CAPSULE SUMMARY CT-227 Plummer Farm 1721 Brickhouse Road, Dunkirk, MD 20754 Ca. 1890 Private

The Plummer Farm is located on a roughly 11-acre lot at the east end of Brickhouse Road near its

intersection with Route 260 (West Chesapeake Beach Road). The property is comprised of a late

nineteenth-century farmhouse, two tobacco barns, several outbuildings, and former tobacco fields. The

Plummer Farm is significant as a highly intact example of a small, Calvert County tobacco farm

established in the late nineteenth century and continuously operated until 1973. The two-story

farmhouse is a fine example of vernacular domestic architecture from the 1890s and maintains a high

level of integrity. Contributing to the historic significance of the property are two tobacco barns, a

smokehouse, a corn house, and a dairy. These structures are important physical manifestations of the

agricultural economy that shaped the history of Calvert County and the life of its inhabitants.

Maryland Historical Trust Inventory No. CT-227

Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties Form 1. Name of Property (indicate preferred name)

historic Plummer Farm (preferred)

other George Hardesty Farm

2. Location

street and number 1721 Brickhouse Road not for publication

city, town Dunkirk vicinity county Calvert County

3. Owner of Property (give names and mailing addresses of all owners) name William Hardesty street and number 1721 Brickhouse Road telephone city, town Dunkirk state MD zip code 20754

4. Location of Legal Description courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Calvert County liber JLB 25 folio 537 city, town Prince Frederick tax map 003 tax parcel 0052 tax ID number 007588

5. Primary Location of Additional Data Contributing Resource in National Register District Contributing Resource in Local Historic District Determined Eligible for the National Register/Maryland Register Determined Ineligible for the National Register/Maryland Register Recorded by HABS/HAER Historic Structure Report or Research Report at MHT Other:

6. Classification Category Ownership Current Function Resource Count district public agriculture landscape Contributing Noncontributing X building(s) X private commerce/trade recreation/culture 1 0 buildings X structure both defense religion sites site X domestic social 5 2 structures object education transportation objects funerary work in progress 6 2 Total government unknown health care vacant/not in use Number of Contributing Resources industry other: previously listed in the Inventory 0

7. Description Inventory No. CT-227 Condition

excellent deteriorated X good ruins fair altered

SUMMARY The Plummer Farm is located on a roughly 11-acre lot at the east end of Brickhouse Road near its intersection with Route 260 (West Chesapeake Beach Road). The property is comprised of a late nineteenth-century farmhouse, two tobacco barns, a modern equipment shed, a garage, three small outbuildings (a smokehouse, dairy, and corn house), and former tobacco fields. NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION Farmhouse The farmhouse is located at the far north end of the lot, along the west side of Brickhouse Road. It is a two-story, frame dwelling with a cross-gable roof. The exterior walls are clad with vinyl siding, and the roof is covered with asphalt shingles. With a few exceptions, the windows are six-over-six, double-hung, wood sash. In plan, the house has an L-shaped form. It is possible that, originally, the house had a single-pile plan, possibly with a one- or two-story rear wing. According to the current owner, at some point (date unknown), the rear wing was enlarged to provide a dining room and additional rooms upstairs.1 The house was further enlarged with the addition of a side porch along the south elevation. The front façade, which faces east, is three bays wide under a center gable. While the bargeboards of the gable are unornamented, a circular vent in the gable wall is embellished with a quatrefoil. A screened porch extends across the full width of the house. It has a screened door that is approached by wide concrete steps. The section of the front façade that is sheltered by the porch retains its original wood siding, and the front door is original. It is an eight-paneled wood door with a glazed upper panel, a decorative center panel, and six molded panels below. In the center of the lock rail is a twist doorbell. The windows flanking the door retain their original operable louvered shutters. The north façade has an exterior brick chimney and two six-over-six, double-hung sash, wood windows without shutters. Four windows pierce the north façade of the rear wing. The two lower windows are eight-over-eight sash with decorative shutters, corresponding to the dining room on the interior, and the upper windows are six-over-six with decorative shutters. The west façade has one eight-over-eight, double-hung sash window, which lights the dining room on the interior, two six-over-six sash at the second-floor level, and a six-over-six sash window under the gable. A one-room addition, housing the furnace, extends from the west façade. It has a gable roof, a glazed and paneled door on the west wall, and no windows. A one-story wing with a hipped roof extends from the south façade of the house. A door opening in the wing provides a side entrance to the house, and windows are six-over-six and eight-over-eight sash. Other openings on the south façade hold double-hung sash windows with decorative shutters. Today, the interior of the Plummer House features four rooms on the ground floor – living room and parlor at the front of the house and kitchen and dining room in the back – and four rooms on the second floor. Notable interior features include the wood mantel over the fireplace in the living room, the original stairs, newel post, and balustrade, and several original interior doors and hardware. The living room has original wood floors and plaster walls, while the drawing room finishes have been replaced with modern materials. Barns The Plummer Farm has two tobacco barns. For the purpose of this description, they will be designated as Barn A, which stands on the west side of Brickhouse Road, and Barn B, on the east side. The barns were built in the mid-1930s following the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane that destroyed the earlier tobacco barns that stood on the property. According to the current owner, the barns were rebuilt using materials salvaged from the older structures. Barn A is a large, three-bay barn with a gable roof that is oriented with its long axis running east-west. It is a post-and-beam structure built of circular sawn lumber joined with nails. The sills of the frame rest on concrete block piers. Typical of tobacco barns in Calvert County, the exterior walls are constructed of wood planks oriented vertically. Spaces between the boards allow for air to

