Carlisle's Black Rock

In 1818, Jacob Baughman of Carlisle drew a map of Carlisle noting the locations of churches, graveyards, public buildings, still houses, tanneries, and the names by which each of the borough’s street corners were known.¹ His map shows “Black Rock” on the north west corner of Main and Water streets (High and East). Was Black Rock a geological feature?

James Miller McKim, a Presbyterian minister and abolitionist, was born in Carlisle in 1810. In 1872, two years before his death, he wrote several lengthy reminiscences of the Carlisle of his youth which were published in the Carlisle Weekly Herald under the pen name AGC (A Genuine Carlisler). He described the houses, their residents and often incidents that took place in them. Without Reverend James McKim’s reminiscences, Black Rock would have remained a mystery.

Reverend McKim wrote, “Just opposite Mrs. Pattison’s on the main street stood Black Rock, a dark dismal looking stone house, with broken window glass, unpainted woodwork, and a time-and-weather-worn roof which spoke of the last century. From the outer wall on the south-east hung an American flag, and from the room behind it proceeded the sound of drum and fife. It was a recruiting rendezvous. The rest of the building was occupied by varied tenantry of a character in keeping with that of the place, which, by the way, as long as it bore the name an appearance of Black Rock, was never very good.”²

What was a derelict eye-sore by the early 1800’s had been a pre-Revolutionary War tavern called the “Sign of the Indian Queen” where Arthur St. Clair and others stayed. Built by Andrew McIntyre in the 1750’s, his widow, Martha, leased the tavern to John Fulton after her husband’s death in 1761. Fulton moved to York in 1770 to run a tavern. Fortunately, his account book for the Carlisle tavern survives in the collection of the History Center of York³ and records all the people who stayed at the tavern as well as what they drank.

McIntyre’s widow married William Murray. They left Carlisle, and in 1771 the sheriff sold the house and lot to Charles McClure, “late of Fort Pitt, now of Carlisle.” ⁴

The house was described on the 1798 “Glass Tax” of Carlisle as a two-story stone house 36 feet x 30 feet. Charles McClure was living on his estate in Middleton Township when he wrote his will in 1811. He stipulated that if his wife Rebecca wanted to reside in his house on Main street in Carlisle after his death, it had to “be put in proper repair.” If she did not want to reside in the “stone house” in Carlisle, then it went to his son Charles (Jr.) in fee.⁵

It is likely that his wife chose not to live in the Carlisle house, and it was still standing in 1818 when the sheriff advertised to sell the house as the property of Charles McClure, deceased.⁶ The “old stone house” appeared on the 1826 tax assessment as the property of Charles McClure (Jr.), and was torn down after he sold the lot in 1827 to carpenter Samuel Neidig.⁷