Bakers Lookout
Bakers Lookout is the home Peter Studebaker built in 1740 where he lived for 14 years until his death in 1754. Peter is buried in the family cemetery on Bakers Lookout with several family members. on the property Peter came to this country in 1736, as a master of the German cutlery guild already world famous for their trade secrets making products for royalty and Kings. The guild made coaches, wagons, swords, made 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, which Bakers Lookout became his first land patent. Peter built the first wagon factory and hydro-powered forging mill the only forging mill without a labor force of slaves or indentured servants on the property. 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, which was his workforce that started the family business, learning his trade secrets to make wagons that would last forever.
The property expanded into over half of Washington County, by the addition of land patents. The group made wagons and helped 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 and it grew into the largest maker of wagons in the world, 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 bared his name. Studebaker Corporation, organized in 1859, and continued in business until 1963.
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.
