The Fuller-Baker House is a rare surviving example of the common dwellings built by early settlers on the Allegheny frontier. Built after 1813 as a two-story log building, its large size has led some to believe it was once used as a tavern that offered respite to travelers along the National Road, and it would be the only surviving log tavern on the old National Road between Cumberland and Wheeling, West Virginia. Henry Fuller came to the Grantsville area in 1837 to work as a stonemason, and his skill with stone and brick remains visible in several town buildings. He opened the National Hotel, the finest in the young community, but soon moved to this house, where he spent the rest of his life. The Bakers, also early settlers in the Grantsville area, later owned the property. The house also stands on land with an early American pedigree: General Braddock's British army selected the site for its fifth camp in 1755 as it marched to meet the French at Fort Duquesne, and in 1791 Thomas Johnson, Maryland's first governor, purchased 23,000 acres of Military Lots, fifty-acre tracts of unclaimed land set aside by Maryland to reward Revolutionary War veterans, including the house site, Military Lot No. 2206.

Photo: Devry Becker Jones (CC0)

Grantsville, Maryland · USA