Existing comment:
Two Centuries of Farm Buildings:
The buildings on this property are clues to the lives of the people who lived here over the past two centuries. Sixteen buildings stand on the main part of the property. They all say something about who lived here, the crops they grew, and the animals they raised.
Mount Welby Era: 1800-1840s:
The three oldest buildings at Oxon Cove Park date from the early 1800s. Dr. Samuel DeButts, Mary Welby DeButts, and their children lived on the farm and called their home Mount Welby, in honor of Mary's family.
St. Elizabeths Era: 1890s-1960s:
Five buildings survive from the days when St. Elizabeths Hospital owned and ran the farm. They are the hexagonal outbuilding, horse, and pony barn, hay barn, feed building, and dairy barn and silo.
National Park Service Buildings:
The rest of the buildings in the main part of the park were constructed after the National Park Service began operating a children's farm here in 1967. They are the grain exhibit building, chicken coop, farm museum, rabbit shed, windmill, tool shed, sorghum syrup shed, and Visitor Barn/
At the Visitor Bar, you can find crafts, toys, books, exhibits, computer farm games, brochures, and a park ranger or volunteer to help you with your visit. Restrooms are across the main road from the Visitor Barn.
Farmhouse;
Built between 1800 and 1811, the farmhouse is the oldest building on the property.
Root Cellar:
Down the hill from the farmhouse, a one-story root cellar with a gable roof was constructed about 1830.
Brick Stable:
The brick stable, down the lane from the farmhouse and the root cellar, was also built about 1830. Most barns and stables in Maryland were made of wood in the mid-1800s. |