When U.S. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the building of the National Road from Baltimore toward St. Louis (eventually built to Vandalia, then the state capital of Illinois), the "National Pike" ran through Frederick along Patrick Street. (This later became U.S. Route 40.) Frederick's Jacob Engelbrecht corresponded with Jefferson in 1824 (receiving a transcribed psalm in return), and kept a diary from 1819-1878 which remains an important first-hand account of 19th century life from its viewpoint on the National Road. An important house remaining from this era is the Tyler Spite House, built in 1814 at 112 W. Church Street by a local doctor to prevent the city from extending Record Street south through his land to meet West Patrick Street.