This is the 177th in a series of articles about the historical and architectural treasures of Washington County.

Pleasant Valley, tucked between Elk Ridge and South Mountain in the southern part of Washington County, is a rural area 16 miles from Hagerstown. The small village of Rohrersville, strung along winding, hilly Main Street, presents an array of 19th-century buildings. Two churches raise spires to the heavens. Houses crowd the street.

But the most unexpected structure in this quiet town is a sturdy brick hall with an elaborate sign fixed above its double entrance doors. Representations of the stars and stripes and Maryland's state flag drape either side of this sign. Routed grooves separate each color from the next as the sign proclaims, "Rohrersville Band Hall Organized 1837."

On the left side of the building, the carefully carved cornerstone states "Town Hall built by the Rohrersville Cornet Band 1916."

The hall stands on sturdy- stone foundation walls that open at ground level in the back. Masonry between the stones is finished with raised German pointing. The building is three bays wide and four deep with pilasters at its corners and between the windows. These windows have four-over-four sashes placed under gently arched lintels made of header bricks.

The building is about 64 feet long and 36 feet wide, containing a single room with a stage at its far end and a balcony above the door. The original tin ceiling, with its wide, pressed-tin cornice, still exists under a dropped ceiling which was installed later to improve acoustics. In the basement is a space of similar size. The structure fills the lot, with an alley on the right leading to the town cemetery.

McCoy founds a band

In 1837, G. Washington McCoy moved to Rohrersville from Sharpsburg. He was 20 years old. That same year, he gathered a group of like-minded men and established McCoy's Cornet Band. At that time nearly every community had a band that would play at picnics, revivals, weddings, funerals, political rallies - any event that called them. Band activities took place in evenings and on weekends, for members all had regular occupations.

The band organized under a constitution and a set of by-laws, electing officers, a board of directors and a leader of the band. All the members of the band voted on which jobs to accept, how much to charge or what to accept in lieu of cash payment. Sometimes they worked gratis for causes they supported, sometimes for dinner or for expenses, but it was always a group decision.

Fines of 12 1/2 cents were imposed on band members for missing practice without an excuse, being late or for "using profane language, smoking segars (sic) or leaving his seat without the consent of the President" or refusing to play the music selected by the leader. They practiced seriously and played frequently.

Band funds itself

Income from gigs did not fully support the band, so band fairs were also held. These offered bingo, food, games and prizes to raise additional funds. Net proceeds from the 1910 fair totaled $126.43. Band funds were used to buy instruments, music lamps and uniforms for members. These items were then loaned to members who were responsible for their care and for returning them to the band in good condition when they left the organization. The band also paid for repair of instruments and for music.

Eventually a bandwagon was purchased, and the band then needed to keep it in repair and arrange for horses to pull it. When uniforms or bandwagons were replaced, the old ones were sold and the funds added to the treasury. In 1886, they sold instruments to members of an African-American band in Burkittsville. Only occasionally did the band choose to divide funds among members; band finances were set up to support the band itself.

Elections were held each year. McCoy served as bandleader or captain for 46 of the band's first 54 years. He was a talented musician and the driving force behind the band. He would buy just one piece of music for each song the band chose, then write arrangements for each instrument by hand. McCoy himself played the fife and the E-flat clarinet.

Early in his life, McCoy worked on construction of the C&O Canal. He purchased a home in Rohrersville on Main Street and later established a marble yard in a building next to his house. Here he carved gravestones and other marble objects from marble quarried on the Shifler farm north of town. McCoy died in 1897 at the age of 79, leaving his third wife and six married granddaughters.

Building its hall

The band practiced at the Rohrersville School at the corner of Main Street and Pig Alley and in the room over H.B. Rohrer's store. They needed a hall of their own. When McCoy's widow died in 1914, the band saw an opportunity. The band purchased the McCoy property for $817.50. Thomas Smith, McCoy's grandson-in-law, had already moved the marble works across the street to his property, a business that continued into the 1930s. The lot was divided, and the house and back lot were sold to Paul M. Haynes and his wife Ethel, who was McCoy's great-granddaughter.

Band records were kept but were short and often incomplete. No minutes are available from 1915 to 1918, perhaps because band members were too busy building the band hall to keep them. Since several members were masons, it's presumed that they did much of the work on the hall themselves. No cost for the hall was recorded.

The hall then became a source of income, being rented out as Election Voting Precinct No. 8 in 1916 as well as being used for the band fair and for concerts at which they charged admission. Excess materials from the construction were sold as well. A treasurer's report lists bricks that were sold for a penny apiece.

Minutes show that the band members decided to dig a well in the basement of the building, probably to provide water for the kitchen facilities in the basement, but for some reason this was never done and the hall still is without water. At times, the band paid for music instructions for young men who needed them and mentored members in other ways.

Changes over time

The band constitution has been rewritten several times. Early on, the fines were omitted. Then the band incorporated in 1894 and revised this incorporation in 1915 to allow the band to own real estate. Women members were first admitted in 1940, after attending rehearsals for a year or so as most new members did. Band participation is voluntary.

Members often remain active for their lifetimes, held together by camaraderie and a love of music. Perhaps the longest tenure in the band is that of 84-year-old Richard Haynes, who started his apprenticeship in 1938, served as band director from 1960 until 2004 and cared enough about the band to lovingly go through all the records available and gather together its history in a book called, "And the Band Plays On "

During the 19th century, Rohrersville had stores scattered along Main street: a blacksmith's shop; J. V. Rohrer's store which dealt in fancy dry goods, boots, shoes, hats, caps, groceries, queensware, hardware, glass, drugs, medicine, paints, oils and dye stuffs; a grist mill at the north end of town; a doctor's office; and the marble works. These businesses have disappeared, victims of the economy of scale and better transportation.

But the Rohrersville Cornet Band continues, a unifying thread in the community. Still playing about 20 concerts a year, still marching in the Sharpsburg Memorial Day parade after more than a century, still helping train young musicians, still having fun. It is the longest continuously serving community band in Maryland.

Band membership has ebbed and flowed over the years. Presently about 32 members meet Tuesday evenings for practice under Holly Feather, who is the director. Five or six trumpets, three or four trombones and bases, two French horns, five or six saxophones, two piccolo flutes and four percussionists prepare for the next Rohrersville Band event.

For more than 170 years, they managed to nurture young talent, raise money, build a hall and provide music to their community.

This history of the band is based on Richard Haynes' recently published book "And the Band Plays on "

For more information on the Rohrersville Cornet Band, go to www.angelfire.com/md/rohrersvilleband.

Terms to know

Bay: Each space along the facade of a building defined by an opening such as door or window.

Pilaster: An architectural element, often rectangular in shape, that imitates a flattened column partially projecting from a wall.

Header brick: A brick laid with its small end toward the face of the wall.

Lintel: A horizontal structural member that supports the load over an opening such as a window or door. This member spans the opening and rests on the wall on either side.

Raised German pointing: Mortar between stones in a wall surface that is elevated to a shallow peak in order to direct water away from the joints.

Queensware: A type of white pottery dinnerware sold during the 19th century.