1 Author interview with William Hardesty on April 17, 2019.

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. CT-227 Historic Properties Form Name Plummer Farm Continuation Sheet Number 7 Page 1 circulate through the structure. The roof is covered with corrugated metal, and the floor is earth. The interior is divided into fourteen 4-foot-wide “rooms” with multiple levels of tier poles to maximize the barn’s storage capacity. The barn has door openings on the south side, closest to the former tobacco field, the north side along the driveway, and the east side facing the road. A one-story, concrete block stripping room with a shed roof extends from the southeast corner of the barn. It has four fixed-sash windows that face south. Barn B is also oriented with its long axis running east-west. Although similar to Barn A in form and material, there are some important differences between the two structures. The tier poles of Barn B are fashioned from unhewn, unmilled saplings likely as a cost-cutting measure. Barn B was originally built as a 14-room barn with a stripping room at the east end. At some point (date unknown), the structure was extended by four bays that were built over the stripping room. Like Barn A, the walls of Barn B are wood plank, the roof is clad with corrugated metal roof, and the floor is earth. There are doors on all four sides of the structure. Other Outbuildings Standing near the tree line behind the farmhouse are two early outbuildings – a dairy and a smokehouse. The smokehouse (date unknown) is a simple, one-story, frame structure built on cinderblocks. The walls are board-and-batten siding, and the gable roof is corrugated metal. There is one door to the structure on the east wall. Inside, there is an iron pot to hold fires and embers. The rafters are strung with wires that were used for hanging ham or other meats. The smokehouse was last used around 2007. South of the smokehouse is a dairy (date unknown). It is a small, frame structure built over a 6-foot-deep pit constructed of poured-in-place concrete. Above the concrete foundation, the walls are board-and-batten. There is a door on the east wall and a six-light, sliding-sash window. In the southeast corner of the structure is a set of wood steps that lead down into the pit. The dairy has a gable roof that is clad with corrugated metal. West of Barn A is a small corn house (date unknown). It is a frame structure with a gable roof. The exterior walls are covered with wire mesh and vertical boards. Openings in the gable ends allow for additional air circulation. Between Barn A and the farmhouse stands an equipment shed constructed in 1976. It is constructed of concrete block, and wood timbers with knee braces frame the entrance bays. The easternmost bay is enclosed and contains a workshop and storage areas. South of the house is a garage (date unknown). It is a rectangular, wood frame structure under a gable roof. The exterior walls are clad with clapboard siding that has been encased under vinyl siding. The garage has a concrete block foundation and a corrugated metal roof.

