Located in the heart of Maryland’s Civil War Heritage Area — Washington, Frederick and Carrol counties — the town of Frederick is so steeped in history that it’s easy to imagine Union and Confederate troops marching through back in the 1860s or being carried there, due to its proximity to Antietam battlefield, site of the bloodiest single day in American history, when 23,110 soldiers were killed, wounded or went missing.
“Frederick is best known for its role as a Civil War hospital city because there were important battles all around,” said Becky Bickerton, director of sales and marketing for Visit Frederick. “We’re 23 miles from Antietam, 35 from Gettysburg and 35 from South Mountain. Only the Battle of Monocacy, known as the battle that saved Washington, took place there.
“Visitors can learn about how the town cared for all those wounded soldiers at the National Museum of Civil War History.”
Through 7,000 square feet of lifelike exhibits, this well-designed museum interprets the harsh conditions and brilliant innovations of medical treatment in the field and the beginnings of emergency medicine in the United States.
“After the battle of Antietam, the thousands of wounded brought here doubled the town’s population,” said Katie Reichard, reservations coordinator. “The museum tells a beautiful story of compassion during an incredibly dark time in our history.”
Rental of a 60-capacity conference room comes with a tour of the museum, which is but one of a number of sites in the area that welcome meeting and conference groups.
Full-Service Events Center
Frederick’s largest meeting venue, the Clarion Inn Event Center, offers 13,000 square feet of meeting space and a 156-room hotel with five suites, a full-service restaurant with a specialty of crab cakes and an indoor heated swimming pool to entice attendees to bring the family. The ballroom can host up to 800 guests for a reception, and the Garden Courtyard holds up to 300.
“We’re right off I-270 and I-70 and an hour from all three major Washington, D.C., airports,” said Mark Wright, general manager. “And our staff is the friendliest in Frederick and the surrounding area, bar none.”
Also near Interstate 270 and close to shopping, movies and dining at Westview Promenade mall, the 167-room Hampton Inn Frederick weighs in with nearly 7,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 4,500-square-foot ballroom with a 250-guest capacity.
“We’re not your normal Hampton Inn,” said Chenee Stone, catering sales manager. “Most are small without much meeting space and no restaurant or bar. We can host from 200 in our ballroom to 10 in our boardroom.”
A privately owned restaurant, the Beacon, with an outside patio and wraparound windows, is next door to the Hampton, and planners get a choice of eating there or catering by the hotel’s commercial kitchen. Another plus, with a reserved block of hotel rooms comes a personalized Web page to facilitate easy attendee reservations.
Elegant Off-Sites
An elegant off-site meeting option only 20 minutes from downtown Frederick, the Inn at Stone Manor Country Club is set on 114 rolling acres in the Middletown Valley. Sporting nine fireplaces, this 18th-century manor home is great for a corporate retreat, with six bedrooms, a spacious meeting room, terraces and a 300-capacity, carpeted permanent tent complete with elegant chandeliers.
The outdoor setting lends the property to team building, which can be arranged by the client or the inn.
“The Inn at Stone Manor is a perfect place to get out of the office,” said representative Brian Childs. “The hassles of the day will not interrupt your meeting here.”
Nor will they at another venue he represents that’s also 20 miles from Frederick — the Springfield Manor Winery and Distillery, which sits tucked onto 130 acres in Thurmont that include vineyards and lavender fields set at the base of the Catoctin Mountains. Begun as a 1765 estate, its renovated manor house has eight suites, 10 fireplaces, period furnishings, a pergola, a fountain and meeting space for 15 to 20. Lunch and dinner are served in a solarium. The main house is connected to a 300-seated-capacity ballroom by a serpentine sun porch.
A restored barn houses a winery, with reservation-only tours and tastings, and event space for up to 150. If one winery is not enough, both properties are located near seven wineries on the Frederick Wine Trail.
“At both venues, we always go the extra mile and try to be affordable for what we give and what you get,” Childs said.
