Snowden Hall (Laurel, Maryland)

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Snowden Hall
2007 12 06 - Patuxent Wildlife Research Center 1a.JPG
Snowden Hall (Laurel, Maryland)
General information
TypeHouse
Architectural style Georgian
Location Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland
Coordinates 39°3′13″N76°49′6″W / 39.05361°N 76.81833°W / 39.05361; -76.81833
Construction startedca. 1820
Governing body Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Snowden Hall is a historic house located on the grounds of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, outside Laurel in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. It stands on open rolling ground approximately 34-mile west of the Patuxent River. [1]

Contents

History

Snowden Hall is a two-story Georgian brick house and was the home of three generations of the Snowden family. [2] The 260-acre (110 ha) parcel of land on which it stands was the nucleus of the Snowden family plantation. [1] The family were slave holders and more than a hundred slaves were known to gather at Snowden Hall to listen to Bible readings on Sunday mornings. [3]

Grounds of Snowden Hall, in winter 2007 12 06 - Patuxent Wildlife Research Center 1e.jpg
Grounds of Snowden Hall, in winter

The original Snowden Hall was constructed by Richard Snowden in the 18th century. The site is a portion of a 10,000-acre (4,000 ha) land grant from King Charles II. Sometime between 1812 and 1816 the Hall burned and was rebuilt as "Rose Cottage." [1] Rose Cottage was subsequently raised to a full two stories in the 1850s. Former slave quarters and a large barn were on the east side of the property into the 1930s. [4]

The property was purchased and renovated for government use in 1936, first as apartments and later as an office building. The low flanking wings were built at that time using bricks from the recently purchased pre-Civil War Duvall plantation house "Gladswood" on the southern section of the research center lands. [2] [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Richard Snowden (1688–1763) was the grandson of Richard Snowden Sr (1640–1711), one of Maryland's early colonists, who arrived in 1658. By Articles of Agreement dated July 5, 1705, Snowden and four other partners – Joseph Cowman, Edmund Jenings, John Galloway, and John Prichard – founded the Patuxent Iron Works on the site of Maryland's oldest iron forge. Together they founded one of Maryland's first industries, and settled the land now known as Laurel and Sandy Spring, Maryland.

Duvall Bridge is an historic single-lane bridge over the Patuxent River near Laurel, Maryland.

Birmingham Manor was a historic slave plantation home located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland

The Duvall Farm was a historic farm located in North Laurel, Howard County, Maryland, now the site of Coastal Sunbelt Produce.

Oaklands or Contee was a slave plantation owned by the Snowden family, and remains as a historic home surrounded by residential development.

Cremona Farm is a 1275-acre estate comprising a 650-acre former slave plantation and surrounding lands in Mechanicsville, Maryland, on the west bank of the Patuxent River. The estate is under perpetual conservation easements with the Maryland Environmental Trust and Patuxent Tidewater Land Trust, and owned by a non-profit foundation, the Cremona Foundation.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "History of Snowden Hall". Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
  2. 1 2 "Snowden Hall" (PDF). Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-12-14. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
  3. Morley, L.B. (c. 1948). "Early History of Patuxent Wildlife Research Center" (PDF). Amazon Web Services. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
  4. Perry, Matthew C. "History of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: Snowden Hll" (PDF). Amazon Web Services. U.S. Geological Survey. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
  5. "PG 64-2 Duvall Bridge" (PDF). Maryland State Archives. July 1987. Retrieved November 2, 2013.