Union Bridge is like one of those small towns you see on TV where the dentist is also the peewee basketball coach, the sheriff fishes with your father and your next-door neighbor went to school with your grandmother.
“If you want to do something bad, you better go far away because everyone knows you here. It?s a very tight little town,” said Hank Johnson, Realtor with Long and Foster.
Union Bridge is a small agricultural town in Carroll County predating the Revolutionary War. It hasn?t changed much since.
“There are a lot of old Victorian homes, and other older homes that are a lot like farmhouses,” Johnson said.
Despite being built at the same time, “[the homes] all have a lot of character,” six-year resident Kathy Erb said.
In Union Bridge, homes rest on quiet avenues that splay out from Main Street (Route 75). Beyond that, farms and fields stretch into the distance.
It?s one of the few towns in Carroll County that hasn?t had a growth spurt, but there?s one in the works. Jackson?s Ridge and The Villages of Union Bridge are two housing developments joining this historic community.
Residents hate to see the farmland go and fear the population increase will stress public infrastructures like schools, but they hope the developments will bring economic growth to Main Street.
Once thriving with stores, restaurants and a movie theater, Main Street Union Bridge lost businesses when big-box stores cropped up in nearby Westminster and New Windsor. Local volunteers have spent the past decade revitalizing Main Street, repaving the road and sidewalks and installing historic street lamps.
Now that the effort is complete, Main Street is ready for business.
“There?s a lot of business opportunity here,” said Joan McKee, six-year resident, volunteer and author of the Union Bridge walking tour. “And home prices really aren?t as expensive as other parts of the county. It?s a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.”
That?s just what longtime residents Frank Tunzi and James Rowe did five years ago when they opened the Buttersburg Inn, a Main Street restaurant specializing in home-cooked comfort food.
Getting to know their regulars has been “one of the best experiences,” Tunzi said. “Especially when it?s packed full on a Friday night and everybody knows everybody and everyone is talking. You feel like you?ve opened your home for dinner.”
“It?s a slice of small-town life,” McKee said.
Miracle on Main Street
Union Bridge just completed a 14-year Main Street revitalization project that included repaving the street, replacing the sidewalks with patterned concrete, adding historic street lamps and installing a copy of a William Henry Rinehart sculpture in Town Square.
Claim to fame
William Henry Rinehart was born in Union Bridge and went on to become one of the first early American sculptors to be known internationally. His work can be seen locally at The Walters Art Gallery and Peabody Institute and in D.C., as well as across the globe in Rome.
Comfort Food
The Buttersburg Inn at 9 North Main St. is a locally owned family restaurant that serves homemade comfort food. The menu includes high-ticket items like crab imperial and prime rib as well as rural, home-style favorites like fried rabbit and hogmaw. (Closed Wednesdays.)
Get a Job
Union Bridge was once known as “the town covered in dust” from Lehigh Heidelburg Cement, a local company responsible for a large number of jobs. They?ve since relocated a little farther out so dust is no longer a problem in town.
Go Public!
Union Bridge kids go to Elmer Wolf Elementary, New Windsor Middle and Francis Scott Key High schools. For information on Carroll County public schools, visit carrollk12.org.
Commuter Info
Union Bridge is just past Westminster on Route 75. It?s less than an hour to downtown Baltimore and just 25 minutes to Frederick.
Innovative agriculture
In 1811, local resident Jacob R. Thomas designed and assembled the world?s first reaping machine. A historic marker on Butcher John Road just outside of town marks the spot where it was first tried.
History 101
Union Bridge was settled as a farming community before the Revolutionary War and was chartered in 1872. Its roots in the Western Maryland Railroad are preserved at the Western Maryland Railroad Museum in Union Bridge. For information, visit www.moosevalley.org/wmrhs/wmrhshistory.htm
New meets old
Union Bridge is one of the last little towns in Carroll County, but not for long. Plans for two new developments, Jackson?s Ridge and The Villages of Union Bridge, will add roughly 500 homes to the area.
World Records
The Clemsonville Christmas Tree Farm received notoriety from the Guinness Book of World Records in 1988 for the world?s largest wreath. Stop by to see pictures of the 116-foot wreath or to check out the Clemsonville manor house built in 1775.
