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is an unincorporated community located in Frederick County, Maryland, USA. It is named for Adam Kohlenberg (March 11, 1819 - January 1, 1868), a station agent and first town merchant who owned much of present-day Adamstown.
Adamstown lies in the fertile valley between Sugarloaf and Catoctin Mountain on Carrollton Manor, a estate originally owned by Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Until 2000, it was a little-altered representative of mid-19th century linear town planning. It is significant in architecture for its variety of structures, including residential, commercial, industrial, educational, agricultural, and religious buildings. The late 18th century road from Jefferson to Greenfield Mills on the Monocacy River, originally called the Bridal Road, followed the route of the present-day Mountville Road. The 1832 arrival of the railroad to the Manor created the economic and transportation impetus for the development of the community.
With Adamstown located so close to the Potomac River and Virginia, its citizens were almost exclusively loyal to the South; however both Federal and Confederate troops were constantly moving on Carrollton Manor. For several months in the spring of 1861, the Minute Men of Adamstown, a secession militia company composed of three officers (Captain Robert H. E. Boteler; 1st Lieutenant Jacob G. Thomas; and 2nd Lieutenant William Hilleary Johnson, all local doctors) planted a pole and flew the Confederate flag adjacent to their guard post next to the B&O railroad. Many skirmishes in the American Civil War were fought here and the town was often raided, most notoriously by the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry, also known as Mosby's Rangers, on July 30 and October 14, 1864. On one of these raids, Adam Kohlenburg's entire stock was taken. Local folklore holds that one family had a son fighting for the North and one fighting for the South.
In 1902, Jacob Klein's Addition to Adamstown included the area of Washington, Adams, and Tuscarora Streets. The Adamstown Bank was established in 1917 and the building opened in 1919. In 1921 Adamstown had two large grain elevators (Farmers Exchange of Frederick and Thomas & Co.), a blacksmith shop, a carriage works, two garages, a general store, a hardware store, a butcher shop and the Bank. 1921 was also the year that electric lights were first installed in the town.