Richland Farm (Clarksville, Maryland)

Richland Farm

Richland Farm, January 2011
Location 4730 Sheppard Ln., Clarksville, Maryland
Coordinates 39°14′40″N 76°56′45″W / 39.24444°N 76.94583°W / 39.24444; -76.94583Coordinates: 39°14′40″N 76°56′45″W / 39.24444°N 76.94583°W / 39.24444; -76.94583
Area 132.75 acres (53.72 ha)
Built 1719 (1719)
Architect Turnbull, Bayard (1919-20 changes)
Architectural style Colonial, Colonial Revival
NRHP Reference # 08000217[1]
Added to NRHP March 26, 2008

Richland Farm is a historic home and farm complex located at Clarksville, Howard County, Maryland, United States. The main house is a log and frame house, the earliest section of which is presumed to date from 1719. The main block comprises three sections, with a large addition on the rear added in 1920. It features a one story shed-roofed wrap-around porch supported by 22 Doric order columns. Also on the property are the Overseer's/Superintendent’s House, Gardener’s Cottage, wagon shed, tractor shed and smokehouse with board-and-batten siding, a barn, a stone spring house and “Barrack.”[2]

Richland was originally part of "Altogether," a land grant surveyed on May 10, 1719 by Thomas Worthington and his brother-in-law, Henry Ridgely.[3] A small portion of Richland was also part of "Worthington's Range." Thomas Worthington left 300 acres of these original land grants to his daughter, Ariana Worthington Watkins, who was married to Nicholas Watkins, Jr. She divided her holdings among her three sons, John, Nicholas and Gassaway. Richland was part of Gassaway Watkins's inheritance. Gassaway Watkins returned to Richland to live after his service in the Revolutionary War. The current boundaries of Richland were set in 1801.

Gassaway Watkins was a president of the Society of the Cincinnati of Maryland and, when he died in 1840, he was the last surviving member of the Maryland Old Line (General Washington referred to the Maryland units as the "Old Line" due to the quality and length of their service during the revolution). Gassaway Watkins was married three times: first to Sarah Jones, who died within a year without issue from the marriage; then, to Ruth Dorsey, with whom he had Gassaway, Bonaparte, Thomas, Turenne, Charlotte and Ann Watkins; and, following Ruth's death in 1803, he married Elenora Bowie Clagett, with whom he had Caroline, Camsadel, Eleanor, Amanda, Elizabeth, Priscilla, Margaret, Albina, William Washington and Thomas Sebastian Watkins.

Daughter Margaret Gassaway Watkins married Albert Gallatin Warfield. One of their sons and a grandson of Gassaway Watkins, Edwin Warfield, served as the 45th governor of Maryland from 1904 to 1908. He lived at Oakdale in Howard County, which still stands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

During his lifetime, Gassaway Watkins acquired nearby land, including Hayland Farm (now known as the Walnut Creek housing subdivision) and Walnut Grove (also now a housing subdivision), where he built a manor house that still survives and is listed on the Howard County properties of the Maryland Historical Trust. Gassaway Watkins, Elenora Bowie Clagett Watkins, John Sebastian Watkins and several other family members are buried at Walnut Grove. Howard County historian Ken Short undertook an exhaustive analysis of the history of Walnut Grove.

A son of Gassaway Watkins, Dr. William Washington Watkins and his wife, Laura Watkins Watkins, ultimately owned the main house at Richland Farm and, in 1846, added a section that includes a first floor parlor and second floor bedroom. In addition to his service as a medical doctor, Dr. Watkins was elected as a representative of the Howard District of Anne Arundel County in the Maryland legislature. In 1838, Dr. Watkins proposed the "Howard District" of Anne Arundel County, which became Howard County in 1851.[4] He was elected as the first state senator from Howard County thereafter. Following his departure from the senate, Dr. Watkins served as the Clerk of the Howard County Circuit Court. In retirement, Dr. Watkins resided at Richland, where he died on May 31, 1880.

Joshua Worthington Dorsey, whose wife was Eleanor Watkins Dorsey, a daughter of Dr. Watkins who grew up at Richland, next owned Richland Farm. He owned a large farm supply and hardware business in Ellicott City, Maryland and added many improvements to Richland Farm. Joshua and Eleanor Dorsey had numerous children and, when Joshua died in 1918, a daughter, Achsah Dorsey Serpell, and a son, J. Worthington Dorsey, Jr., bought out the interests of their siblings in Richland. They hired prominent Baltimore architect Bayard Turnbull to renovate and expand the main house over the period from 1919 to 1920. Thereafter, Richland served as the venue for many summer family gatherings and parties for the Washington, D.C., "navy crowd" hosted by Achsah Dorsey Serpell's brother, Rear Adm. Benjamin Henry Dorsey and his wife, Theda Fulton Dorsey.

In June 1953, Richland was deeded to Achsah Bowie Dorsey Smith, the niece of Achsah Dorsey Serpell and daughter of Admiral and Mrs. Dorsey. She was a society reporter for the Washington Post and Washington Times Herald, in which she ran a daily column about the social scene in the nation's capital, "Ask Achsah."

Richland Farm passed to Achsah Dorsey Smith's goddaughter and niece in 2005. It thus remains in the same family after nearly 300 years and eight generations.

Richland Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ Kenneth M. Short (March 2007). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Richland Farm" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  3. ↑ Warfield, J.D., Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, 1905, at 351
  4. ↑ Howard's Roads to the Past. p. 2.
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