My childhood home until 12/1977. My parents, Charles Lester Milburn & Shelva Jean Rhodes Milburn. 4 children, myself, Teresa Milburn Kelly, Glenda Milburn Grimm, Christie Milburn Toloso & David Milburn. My parents built this 2 story Split Floyer by hand themselves with help from family & friends. When my sister I were very young we lived in the basement, then they added onto the top to make a rancher where my other sister & brother came to be. Then around 1970 they converted it to a spilt floyer. My dad bricked the entire house with us kids carrying the bricks & my mom mixing the mortar all one summer. It was the nicest house in the area. In 12/77 they sold it & built a beautiful home outside Hagerstown, MD on Broadfording Rd.
Many years before my parents came to own the several acre parcel along Hott’s Lane, Clay dirt was sold out of the front of the parcel to repair & rebuild the C & O canal, just down the road, leaving a huge hole well over an acre wide & quite deep. My Dad traded a boat motor for the deed to the land & built our home on the back section of the parcel which ended at the tree line behind the house. My father as a very young child actually lived in a small home where his parents were tenants, that was located behind the house near the tree line. It burned down many years before my father came to own the land.
My home was located within walking distance to my Grandparents, Ellis “Buck” & Myrtle Rhodes’ home across the road & a short walk to the Potomac River & Dam #4. Many of my best memories happened in this home & area.

I grew up in this house from 1959 when it was built -1977. My parents built it on their own then sold it in 1977. Sadly upkeep on the home slacked and is now in disrepair. It was once one of the nicest homes in the area. I loved living there & the area.
In the top left corner was a pig pen where we’d raise a few pigs for slaughter in the fall. I hated those pigs because my sister I had to lug buckets of Slop up to them from the garage up a hill along the lane on the right then across a rugged path at the tree line along the back border to get to them. This took several trips carrying heavy buckets every evening. Then several times they’d make their way out of the fencing causing my Mom, my younger siblings & me to chase them down & get them back!!! Of course this never happened when Daddy was home! I sure hated those pigs!!
On the left side of property along the left fence line was a huge garden. At one time there was 100’s of Black Raspberry plants along the fence row. Yummmy!! The house had 4 bedrooms, dining room with a picture window overlooking the fields on the lane side, a beautiful picture window in the formal living room at the front of the house, a small but very efficient kitchen that served up the best food you could imagine! If daddy caught or shot it, my mother prepared it to a delicacy! My favorite room was the huge family room downstairs where many hours of watching family TV snuggled with my boyfriend, now husband or our dog Charlie. We had parties, dances, games, you name it making memories to last a life time in that room.
The gigantic couple acre hole that took up the front of the parcel was mostly clear when I lived there & you could clearly see the house from the main road, now it is grown up with tall trees & vegetation. In around 1975-1977 my dad cleared away low vegetation & weeds making it a baseball field where many impromptu baseball games popped up. Those are fun memories. It is very sad to see such a beautiful home that was built with such love & care depleted to its current condition. Her days as a magnificent home inside & out will alway be remembered in my heart. Thank you for the precious memories dear home along Dam# 4 Road & Hott’s Lane. Many blessings to those who now own her & future residents, may they feel the love that was built into its walls & hear the faint giggles of the 4 children that called this place their home.
Teresa D. Milburn Kelly, of Cearfoss Maryland.