Moyaone Reserve Historic District | |
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Location | Next to Piscataway Park in Accokeek, Maryland |
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Coordinates | 38°40′43″N77°05′34″W / 38.67861°N 77.09278°W |
Area | 1,320 acres (530 ha) |
Architect | Charles F. Wagner, Jr. Charles M. Goodman |
Architectural style | Modern Movement |
Website | https://moyaone.org |
NRHP reference No. | 100005659 |
Added to NRHP | October 2020 |
The Moyaone Reserve is a neighborhood located within Piscataway Park in Accokeek. The neighborhood was given National Register of Historic Places status in 2020 [1] and is within the historic viewshed of Mount Vernon. It is split between Prince George's County, Maryland and Charles County, Maryland. The name Moyaone is derived from name of the town Moyaone, the major town of the Piscataway Native American tribe. [2] The archaeological remains of Moyaone are at the Accokeek Creek Site, within Piscataway Park.
The Moyaone is bordered to the north by Piscataway Creek, to the east by MD Route 210, and to the west is Marshall Hall Road.
The Moyaone Reserve is governed by the Moyaone Association. [3]
In 1922, Henry G. Ferguson and his wife Alice purchased a 330-acre farm named Hard Bargain Farm on the Potomac River. [4] [5] [6] Their farm became a center of social activity and several other people purchased properties nearby including Lenore Thomas Straus and her husband Robert W. Straus, government economist Charles Kramer and Washington architect Charles Wagner. [6] Alice Ferguson gradually purchased adjacent land in a development company named the Piscataway Company, which included a covenant that all land would be subdivided no smaller than 5 acres. [6] Alice Ferguson died in 1952, leaving additional land and money to the Piscataway Company. In an effort to more efficiently manage its resources, the Piscataway Company split into multiple organizations. These included the Moyaone Association, a non-profit civic organization, and the Alice Ferguson Foundation which runs Hard Bargain Farm. [6]
Over the next decades the Moyaone Association was one of several organizations along with the Alice Ferguson Foundation, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, and later the Accokeek Foundation, that were active in conservation efforts in and around Piscataway Park. This was called Operation Overview. [7]
In 1955, a 485-acre farm across from Mount Vernon went up for sale, and there were rumors that an oil company was to buy it. On behalf of the Moyaone association, Wagner reached out to Charles Wall, the Resident Director of Mount Vernon and its parent organization, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, then led by Ohio Member of Congress Frances P. Bolton. [6] Bolton and the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association had expressed a desire to protect the view from Mount Vernon. Ultimately, Bolton purchased the farm with plans to transfer it to the National Park Service. [6] At this point Bolton, Wagner, Straus, and Wall developed a plan to protect the Mount Vernon viewshed. [8]
In 1957, Bolton founded the Accokeek Foundation, one of the nation's first land trusts. [8] The Foundation was used to purchase 200 acres (81 ha) of land in Piscataway Park to help preserve the area, [9] in addition to land that Bolton transferred to the foundation. The Accokeek Foundation runs the National Colonial Farm, which is adjacent to the Moyaone Reserve and within Piscataway Park.
In 1960, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) wanted to build a water treatment plant in Mockley Point, which was Accokeek shoreline. Since it would disrupt the view of Mount Vernon and Fort Washington Park, various people and organizations protested against it. [8] As a result, WSSC was not allowed to build the plant there; [8] however, a plant was built in the 1960s in the surrounding area. [10] [11] In response to this, The Moyaone Association, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, and other local groups mobilized to find a legislative solution to protecting the Accokeek shoreline and Mount Vernon viewshed. [3] [12]
In 1961, a joint resolution to preserve the viewshed was introduced in the United States Senate by Senator Clinton Anderson with identical text in the United States House of Representatives by Representative John P. Saylor. The resolution was quickly passed and signed by President John F. Kennedy. Its purpose was to "preserve lands which provide the principal overview from the Mount Vernon Estate and Fort Washington" in order to designate 133 acres (54 ha) around Mockley Point, which was to be the site of water treatment plant, as a national landmark. The resolution also authorized the National Park Service to receive donations and scenic easements from adjacent communities. [13] This allowed Moyaone residents to transfer their easements to the federal government.
