Bakers Lookout Museum
Bakers Lookout is the home Peter Studebakerbuilt in 1740 where he lived for 14 years until his death in 1754. Bakers Lookout still stands today. It is a museum of Peter's craftsmanship, precision cut dove-tailed hewned logs, tempered construction hardware, stone foundation and masonry, lasting over 270 years.
Peter came to this country in 1736, Master of the German cutlery guild, already world famous for Scientific technology and secrets for making royalty products for Kings. The guild made coaches, wagons, swords, with the highest quality tempered steel and wood.
Peter located an area with massive amounts of oil shale, iron ore, and rivers, the same natural resources as in Germany. Bakers Lookout became his first land patent. Peter built the first wagon factory and hydro-powered forging mill, This was the only forging mill without a labor force of slaves or indentured servants. Peter paid passage to America and arrived in this country with a group of family members and close friends of the Church of the Brethren, These friends became Peter's workforce and he began the family business, utilizing Master skills learned first in Germany, to make wagons that would last forever.
The property expanded into over half of Washington County, by the addition of land patents. Peter and his family business expand into a vast region from Hagerstown, Maryland to South Bend, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Illinois. The family business continued as industrious farms with hydro-powered mills. Soon the family business became the largest maker of wagons in the world, and the only wagon making company to transition into automobile manufacturing. The family name became a household name, where ever wagons were used. Peter's trade secrets utilized by the family business never changed. This trade became the foundation of the family fortune and the Corporation, which barred his name. Studebaker Corporation, organized in 1859, continued in business until 1963.
Peter is buried in the family cemetery on Bakers Lookout with many family members.
