This view shows the Edwin and Ethel Creeger House on North Church Street, on December 20, 1948. Edwin Creeger owned the Creeger Motor Company on Water Street. Their Son Edwin Jr. died in action during WWII and the American Legion is named in his honor. The house was owned by Civil War hero Colonel John Rouzer and was enlarged and encased with brick in the late 1800’’s. This home now houses the Thurmont Historical Society. Photo Credit: “The Robert S. Kinnaird Collection of Historic Photographs”

The 3-story building located at 21 E. Main Street once housed the oldest continuously operating business in Frederick County, known in recent times as the “Creager Furniture Store.” James Creager (1817-1900) began making and selling furniture in 1832 at the age of 15 and formally started a family business in 1840 on Water Street making coffins. James Creager was a great grandson of Lorentz Krieger (one of the first settlers in the area in what would first become Mechanicstown and later Thurmont). James Creager had two sons who were at one time part of the family business. James Creager and his sons expanded the coffin-making business to include undertaking and furniture making, but the partnership of James and his two sons (Martin and John Wesley) was dissolved in 1894 and only James Creager and initially his son Martin (1866-1948) and later his grandson, Raymond (1893-1980) continued the family business.

Mr. James Creager’s first furniture warehouse was located on the southwest corner of the main square in Thurmont. In 1886, James Creeger built an addition to his building on Water Street to house the furniture business. In 1897/98, James Creager’s son, Martin Luther, relocated the family furniture business to 21 E. Main Street. Martin Creager had purchased the property at 21 E. Main Street from Irwin Loy in 1895 and continued the family furniture business under the name “M.L. Creager & Son, Inc.” It does appear that at the time of Mr. Loy’s purchase of the property, the property did include a house that had been the residence of John Wilhide but based on an article in the Catoctin Clarion it would seem that the building currently located at 21 E. Main Street was built or substantially remodeled on or about 1897 by Martin Creager. Martin’s son, Raymond Creager (1893-1980), continued the furniture making business at 21 E. Main Street after the retirement and death of his father Martin. The coffin-making and funeral business was separated from the furniture store and the M.L. Creager Funeral Home (now known as the Stauffer Funeral Homes, P.A.) relocated across the street to 104 E. Main Street; both businesses however were at one point owned by Martin Creager and later his son Raymond Creager. Following Raymond Creager’s death in 1980, the funeral business at 104 E. Main Street was sold and now is operated by Stauffer Funeral Homes, P.A.

Back view of the property ca 1950s. From the collection of THS

In 1963 Raymond Creager sold 21 E. Main Street to his daughter, Clara Jean (1919-1995), and her husband, Raymond Schumann but Raymond Creager continued to run the Creager Furniture Store until his retirement in 1977. Upon Raymond’s retirement his daughters (twins Clara Jean and Mary Ellen) and Clara Jean’s husband, Robert Schumann operated the Creager Furniture Store until 1987. In 1987, the corporation “M. L. Creager & Son, Inc.” purchased the building from the Schumanns but ultimately lost the property at foreclosure in 1999; it should be noted, however, that it seems to be the case the business was no longer owned by a member of the Creager family after 1987.

Creeger House at the time of the transfer in 1995. From the collection of THS

In 1999, the property was bought at foreclosure by Kenneth and Lois Fraley; the Fraleys leased the property to Bryan and Jackie Butler who continued to operate a furniture business under the name of “Creager Furniture Store.” The property has changed hands a few times since the purchase by the Fraleys but has continued to have a retail store business and the land records deeds continue to describe the property as the “Creager Furniture Store”. It is notable that the exterior of the building has undergone very few changes since it first was built or remodeled in 1897.
The furniture store endured for over 150 years and through four generations of Creagers but it will always be a part of Thurmont’s history!

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Contemporary Photography:

(Captured October 2025)