Photo by Skip Lawrence John Rubincam works at Marshall Etchison’s Bookstore on East Church Street. Purchase this photo

But to be on the safe side, the part-time worker at Marshall Etchison's Bookstore brought it with him to the store on East Church Street.

Located right next to the Historical Society of Frederick County, the little-known bookstore specializes in local history.

Because the bookstore and the historical society are affiliated, Rubincam brought the photograph over to a librarian at the historical society, who confirmed it was the original Maryland School for the Deaf building.

It was grand.

"They tore it down, unfortunately. It was a beautiful building," he said.

Rubincam meets all sorts of people at the bookstore, including those who have personal ties to the books he sells.

For instance, a woman from Frostburg came in and bought half a dozen copies of a book about President Harry Truman's road trip. It detailed the president's journey through Frostburg, where he had lunch with her family.

Rubincam also answers a lot of genealogical questions, since the store sells copies of local records. Many researchers choose to buy those, rather than sift through them in the basement of the historical society.

Rubincam's interest began with genealogy. His father, Milton Rubincam, was a leading genealogist and compiled more than 30,000 pages of records on his family.

"You're exposed to it all your life," Rubincam said about why he picked up his father's interest in history.

He moved to Frederick from Prince George's County in 2001 with his mother and brother. One of the first things he did was go to a local college and pick up some books about the area's history.

It wasn't until Rubincam got involved in the Senior Community Service Employment Program that he began working at Marshall Etchison's.

The back-to-work program is aimed at people over 55 who have been out of work. They are given jobs in government and nonprofits to improve their skills.

Rubincam described himself as "hopeless" on computers before the program landed him work at the bookstore and another job at the Frederick County Business and Employment Center.

Now he's working on a project to cross-reference genealogical indexes in an Excel spreadsheet.

Rubincam hopes people in Frederick realize they have a treasure in the little bookstore on Church Street.

The store is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and sells videos, prints of local historic maps, computer programs and Christmas cards.

They cover history ranging from the Civil War to the French and Indian War to the legend of the Snallygaster and history of local African-Americans.

"We're a great resource for anything on Frederick County," he said. "We have seminars and all the written material. We have volunteers next door, and some have been around for many, many years and know Frederick history like the back of their hands."