History, love is in the air in Boonsboro

The town’s motto, “Discover Our History. Savor The Romance.” captures this distinct mix of attractions that have made it a popular tourist destination. But Boonsboro’s access to nature, frequent town events, and location make it an inviting place to stay, residents say.

Literary lovers hope to catch a glance of Nora Roberts, “our local celebrity,” said Diana Hyvarinen, an employee of Turn The Page Bookstore, owned by Roberts’s husband, Bruce Wilder. “Of course I’ve met Nora,” Hyvarinen said with a smile.

“Bruce and I started our first business in Boonsboro around thirty years ago because there was no bookstore in southern Washington County,” said Roberts, who has lived in Keedysville, about three miles away, since 1972. “Our sons went to school in Boonsboro, making that an important connection, and we believed then, as we do now, that investing in Main Street could and would make a difference,” she said by email.

And it has. “Her fans come here a lot to stay at her Inn and then to cruise through the businesses,” Hyvarinen said. Since opening Turn The Page Bookstore in 1995, “we’ve found other wonderful old buildings that needed some love, and opened businesses we felt would enhance a lovely small town we have a deep and personal connection to and affection for,” Roberts said. Today, she owns Gifts Inn BoonsBoro, Fit In BoonsBoro and Inn BoonsBoro, popular for inspiring her Inn BoonsBoro Trilogy that published from 2011 to 2012.

Spice Cromie, a chef at Inn BoonsBoro, wasn’t looking for a job or a chance to see Roberts when she stumbled into Boonsboro to “resupply” during an Appalachian Trail hike four years ago. The town’s readiness to provide food, supplies and information to hikers made it a designated A.T. Community by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy last year.

Keen for a new adventure, Cromie felt called to stay in Boonsboro’s small-town environment for its comfort, kind people and easy accessibility to the A.T., within three miles, she said. She ended up with “a dream job” at the inn. She still visits the trail every day, running in preparation for ultramarathons like the JFK 50 Mile.

Dubbed “America's Oldest Ultramarathon,” the JFK 50 crosses through parts of the A.T. and draws droves of runners to Boonsboro every November. “There’s probably 3,000 people here,” Cromie said, and they unite in excitement on the starting line, marked by two commemorative bronze plaques, in front of Roberts’ Inn.

Boonsboro was founded in 1792 by George and William Boone, cousins of the well-known frontiersman Daniel Boone. The Boone brothers planned the town around what became National Road, the first federally funded highway, spanning from Maryland to Missouri, completed in the 1830s. This historic is now known as Alternate Route 40 and, in Boonsboro, Main Street. Every May, replica wagon trains pulled by horses and mules come to town during the National Pike Festival/National Road Festival, a 90-mile trek to honor the “Road That Made the Nation.”

Other events — from the Spring Jubilee to the Boonesborough Days Annual Crafts Festival to the Boonsboro Food Truck Festival — attract residents and tourists. “I always call it the busiest little, small town,” said Dana Healy, who moved from Hagerstown with her family of five in search of more land.

Healy owns Josie’s on Main, a boutique clothing and home goods store on Main Street and is a member of the town’s Economic Development Commission. “There’s always something going on. … and we never have a hard time trying to get people involved,” Healy said. “That’s a huge part of why I love Boonsboro.”

The town’s growth is seen in new businesses, including The Admiral restaurant and a long-awaited hardware store that opened in 2023.

But locals still boast of Boonsboro’s roots along Main Street, including the restored 1902 Trolley Station, National Road Museum and the Boonsborough Museum of History, which has artifacts from the nearby Civil War battlefields of South Mountain and Antietam. More than 500 buildings along Main Street and neighboring roads fall within Boonsboro’s Historic District, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Today, Boonsboro is “a very sought after area,” especially for its “central” location, said Roben Ryberg, a real estate agent with Samson Properties who raised her family in Boonsboro.

Access to urban amenities can be found in Frederick, 17 miles south, and Hagerstown, 11 miles north. Other attractions, including Antietam, C&O Canal Park and Washington Monument State Park, are within 10 miles.

For Ryberg, who’s spent more than 20 years in and around Boonsboro, one goal still rings true for residents, she said: “that the small-town heart of Boonsboro remains the small-town heart of Boonsboro.”

Living There: As of March 2, there were three active properties on the market, ranging from a five-bedroom, four-bathroom colonial for $459,900 to a four-bedroom, four-bathroom colonial for $545,000, Ryberg said. In the last 12 months, more than 40 properties have sold, from $164,850 to $575,000.

Schools: Boonsboro Elementary, Boonsboro Middle and Boonsboro High School

Transit: Residents have quick access to ALT 40, and Maryland Routes 34, 66, 67, and 68. Dulles International Airport is 50 miles away.