Editing Middletown, Maryland (section)

==History==
A young Lieutenant [[George Washington]], while surveying the South Mountain area, reported that [[Middletown Valley]] was one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.middletownheritagefestival.com/history |access-date=April 20, 2023 |website=Middletown Heritage Festival |language=en-US}}</ref> Later, as a colonel in 1755, he was to accompany General Braddock on the old Indian Trail that ran through the valley on his way to Fort Cumberland.

The early German and English settlers started to arrive in the valley in the 1730s. Among them was Michael Jesserong, who paid £66 for {{convert|50|acre|m2}}. He named his property Middletown and sold the first lots there in 1767, the date officially marked as that of the town's founding.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Main Street spread to the west with construction of the National Pike through the town in 1806; the telegraph lines from Frederick to Hagerstown were routed through Middletown in 1854; and in 1896, car 11 of the Frederick Middletown Railway made its first run to Middletown. During the Civil War, both armies passed through the town to the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. In the aftermath of those battles, Middletown opened its churches and homes to care for the wounded.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Middletown preserves many historic structures indicative of its various periods of development and prosperity. The core of the old town, comprising the several blocks along West Main Street ([[U.S. Route 40 Alternate (Hagerstown–Frederick, Maryland)|US Route 40 Alt]]) and South Church Street ([[Maryland Route 17|MD Route 17]]) contains several examples of [[Federal architecture|Federal]] and [[Greek Revival]] architecture, including the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (1859–1860) and Christ Reformed Church United Church of Christ (1818). With the coming of the [[Hagerstown and Frederick Railway]] in the 1890s, the town expanded to the east, where several examples of various Victorian-era styles can be seen, including [[Queen Anne style architecture in the United States|Queen Anne]], [[Gothic Revival]], and later examples of [[Colonial Revival]] styles. The economic prosperity experienced in the town during the first quarter of the twentieth century led to the alteration of older commercial structures and the construction of new ones in the first few blocks of Main Street, including the [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]] styled Valley Savings Bank (today the Middletown Valley Bank). Many of these structures are registered in the [[Middletown Historic District (Middletown, Maryland)|Middletown Historic District]].