One of the oldest settlements in Western Maryland, Hancock derived its name from Edward Joseph Hancock, Jr., whose family operated the ferry at this northernmost point of the Potomac River. Edward Joseph Hancock, Jr. was considered a hero in the American Revolution who fought alongside General George Washington.

Settlers in the area were known as “Northbend” and “Tonoloway Settlement” as early as the 1730s. Charles Polke, the Indian Trader of the North, operated a trading post along the Potomac. While a young lad learning his surveying trade, George Washington occasioned to stay with him. Hancock also boasts a home in which Washington dined with another Indian trader, Joseph Flint.

Hancock grew as a transportation route and with the extension of the Bank Road into the National Pike in 1818, Hancock experienced a huge building boom. Blacksmith shops, liveries, and stage inns packed Baltimore Street, which is now our Main Street. It flourished as a commercial center and the completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal to this point in 1839 brought an influx of Irish immigrants, Welsh stonemasons, and many others.