A Crossroads of American History

A Crossroads of American History. The Frederick Square Corner. , The Square Corner, at the intersection of Patrick and Market Streets, has long been the commercial and financial heart of Frederick. It is here that the National Road meets several important north-south roads that lead to Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C., The Square Corner has witnessed both dramatic and ordinary events for over two hundred and fifty years. British, Hessian and Tory prisoners marched through town during the Revolutionary War, while Union and Confederate armies marched through as they headed to fateful collisions at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg during the Civil War. Conestoga freight wagons and "Concord" stagecoaches rolled west on the National Road, while in recent times, presidential motorcades passed through on their way to the nearby retreat in the Catoctin Mountains., [Captions:] , By the 1890s, brick had replaced dirt on road surfaces. Trolley tracks and power lines crisscrossed the Square Corner as Gilded Age technology came to Frederick., A Hagerstown and Frederick trolley car rumbles through the Square Corner in 1911. The electric railway made travel convenient from Frederick to other rural communities farther west and north., The prime real estate at the Square Corner has always called for memorable architecture. The massive Farmers and Mechanics Bank Building dominates a corner of the intersection. Many old buildings in the well preserved downtown have survived with new uses.