This historic house, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, was built about 1820, and consisted of two-and-a-half stories - three bays wide and one room deep - with a one-and-a-half story wing, which was two bays wide. It was built in a classic Georgian style, but with new Federal and Greek decorative elements.
The house was enlarged in 1829 - the one-and-a-half story wing was raised to the full height of the house, and a new one-and-a-half story wing was added. The three-bay main house was now five bays wide, though the new wing was small and added only one additional bay.
The house was enlarged again in the late 1800's. Two bays were added to the wing, a front porch was added (you can see its outline between the first and second floors of the main house), and all the windows were enlarged. This is the house that you see in the picture below.
The fireplace served as the kitchen in the original house.
The oldest portion of the main house still has its original woodwork, though time and decay have made most of the original detail unrecognizable.
Abandoned houses are subject to vandalism and theft. The original mantels in the house, for example, one in each of the two parlours on the first floor, and noteworthy in their design and decoration, are long gone. But water is the biggest vandal - when the roof and windows open up to the elements, it's only a matter of time before floors and walls are reduced to rubble.
Two tombstones behind the house are dated 1855 and 1858.
A famous author wrote: "Where a house has been abandoned... you can be sure there has been a sad story." I want to know the sad stories that inhabit this house.
