Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Day 41 Southern MD


It's hard to believe that I don't know everything about American History, but I didn't know anything about Thomas Stone other than he was a signer of the Dec. of Ind. from MD and I drove by the sign for his house on US 301 for years on my way to Cobb Island.
Thomas Stone was the youngest signer of the Declaration and was rather quiet during the proceedings , so he didn't get alot of notice back then or today.
I've been to alot of Colonial homes over the years and " Haberdeventure" was very different from anything else I've ever visited.
It's a 5 section house with 2 "hyphens" connecting the 2 ends. I asked, and hyphen is the actual architectural name .

The other unique design feature is that the wings are set at an angle to the main part of the house.

I've never seen this kind of brick walls with wood timbers before- its almost like a European Half-Timber house frame except this is the inside wall.
Many years ago I found a piece of the blue Chinese porcelain in the upper left at Cobb Island on the Potomac River. It was one of the most popular patterns in the 18th & early 19th Centuries. So maybe my piece got washed down the river from Haberdeventure or Mt. Vernon.

I thought this was some of the worst looking period fabrics I've ever seen, but the park ranger assured me it was period correct. It's still hideous.

They do have a number of family pieces including these trunks that Thomas Stone used when he went to Phila. in 1776 and

his desk & clock.

This blue tailed skink was on the boardwalk from the parking lot to the house.

Up the road about a 1/2 hour is Piscataway Park, the National Colonial Farm

It's a joint venture between the NPS and a private foundation. They have these period buildings and gardens and a few animals and I assume they have docents and programs but
in the 45 min. I was there, I saw only one person in the bookstore where I got the NPS Stamps and only 1 other family of tourists.
Mt. Vernon is about a mile across the Potomac River from the Colonial Farm. A storm was blowing in so I hurried to get to


The fort was planned as the main fort guarding Wash. DC along the Potomac River. The Amer. Army destroyed the fort to prevent its capture 2 days after the British burned Wash. DC during the War of 1812

The Sally Port originally had a drawbridge

and the large pulleys and gates are still in place.

The fort was used up until WWI for training and experimenting with new artillery.

The storm was about a mile up the river and the wind was starting to gust so I hurried to see as much as I could.

The water battery and lighthouse were about 100' below the bluff the fort was built upon.

There were 2 barracks buildings left inside the fort, other buildings outside the fort used in other wars have been removed for park space.

More cannons, although I was surprised that the NPS didn't have any plaques to identify what kinds they were.

On the way out of the park, I surprised these 2 deer. I've really been amazed in the amount of wildlife we've seen on this trip. Out west I expected it, the east has been quite surprising.





























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