8. Significance Inventory No. CT-227

Period Areas of Significance Check and justify below 1600-1699 X agriculture economics health/medicine performing arts 1700-1799 archeology education industry philosophy 1800-1899 X architecture engineering invention politics/government X 1900-1999 art entertainment/ landscape architecture religion 2000- commerce recreation law science communications ethnic heritage literature social history community planning exploration/ maritime history transportation conservation settlement military other: Specific dates Ca. 1890 Architect/Builder N/A Construction dates Ca. 1890 Evaluation for: National Register Maryland Register X not evaluated SUMMARY STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Plummer Farm is a highly intact example of a small, Calvert County tobacco farm established in the late nineteenth century and continuously operated under several different owners until 1973. The two-story farmhouse is a fine example of a late nineteenth-century vernacular dwelling and maintains a high level of integrity. Contributing to the architectural and agricultural significance of the property are two tobacco barns, a smokehouse, a corn house, and a dairy. NARRATIVE History of the Plummer Farm In 1886, Laura W. Webb acquired for $130 a 13-acre parcel known as “Free Town” that was located in the Third Election District of Calvert County. Presumably shortly after this, she married Joseph Plummer, for, in 1895, the couple sold the farm, then valued at $900, to Dorsey and Cora Pindell. The change in value of the property between 1886 and 1895 suggests improvements by the Plummers, which may have included the construction of a two-story, frame farmhouse and other outbuildings. The Pindells owned the property until 1901, when they sold it to a Thomas M. Webb, a 22-year-old carpenter. The previous year, Webb had purchased a quarter-acre lot not far from the farm from Emma Chaney and Thomas M. Chaney for $50. By that time, the Washington & Chesapeake Railroad had opened, which connected Washington, D.C., to the Chesapeake Beach resort. Webb built a general store on the property, which was located near a stop along the railway. It also served as the Chaney Post Office for a number of years in the first half of the twentieth century.2 Soon after acquiring the farm and building the general store, Thomas M. Webb married Annie Hardesty. Thomas Webb died around 1909, leaving Annie Webb a widow with two young children. The 1910 census lists Annie Webb as a 28-year-old farmer. Her household included her children Genevieve (6) and Charles (3), George L. Hardesty (32), who was employed by the railroad, and an African-American cook named Emma Gross (19).3 According to the current owner, the Webb’s tobacco barns were considerably damaged during the Chesapeake-Potomac Hurricane of 1933 and had to be rebuilt.4 Annie Webb lived on the farm into her 50s. In 1938, she sold the farm property and general store to Martha “Mattie” V. Hardesty for $3,700.

2 E.H.T Traceries, Inc., “Chaney Store and Post Office (CT-321),” Maryland Historical Trust, Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties form, 2002. Around 1959, the store was converted into a dwelling. 3 1910 United States Census (Census Place: Chaney, Calvert, Maryland; Roll: T624_562; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 0031), available through Ancestry.com On-line Database. 4 Author interview with William Hardesty, April 17, 2019.

