Tour Stop # 5: 128 East Main Street

From Reverse Angle

Photos Courtesy of John Aichele

This is

128 East Main Street

; commonly know as the John Kretzer homestead. The originally lot was laid out by Joseph Chapline. The house was built circa 1791 and was originally owned by Peter Ham until his death in 1819. The Kretzer family owned this house from 1842 to 1939 and is now owned by one of their descendants. It is a true colonial and one of only four houses in Sharpsburg constructed of cut stone. When the first Confederate Units arrived in Sharpsburg around the 14^th of September and began to take their defensive positions, the citizens were presented with a simply yet difficult choice. Stay or go? Most of the town decided to go; about a third of them headed to Hagerstown or Boonsboro, and another third headed to either the Antietam Iron Furnace or a cave on the C&O canal. However, a few brave souls decided to stay in town throughout the ordeal. Here, in the basement of the Kretzer homestead anywhere between 100 and 200 huddled for cover. Daughter Teresa remembered, “We carried down some seats and we made board benches around, and quite a number of us got up on the potato bunks and the apple scaffolds. We were a comfortable as we could possibility be in a cellar, but it’s a wonder we didn’t take all of our deaths of colds in that damp place.” Only a few citizens came back into town during the 17^th and 18^th to see how the town was doing. After the Confederate Army had left, the citizens began to heal the wounded and pick up the broken pieces of their town.

Question for Consideration: Would you have stayed or gone?