The iconic Helmstetters’ Farm, located in Corriganville, Md., along the WMSR, and the namesake of iconic Helmstetter’s Curve on the Western Maryland Railway, is up for sale at an asking price of $1,150,000 through Charis Reality Group. Steve MacGray, an agent with Charis, tells Trains News Wire that the listing includes the Helmstetters’ farmhouse and barn, along with 125 acres of property split by the scenic railroad and the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail. MacGray says the remaining family members who still own the farm, which sits about five miles outside of Cumberland, are looking to retire from farming and are willing to sell the farm after more than a century of it being in the Helmstetter family. “The farm is still owned by two brothers who are some of the remaining heirs, and age-wise, and health-wise, they’re looking at cutting back and letting someone else continue the farm activities they’ve still got there,” MacGray says. “They still do some farming and they’ve got several head of cattle and a couple of crops.”
The Helmstetters’ Farm has served as the backdrop for countless photos of the Western Maryland Railroad and the preservation railroads that have run on it. MacGray says typically, properties adjacent to active rail lines are difficult to sell. In the case of the Helmstetters’ farm, the proximity to the rail line and the bike trail are selling points. “A lot of times, people will ask to be as far away from the railroad as they can be, but being a scenic railroad, it’s a different case,” he says. “The railroad’s location is actually an integral part of the of the asking price for the farm. We also have people who want to be as close to the bike trail as possible, so it’s a very attractive property.”
MacGray says brush has been allowed by WMSR to grow up along portions of the rail line, obstructing some of the traditionally wide-open view of passing trains, but the property is still garnering interest, mainly local, from potential buyers. He says the most significant factor in any potential sale will be whether anyone “steps up and wants to farm.”
Unless there is covenants on the sale to keep it as a farm I fully expect it to be sliced and diced and sold as a housing development.