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. CT-227 Historic Properties Form Name Plummer Farm Continuation Sheet Number 8 Page 1 Maddie Hardesty was 55 and working as a school supervisor when she purchased the farm. By 1940, the occupants of the house included Mattie Hardesty (57), her brother George Hardesty (62), George’s wife Mae (38), their son George L. (13), and a boarder named Taney Gibson (58). George Sr. is identified as a farmer and Gibson as the farm manager.5 According to the current owner of the house, William Hardesty, his grandmother, Mae, moved to Calvert County from Virginia to work as a teacher in the one-room schoolhouse that was located down the street from the Hardesty farm.6 (This is the Chaney School, CT-318.) She lived in the Hardesty house as a boarder, where she met his grandfather, George Sr. George L. Hardesty, Jr., acquired the farm from his aunt in 1959 and cultivated tobacco on the land until 1973. Tobacco Farming in Calvert County European settlers first came to Maryland’s tidewater region in 1634. The land provided a suitable climate and good soil for tobacco cultivation, which became the principal cash crop by the end of the seventeenth century. An abundance of navigable rivers and tidal creeks provided most of the region’s transportation needs, and Europeans customers provided a growing market.7 Tobacco cultivation was extremely labor intensive. Early planters relied on indentured servants. During the eighteenth century, however, slave labor became a significant part of the labor force. The earliest settlers cleared large swaths of virgin forest to establish growing fields by girdling trees and burning underbrush. Seeds collected from pods saved from the previous harvest were planted in special beds in the early spring, and transported to cleared fields in June. After the tobacco was harvested in the fall, the leaves were cured, or dried. In Maryland, tobacco was air-cured, which required a special type of barn that was tall, to provide ample storage space, and well ventilated. Once the tobacco was cured, the leaves were stripped from the stalks and pressed into large barrels called hogsheads for shipment. In the early nineteenth century, changes in inheritance laws resulted in the redistribution of large landholdings into smaller and less efficient farmsteads.8 After the Civil War, which led to the emancipation of 83,000 enslaved people in Maryland, Calvert County lost much of its labor force, compelling farmers to reduce their dependence on tobacco.9 Concurrently, the seafood industry grew to become an important part of the regional economy. While the rest of the state experienced dramatic changes in the period 1870-1930 that introduced new industries and diversified economies, Calvert County remained predominantly agricultural. Indeed,

5 1940 United States Census (Census Place: Calvert, Maryland; Roll: m-t0627-01543; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 5-10), available through Ancestry.com On-line Database. 6 Author interview with William Hardesty, April 17, 2019. 7 Suzanne Ellery Chapelle and Jean B. Russo, Maryland: A History, 2nd ed. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), 18. 8 Dames & Moore, “Historic Sites Context Study and National Register Evaluation for Calvert County, Maryland,” prepared for the Calvert County Historic District Commission, July 1995, 4-18. 9 Suzanne Ellery Chapelle and Jean B. Russo, Maryland: A History, 2nd ed. (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), 162.

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. CT-227 Historic Properties Form Name Plummer Farm Continuation Sheet Number 8 Page 2 agriculture and particularly tobacco production remained the dominant source of income in Calvert County for most of the population through the mid-twentieth century.10 Tobacco Barns in Calvert County In rural areas across the country are numerous examples of special-purpose barns built for particular agricultural operations. One example is the tobacco barn, of which there are three major types for the three methods of drying tobacco – fire-cured, flue-cured, and air-cured. Traditionally, Maryland tobacco farmers air-cured their tobacco leaves, and tobacco barns have been a fundamental component of the state’s agricultural landscape since the seventeenth century. The basic function of an air-cured tobacco barn, or tobacco house as the structures were called until the nineteenth century, was to shelter and store tobacco and allow for air circulation. The earliest tobacco houses were earthfast, or post-in-ground, construction. By the eighteenth century, single- or double-pen, log barns were common. Early nineteenth-century tobacco barns were timber frame structures with steeply-pitched gable roofs. The exterior walls were clad with riven clapboards and wide doorways along the sides of the barns provided interior access and ventilation. After about 1830, vertical board siding replaced horizontal clapboards. The vertical boards shrank as they dried, creating gaps in the siding that allowed for air circulation. In the twentieth century, barns were also ventilated by ridge vents or by hinged panels along the walls that could be opened or closed as needed. Another recent innovation was the introduction of doors in the gable ends, which facilitated loading and unloading from trucks.11 On the interior, air-cured tobacco barns are divided into multiple bays by tiers of long poles that span the width of structure. These bays, called “rooms,” are usually 4 or 5 feet wide, the length of the wooden stakes from which the tobacco stalks are hung to dry. The size of the barn depended on the acreage of land devoted to growing tobacco and the space required to dry the leaves. Many tobacco barns in Calvert County have attached one-story wings, often on the south side. These shelter stripping rooms, where workers would gather in the winter months to strip cured leaves from the stalks before the leaves were packaged and shipped. Stripping rooms could also be located under the main roof.

