The General Store at Jerusalem Mill Village!
The General Store, popularly known as McCourtney's, is located at the east end of the Village. It is believed that part of this building was built about 1830 and an addition was added on the east side several years later. By 1844 the village
had grown large enough to support its own post office and the Lee family probably used this structure to house it. Ralph Sackett Lee named his son-in-law John Carroll Walsh postmaster, and Lee operated the store. Lee's store and warehouse are cited in several newspaper articles of the time as being raided by Confederate Major Harry Gilmor's troops during their intrusion into Baltimore and Harford Counties in 1864. It is believed that the store mentioned was in this building, since it is labeled on the 1860 plat as "Store".
Later, the building was leased to S. Oliver McCourtney. According to his obituary, McCourtney, who was born in Pennsylvania, had come to Jerusalem in 1906, having previously had a store in nearby Mountain. He bought the building and business outright in 1921 and maintained the store until he died in 1939. In 1940 it was purchased and divided into apartments, the use it retains to this day. Acquired by the State of Maryland in 1999, and leased to the Friends, the rents collected by The Friends of Jerusalem Mill are applied to its restoration. The structural restoration has been completed, and exterior restoration has begun.
Presently, as work continues on the restoration, a portion of the store is open to the public with exhibits and tours. See schedule for details. The store is also the center-point of our annual Gilmor's Raid Encampment.
Eventually, the building will be returned to its original purpose - a general store. Plans are to use a small section as a "gift shop" of modern items, while turning the rest of the store into a mercantile offering period reproduction products representative of the earlier inventory, such as soaps, colognes, cast iron, pottery, tools, hardware, preserves, and candies.