In 2019, the Moyaone Association applied for designation of the neighborhood in the National Register of Historic Places in part after a battle with Dominion Energy over the siting of a natural gas plant. [14] The application argued that the Moyaone Reserve satisfied three criteria for inclusion: a history of conservation, a history of community planning, and its specific architectural legacy. [12] It was granted in October 2020. [1]
The Moyaone Reserve's approach to conservation was described by Maryland Republican Senator John Marshall Butler as "an almost unique or pilot project in cooperative individual activity for the development and use of the countryside without destroying its natural attraction." [7] This operated by purchasing land, subdividing it, placing restrictive covenants on it via conservation easements, and then reselling the land. [7] [8] Robert Straus, one of the founders of the Moyaone Association, described it as "zoning on a do-it-yourself basis." For a period of time, the Accokeek Foundation held the conservation easements before they could be transferred to the federal government in the early 1970s. [15]
To supplement this strategy, in 1965 and 1966, the Moyaone Association lead the effort first at the state level and then at the local level to recognize easement donations. [6] In 1966, Prince George's County became the first locality in the country to grant local tax credits for easement donations. This is now a standard form of conservation easement.
From the beginning, many Moyaone properties were designed with a modern aesthetic. Wagner designed a number of homes modeled on Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, [8] while Straus's home was built by Charles M. Goodman, a leading modernist architect. Lenore Straus also maintained an artist studio on their property. [16] These formed the beginning of the Moyaone Reserve's Mid-century modern architectural legacy. [17]
Waldorf is a census-designated place in Charles County, Maryland, United States. Located 23 miles (37 km) south-southeast of Washington, D.C., Waldorf is part of Southern Maryland. Its population was 81,410 at the 2020 census. Waldorf has experienced dramatic growth, increasing its population 16-fold from fewer than 5,000 residents in 1980 to its current population. It is now the largest commercial and residential area in Southern Maryland as well as a major suburb in the Washington metropolitan area.
Accokeek, "at the edge of the hill" in Algonquin, is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The CDP is located on the Potomac River, borders Charles County and is approximately 17 miles from Washington. It is a part of the Washington metropolitan area. The population of the CDP, as of the 2020 United States Census was 13,927.
Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington, a Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. An American landmark, the estate lies on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, approximately 15 miles south of Washington, D.C..
The Potomac Heritage Trail, also known as the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail or the PHT, is a designated National Scenic Trail corridor spanning parts of the mid-Atlantic region of the United States that will connect various trails and historic sites in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. The trail network includes 710 miles (1,140 km) of existing and planned sections, tracing the natural, historical, and cultural features of the Potomac River corridor, the upper Ohio River watershed in Pennsylvania and western Maryland, and a portion of the Rappahannock River watershed in Virginia. The trail is managed by the National Park Service and is one of three National Trails that are official NPS units.
Marshall Hall, Maryland is the site of the Marshall family mansion. It is now part of Piscataway Park operated by the National Park Service. Marshall Hall is located near Bryans Road in Charles County, Maryland, next to the Potomac River, more or less across from Mount Vernon, Virginia, the home of George Washington. The home was one of the finest built on the Maryland shore of the Potomac in the early 18th century. The Marshall family were minor gentry and owned as many as 80 slaves by the early 19th century.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission is a bi-county political subdivision of the State of Maryland that provides safe drinking water and wastewater treatment for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland except for a few cities in both counties that continue to operate their own water facilities.
Augustine Washington Sr. was an American planter and merchant. Born in Westmoreland, Virginia, he was the father of ten children, among them the first president of the United States, George Washington, soldier and politician Lawrence Washington, and politician Charles Washington. Born into the planter class of the British colony of Virginia, Washington owned several slave plantations, from which he derived the primary source of his wealth. He also speculated in land development and owned an iron mine. Although Washington never sat in the House of Burgesses, as did his own father and son, he served in various government positions in the counties where he owned land.
Turkey Tayac, legally Philip Sheridan Proctor (1895–1978), was a Piscataway leader and herbal medicine practitioner; he was notable in Native American activism for tribal and cultural revival in the 20th century. He had some knowledge of the Piscataway language and was consulted by the Algonquian linguist, Ives Goddard, as well as Julian Granberry.
The Piscatawaypih-SKAT-ə-WAY or Piscatawapih-SKAT-ə-WAY, PIH-skə-TAH-wə, are Native Americans. They spoke Algonquian Piscataway, a dialect of Nanticoke. One of their neighboring tribes, with whom they merged after a massive decline of population following two centuries of interactions with European settlers, called them the Conoy.
Piscataway Park is a National Park Service-protected area located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of downtown Washington, D.C. in and around Accokeek, Maryland. It protects the National Colonial Farm, Marshall Hall, and the Accokeek Creek Site. The park is located across the Potomac River from George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.