10 Dames & Moore, “Historic Sites Context Study and National Register Evaluation for Calvert County, Maryland,” prepared for the Calvert County Historic District Commission, July 1995, 3-16. 11 TEC Inc., “Tobacco Barns of Southern Maryland, Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Prince George’s, and St. Mary’s Counties,” National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, November 2011, Section E, 44-52.

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. CT-227 Historic Properties Form Name Plummer Farm Continuation Sheet Number 8 Page 3 CHAIN OF TITLE DEED Liber/Folio: 03881/459 Date: February 29, 2012 Grantor: George L. Hardesty III and Susan Vanessa Hardesty Grantee: Abbey Ash and Justin Maher “All of Lot One (1) of the subdivision known as ‘The George Hardesty Property’…” With this sale, the property reached its current size of 11.13 acres. DEED Liber/Folio: 194/282 Date: May 3, 1976 Grantor: George Lewis Hardesty and Priscilla W. Hardesty Grantee: Gladwin C. Brown “Being all of the first of two parcels of land which the within named Grantors obtained from Mattie V. Hardesty…” containing one-fourth (1/4) acre of land, more or less. DEED Liber/Folio: JLB 25/537 Date: July 2, 1959 Grantor: Mattie V. Hardesty Grantee: George Lewis Hardesty and Priscilla W. Hardesty “FIRST: All that piece or parcel of land…containing one-fourth (1/4) acre of land…the same being all the land the aforesaid Thomas M. Webb, deceased, obtained from Emma Chaney and husband by Deed dated the 8th day of March, 1900, and recorded in Liber G.W.D. No. 1, folio 350…SECOND: All that piece or parcel of land…containing Thirteen (13) Acres of land, more or less…BEING ALL and the same two parcels of ground which were granted and conveyed unto Mattie V. Hardesty by Deed from Annie Irene Webb, widow, et al, dated the 22nd day of March, 1938…” DEED Liber/Folio: AAH 38/185 Date: March 22, 1938 Grantor: Annie Irene Webb, widow, Irene Genevieve Webb, unmarried, Charles T. Webb and Loretta S. Webb Grantee: Mattie V. Hardesty Sold for $3,700 two tracts of land – one containing one-quarter of an acre and one containing 13 acres. WILL Liber/Folio: VCC 1/421 Grantor: Thomas M. Webb (died on or about 1909) Grantee: Annie Irene Webb, widow of Thomas M. Webb, and their children Irene Genevieve Webb and Charles T. Webb

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. CT-227 Historic Properties Form Name Plummer Farm Continuation Sheet Number 8 Page 4 DEED Liber/Folio: GWD 2/456 Date: November 26, 1901 Grantor: Dorsey W. Pindell and Cora Prindell Grantee: Thomas M. Webb 13 acres for $1,000 DEED Liber/Folio: GWD 1/350 Date: March 8, 1900 Grantor: Emma Chaney and Thomas M. Chaney Grantee: Thomas M. Webb “…for and in consideration of Fifty Dollars…all that lot of land situate at Chaney Station on the Chesapeake Beach Railroad …containing one fourth of an acre more or less with all the tenements and appurtances belonging thereto…provided that no intoxicating liquors shall at any time be sold on said lot…” This was the deed DEED Liber/Folio: TBT 3/316 Date: August 22, 1895 Grantor: Laura A. Plummer, formerly Laura A. Webb, and Joseph Plummer Grantee: Dorsey W. Pindell and Cora Prindell Parcel containing 13 acres called by the name “Free Town” was sold in consideration of the sum of $900. DEED Liber/Folio: SS 7/573 Date: November 3, 1886 Grantor: Hamilton G. Webb and John B. Gray, trustees Grantee: Laura A. Plummer (nee Laura A. Webb) Parcel containing 13 acres and called by the name of “Free Town” was sold to Laura Plummer at a public sale for $130.

