The Clarke Family house is located at 231 North Church Street in Thurmont. The brick, Italianate, 3-story house was built in 1871 by Jim Lohr. Ownership then went to Abraham Lohr followed by Simon Lohr and wf. Fransanna Lohr, and sold to Rosa K. Beall and husband Ira W. Beall from Simon Lohr in 1916 [329:268]. Beall’s sold to Chas. H. Clarke and wife Ambrosia “Mother Clarke” on 3/31/1937 [406:587]. Weeks later, on May 7,1937, the Clarke’s too bought the lots adjoining their home property from the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (a corporation of Delaware) [407:416] where their son Charles H. Clarke, Jr. operated “Mountain Jerry’s” restaurant. The Clarke’s were the owners of lots 10,11,12,and 13 along old route 15 at the 81 (MD-806) junction. “Mother Clarke” and her family occupied the entire three-level house that was once the Western Maryland Hotel as she had 24 children of which 12 survived. After Mr. Clarke’s death in 1954 Charles, Jr. was conveyed the Mountain Jerry’s lots and his brother Paul Alfred Clarke (unmarried) the family home which he sold to Wilhelm and Auguste K. Bensel in 1957 [589:4] described as stretching from the Old route 15 public road to the Western Maryland tracks and at the corner of a road leading to the WMRR. The House has been an apartment house for several decades. All of the described properties were once owned by John Baker Kunkel (c. 1871) who owned the Catoctin Furnace.