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Pittsville was originally
called Derrickson’s Crossroads in the early 1800s, but in 1864
it was renamed in honor of Dr. Hiliary R. Pitts of Berlin who
set up a general practice there while also serving as the
physician for the railroad. The railroad carried passengers
and provided freight service for the area’s major cash
crop—strawberries. The town’s first school was built in 1836.
Ayers Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1840 and Grace
Methodist Protestant Church in 1876; the two churches combined
in 1989. The post office was established in 1855, and a fire
company was formed in 1927. Several businessmen incorporated the
town’s first bank, Truckers and Savings Bank, in 1906. Peninsula
Bank now occupies that original bank’s building.
Starting in the late 1800s, “Strawberry Time” was the town’s
annual economic stimulus. Buyers would converge on the town to
bid on the strawberry crop for shipment by railroad to distant
cities. The town had its own hotel to accommodate the buyers.
During the Depression years, strawberries were traded for other
products rather than for cash, and by the latter half of the
20th century, the strawberry industry had receded in economic
importance to Pittsville.
The current location of Pittsville Motors, (a Ford
dealership) has been the location of an auto agency since 1915.
Other businesses came and went during the 20th century—many
small markets, a canning factory, nurseries, and a printing
business. Pittsville is the birthplace of Drexel Truitt, who
played the part of George Washington in many films in the 1930s
and posed for the likeness of the General that appears on the
25-cent coin.
Pittsville is now a small bedroom community, with a few
businesses. It has the characteristics of a large family because
so many of the townspeople are related to each other or know
each other well. It will continue to grow as development spreads
from Salisbury and Ocean City.
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