$30 Million Manor House In Maryland Was Built Decades Before America

It’s onerous to imagine {that a} residence constructed earlier than America was even a rustic would nonetheless be standing, not to mention up on the market. However that’s true of a proper manor home, a cultural and architectural time capsule, that was in-built 1755 on farmland alongside the Potomac River in Maryland.

Mulberry Fields in Leonardtown consists of a lot extra than simply the manor home. There are greater than a dozen quarters, cottages and barns on the property (some historic, some added) on what was a flourishing plantation within the 18th century. Together with the buildings, the property sits on 500 acres with a stately allee of cedar bushes on the south aspect that result in a mile of white-sand seashore on the river.

The manor home and property have remained within the palms of the present homeowners’ household for greater than a century. The asking value is $30 million.

Mulberry Fields holds the only remaining Georgian-style residence in “an space which as soon as boasted a number of such constructions,” in keeping with the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations. The previous plantation joined the historic register in 1973.

Outdoors, a driveway lined with bushes results in the home, which has an Annapolis-style facade. Nevertheless it’s the riverfront entrance on the south aspect that claims essentially the most consideration: a big heart door with two massive home windows at all sides (in earlier occasions, you may arrive by boat). Round 1820, an elaborate two-story portico with lengthy Doric columns was added.

Inside, a lot of the unique woodwork, moldings and mantels stay intact. For instance, partitions of rectangular raised panels stretch to the ceiling within the nice room and eating room on the primary ground.

There are three bedrooms on the second ground and three that make up all the third ground. Trendy additions embody a kitchen, 4 full loos and one half-bath, and air-conditioning.

The home is flanked by two stand-alone interval buildings: the kitchen, which has been reworked as a visitor cottage, and the weaving home, which retains its unique clapboard partition partitions, flooring, doorways and {hardware}. Each have peaked roofs and brick facades. These “dependencies,” or outbuildings, as soon as housed enslaved individuals who served as cooks, secure palms, servants and housekeepers.

Different buildings on the property embody a dairy, smokehouse, carriage home, backyard/software shed, a number of animal and gear barns, one in all which has been reworked, farmhouse and outdated dwelling.

It’s not onerous to think about a contemporary way of life on the land, one with bonfires on the riverfront seashore, walks within the fields and woods, and entertaining within the historic grand room.

The home was constructed by John Attaway Clarke and ultimately handed to his nephew, William Somerville, who had a labor power of enslaved individuals who labored within the fields to domesticate corn, wheat, flax and cotton within the early 1800s. The property ultimately went to his son, William Clarke Somerville, the house’s most notable proprietor, who distinguished himself whereas serving as a U.S. Military main within the Warfare of 1812.

Somerville toured Europe and rubbed shoulders with the poet Lord Byron, Britain’s famed Duke of Wellington and the Marquis de Lafayette, who fought in America’s battle of independence as a younger man. He obtained a diplomatic appointment in Greece by then President John Quincy Adams however died en route at Lafayette’s residence.

The property went by way of a number of palms earlier than passing to the present homeowners, who possess architectural plans and approvals that permit for reworking the kitchen and loos in addition to the addition of a brand new wing on the west aspect of the house.

Present leases on the positioning produce an revenue of $70,000. The property has area for as many as 12 rental models. Revenue is also derived from farming and the U.S. Navy, which maintains a navigation sign on the river.

When it comes to patrons, the homeowners are hoping the property will go to somebody who will shield the historic gem. “The homeowners and their households for generations have been very instrumental in maintaining the historical past of it and never destroying it with renovations right here and there,” says itemizing agent Kornelia Stuphan of Lengthy & Foster Actual Property. “We might love for it to be preserved. We’re hoping for a historic belief or basis.” Whoever winds up shopping for Mulberry Fields may have bought a uncommon piece of American historical past.

Mulberry Fields is positioned at 19700 Mulberry Fields Street in Leonardtown, Maryland.

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