Mount Prospect
Nathanial Rochester House
This is the original site of "Mount Prospect," also known as "The Rochester House." Nathanial Rochester built the house in 1789 on ground which once belonged to Jonathan Hager, the founder of Hagerstown.
The home was used as a "way station" during the Civil War for battlefield casualties from both the North and South. One of the wounded soldiers treated there was Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who fought at the Battle of Antietam. He later became a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Rochester, formerly a colonel in the Continental Army, was the owner of a nail and lock factory, the first president of the Hagerstown Bank, a member of the state legislature, a postmaster, a sheriff, and a Judge of the Washington County Court. In 1810, he left Hagerstown leading a caravan of settlers to the Genesse Valley where he founded Rochester, New York.
Marker is on South Prospect Street near West Washington Street (U.S. 40), on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