Hog Island sheep are a breed of sheep descended from animals first brought to Virginia's Hog Island in the 18th century. During the 1930s and 1940s, storm conditions forced the island's residents to evacuate, leaving some sheep behind. These sheep adapted to the environment free of human intervention, becoming feral.
Accokeek Creek Site, also known as Moyaone, is an archaeological site in Prince George's County, Maryland, located along the Potomac River across from Mount Vernon in today's Piscataway Park, which was inhabited intermittently since 2000 BC. Accokeek Creek Site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
St. John's Church, St. John's Episcopal Church, or St. John's Episcopal Church, Broad Creek, is a historic Episcopal church located at 9801 Livingston Road in Fort Washington, Prince George's County, Maryland. It is a rectangular Flemish bond brick structure with a bell hipped roof. The interior features a barrel vaulted ceiling with an intricate support system.
The Blue Ridge Land Conservancy (BRLC), formerly known as the Western Virginia Land Trust (WVLT), is a non-profit land trust and conservation organization headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia that seeks to preserve the wilderness and farmlands in the western portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia from excessive commercial development. BRLC's service area contains ten counties: Bedford, Botetourt, Craig, Floyd, Franklin, Montgomery, and Roanoke.
The Ossabaw Island Hog or Ossabaw Island is a breed of pig derived from a population of feral pigs on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, United States. The original Ossabaw hogs are descended from swine released on the island in the 16th century by Spanish explorers. A breeding population has been established on American farms off the island, but they remain a critically endangered variety of pig.
Around 1622, the Piscataway tribe, which led the Conoy Federation, built a town they soon called Kittamaqundi on Piscataway Creek near the modern day town of Piscataway, Prince George's County, Maryland. When English first visited the town, in 1634, they learned it was named after the relatively new Tayac (Emperor) Kittamaquund, who had assumed power the previous year after killing his brother Wannas.
Lenore Thomas Straus was an American sculptor and author.
Hard Bargain Farm is the former country estate and working farm of Alice and Henry Ferguson. It is located at 2001 Bryan Point Road in Accokeek, Maryland, overlooking the Potomac River. The property, now a smaller portion of the 330 acres (130 ha) they purchased, was developed by them into a "country garden". Alice Ferguson, an artist, produced a significant body of her work here, and oversaw both the operations of the farm they established, and studied the prehistoric archaeological remains found on the property. The Fergusons established the Ferguson Foundation in 1954 to manage the property. The foundation operates the property as an educational center focused on land stewardship and historical farming practices in the region. The property includes a heavy timber frame tobacco barn originally constructed between about 1830 and 1850, and rebuilt in the post-American Civil War era. Popular events include the annual Oktoberfest, and "theater in the woods" productions.
Henry Gardiner Ferguson was an American geologist with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). He worked primarily in Nevada and was a pioneer in the geology of the central Great Basin, producing many publications, including multiple USGS geological maps of central Nevada. Ferguson was a lifelong friend and colleague of Levi Noble, a mentor to Ralph Roberts, and worked extensively with Siemon Muller. Along with his wife Alice Ferguson, he helped found the Moyaone Reserve community in Accokeek, Maryland.
The history of White Americans in Baltimore dates back to the 17th century when the first white European colonists came to what is now Maryland and established the Province of Maryland on what was then Native American land. White Americans in Baltimore are Baltimoreans "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa." Majority white for most of its history, Baltimore no longer had a white majority by the 1970s. As of the 2010 census, white Americans are a minority population of Baltimore at 29.6% of the population. White Americans have played a substantial impact on the culture, dialect, ethnic heritage, history, politics, and music of the city. Since the earliest English settlers arrived on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore's white population has been sustained by substantial immigration from all over Europe, particularly Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe, as well as a large out-migration of White Southerners from Appalachia. Numerous white immigrants from Europe and the European diaspora have immigrated to Baltimore from the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, France, Canada, and other countries, particularly during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Smaller numbers of white people have immigrated from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, and other non-European regions. Baltimore also has a prominent population of white Jews of European descent, mostly with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. There is a smaller population of white Middle Easterners and white North Africans, most of whom are Arab, Persian, Israeli, or Turkish. The distribution of White Americans in Central and Southeast Baltimore is sometimes called "The White L", while the distribution of African Americans in East and West Baltimore is called "The Black Butterfly."