Enjoy Dowden’s Ordinary Special Park’s playground, walking path, benches, historic interpretive signs, Ghost Structure and elephant statue. The 2.75-acre park was acquired in September 2010.
Park Features
- Playground
- Walking Paths
History: A Tavern on The Great Road
In his petition for a tavern license in 1750, Michael Dowden wrote that because his house was situated between Rockville and Frederick, he regularly received visitors requesting food and lodging. The term “ordinary” originally applied to a tavern meal regularly offered at a fixed price, but later referred to the tavern itself – hence Dowden’s Ordinary .In 1755 British soldiers stayed at Dowden’s Ordinary during the French and Indian War.
A prominent feature of this park, the tavern ghost structure illustrates the building style of the original Dowden’s Ordinary. A separate kitchen was located nearby. Archaeologists found many artifacts here that relate to tavern operations—glass bottles, tobacco pipes, cooking pans, mugs, and jugs, and lots of oyster shells that were typical of tavern meals.
This park also features a walking path, benches, and a playground with elements inspired by the site’s history. A favorite is a climbable elephant in homage to the first elephant ever seen in North America when she was toured along the East Coast from 1796 to 1818. The park is also the home of a Clarksburg Flag, designed in 2015, to fly over the crossroads of what began as two Native American trails that became Clarksburg in 1752.