9. Major Bibliographical References Inventory No. CT-227 See continuation sheets.

10. Geographical Data Acreage of surveyed property 11.13 acres Acreage of historical setting Approx. 13.25 acres Quadrangle name Lower Marlboro Quadrangle scale: 1:24,000 Verbal boundary description and justification The boundary of the resource is the current legal boundary for 1721 Brickhouse Road (Property Account Identifier 03-007588) described as 11.13 acres by the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation.

11. Form Prepared by name/title Daria Gasparini, Architectural Historian

organization Robinson & Associates, Inc. date June 24, 2019

street & number 725 15th Street, NW, Suite 600 telephone 202-234-2333

city or town Washington state DC

The Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties was officially created by an Act of the Maryland Legislature to be found in the Annotated Code of Maryland, Article 41, Section 181 KA, 1974 supplement. The survey and inventory are being prepared for information and record purposes only and do not constitute any infringement of individual property rights.

return to: Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Department of Planning 100 Community Place Crownsville, MD 21032-2023 410-514-7600

Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. CT-227 Historic Properties Form Name Plummer Farm Continuation Sheet Number 9 Page 1 REFERENCES Author interview with William Hardesty, April 17, 2019. Calvert County GIS, Prince Frederick, Maryland. Calvert County Land Records, Prince Frederick, Maryland. Chapelle, Suzanne Ellery and Jean B. Russo. Maryland: A History, 2nd ed. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. Dames & Moore. “Historic Sites Context Study and National Register Evaluation for Calvert County, Maryland.” Prepared for the

Calvert County Historic District Commission. July 1995. Noble, Allen G. and Richard K. Cleek. The Old Barn Book: A Field Guide to North American Barns & Other Farm Structures. New

Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. Schuler, Stanley. American Barns. Exton, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1984. TEC Inc. “Tobacco Barns of Southern Maryland, Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Prince George’s, and St. Mary’s Counties.”

National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form. 2011. Vlach, John Michael. Barns. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. U.S. Census Bureau. United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002-2012.

https://www.ancestryheritagequest.com/HQA.

RESOURCE SKETCH MAP* Plummer Farm (CT-227) 1721 Brickhouse Road Dunkirk, MD Calvert County *Not to scale

FLOOR PLAN (First Floor) Plummer Farm (CT-227) 1721 Brickhouse Road Dunkirk, MD Calvert County Daria Gasparini (2019)

1721 Brickhouse Road Dunkirk, MD Calvert County Lower Marlboro Quadrangle (1953, rev. 1979) USGS Topographical Map Plummer Farm 1:24,000 CT-227

1721 Brickhouse Road Dunkirk, MD Calvert County Lower Marlboro Quadrangle (1953, rev. 1979) USGS Topographical Map Plummer Farm 1:12,000 CT-227

PHOTO LOG Plummer Farm (CT-227) 1721 Brickhouse Road, Dunkirk, MD 20754 Calvert County The following information applies to all views: MIHP Number: CT-227 Name of Property: Plummer Farm Location: Calvert County, Maryland Photographer: Daria Gasparini Date: April 17, 2019 Location of Negative: MD SHPO

Ink/Paper Type: Epson UltraChrome Ink/Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper Photo 1 of 8: Plummer House, east façade, looking west (CT-227_2019-04-17_01.tiff)

Photo 2 of 8: Plummer House, north façade, looking south (CT-227_2019-04-17_02.tiff)

Photo 3 of 8: Plummer House, west façade, looking east (CT-227_2019-04-17_03.tiff)

Photo 4 of 8: Plummer House, south façade, looking northeast (CT-227_2019-04-17_04.tiff)

Photo 5 of 8: Plummer Farm, Barn A, looking west (CT-227_2019-04-17_05.tiff)

Photo 6 of 8: Plummer Farm, Barn B, looking west (CT-227_2019-04-17_06.tiff)

Photo 7 of 8: Plummer Farm dairy (left) and smokehouse (right), looking west (CT-227_2019-04-17_07.tiff)

Photo 8 of 8: Plummer Farm, general view, looking northwest (CT-227_2019-04-17_08.tif)