, over the past few years, I've read some write-ups on the subject and none of them ring quite true to me.
First off, let me tell you what pit beef is: it is beef, grilled outdoors, sliced thin. It is charred on the outside and pink on the inside. It is served on cheap white bread with copious amounts of horseradish & mayonnaise. Think of it as grilled roast-beef.
Let me tell you what pit beef is NOT: it is not dry rubbed, it is not well-done, it is not served on a kaiser. (Though, if you like it that way, that's fine by me.)
The writers all seem to think it is a recent invention, maybe 20 years old, but I remember pit beef from my childhood in the 60/70's.
It was, back then, often part of a fundraising activity known as a "bull roast." Bull roasts were (are) often held at volunteer fire halls, churches, or in fields. There are bull roasts (summer), bull & oyster roasts (months with R in them), and ham & oyster roasts too.
A proper bull & oyster roast always served fried oysters, raw oysters, crab soup, potato salad, macaroni salad, steak tartare, sausage, and of course, pit beef. These events were usually, but not always, catered.
Tickets to a roast always had the menu printed on the back. It made it that much harder to resist, especially since the roast went on for hours and hours, and was all you could eat. Oh, and there was beer too - lots of it.
Later it seemed, the late 70's or early 80's, pit beef came into a more permanent form as roadside stands, often located in a bar parking lot, and usually open on the weekends only. Today there are pit beef establishments open 7 days a week. Some of them are very good, some aren't: you have to search for the good stuff.
That's what I know about pit beef. If your recollections differ with mine, or you can place the origins of pit beef back beyond my memory, please leave a comment.

A typical roadside pit beef set-up. Note the grill is made from a furnace oil tank. The diesel stacks are a nice touch.

The real thing: ask for no more, expect no less!

Route 66 has many siblings

While Route 66 is an interesting and picturesque old highway, it wasn't the only one built in that era, nor is it the only one remaining. Indeed, the odds are very good that an old U.S. Route isn't too far from where you live today, and it's probably chock full of decrepit old motels and ramshackle tourist traps.
A few of my favorites are U.S. Route 40 in Maryland, US 11 in Virginia, Route 30 (The Lincoln Highway) in Pennsylvania, and the true "mother road" - U.S. 1, which stretches from Maine to the Florida Keys.
There are many others and they are all rapidly changing. The time to explore these places is now, before they disappear entirely.

Route 66, Tucumcari, New Mexico

US 40, Aberdeen, Maryland

U.S. Route 1, Florida Keys

Photos © QR AI/Nightening/MDRails

Cameras: Canon EOS 10D, 5D, 20D respectively. (The Canon 20D remains my favorite.)

Sundown on the rancher

"Home buyers' affair with modernistic design is over. When I leaf through a directory of one big home builder's current models, I notice that all the houses have similar architectural features: pitched roofs, gables, dormers, bay windows, keystones, shutters, porches, and paneled doors.
Americans' fondness for such conventional imagery is characterized by some critics as nostalgic and retrograde. In fact, it represents a long domestic tradition that extends to colonial New England and Virginia. In that history, the brief fling with the rancher was an anomaly."
- Witold Rybczynski

Decay threatens important Baltimore history archives

"Among the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s little-known treasures are the vertical files in the Maryland department. They hold 7,000 large envelopes full of yellowing newspaper clippings, reports and documents detailing Baltimore’s life and development, mostly from the 1930s to the 1980s.
For information about Baltimore during World War II or about the city’s housing and education problems, visiting the vertical files is mandatory.
Over the years, the vertical files have spawned innumerable books, dissertations and term papers. But many of those brittle files are literally turning to dust." Read on.

Bush Forest Chapel

© Pat Depkin 2007

Old House #17

This house doesn't look very old, until you notice the chimney. It sits in the old mill village of Franklinville, Maryland.

Tenement

Bel Air, Maryland

Canon 20D ©2007 Kim Choate

The springhouse at Tudor Hall

Tudor Hall, Bel Air, Maryland (vicinity)

Canon 20D/5D ©2007 Kim Choate/falmanac

Country Churches: Rehoboth Welsh Calvinistic

" ... Welsh people began migrating to the Delta area and settling in a town they called West Bangor, after the well-known city in North Wales. Families began arriving in 1832 to set up basic slate mining operations. The first Peach Bottom quarry opened in 1835. Many laborers came to Delta in the 1840's, including John J. Humphreys, a successful plant operator and slate producer. With John J. Roberts financial backing and John Humphreys' experience, West Bangor became a leading industrial town and trading center along the Susquehanna River, second only to Peach Bottom (Delta)." Continued.

Canon EOS 5D ©2007 falmanac

Peach Bottom Township Recreation Center

I just always assumed the Peach Bottom Township Recreation Center, with its stucco face and bas-relief sculpture, was built in the 30's; it's got WPA written all over it. But I was wrong. From what I can gather, it was built in 1952 by the township, as a community center.
I'm still assuming the sculpture is made from "Maryland Green Marble," which was mined locally. I wonder who the artist was?

Canon 5D ©2007 falmanac

Local cable company declares War On Books

One of Cable's best kept secrets is Book TV, which airs every weekend on C-Span2. Well it did, until Comcast began preempting it with baseball.
And thank God for that; for too long the MSM has clogged our airways with nothing but books, books, books. How much learning can this poor Baltimoron be expected to take?
I, for one, welcome our new sports overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted local blogger, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground souvenir caves.
For you book huggers out there, Comcast has, very quietly, offered the following: In an effort to address subscriber concerns, Comcast promised to air C-SPAN2 on a digital tier without interruption. Analog subscribers -- about one-half of the 2.2 million subscribers affected by Comcast's programming change -- may obtain digital boxes to receive C-SPAN2 at no extra programming charge.
“They will not need to change their level of service,” said Beth Bacha, vice president of communications for Comcast Cable’s Eastern division. Comcast will lease a digital set-top box “for at most $1,” she added.

Old House #16

Delta, PA (vicinity)
Canon EOS 5D with EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens.

©2007 falmanac

Greek Revival: Because we're smarter than you.

"Theology sits by her window in powder and paint, courting the favour of philosophy" - Soren Kierkegaard

Why did Presbyterians in early America build churches to look like Greek temples?
Maybe it's because American Presbyterians liked to think of themselves as the most learned of all the Protestant sects and Greek Revival served as an outward manifestation of their intellectual aspirations? (That's how they tended to think of themselves when I was growing up in the church.)
While these backwoods temples seem kitschy today, other sects thought the practice glorified paganism and thus we must give the Presbyterians their due: they really were more open minded, at least when it comes to architecture.
But what a woefully low hurdle to set! Instead of trying to outsmart the neighboring church, why didn't they aim to be the smartest people in the country, bar none? If they had, maybe modern Christians wouldn't be so terrified of Charles Darwin?
Anyway, the IOOF (Odd Fellows) Hall in Bel Air, MD was constructed by the local Presbyterians in 1852. It served as a church until the 1880's. Today it seems swallowed up by the surrounding town, as quaint and forgotten as philosophy itself.

Old House #15

Delta, PA (vicinity)

Canon EOS 5D with EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens. ©2007 falmanac