Hopewell Farm

  • Also Known As: Locust Hill

  • Address: Pearre and Clemsonville Rds
  • Travel Genus: Sight
  • Sight Category: Building

Hopewell is a historic farm complex and wildlife preserve in Union Bridge, Maryland. A long time home of the Pearre family, the main residence contains architectural remnants from other historic houses. The National Register of Historic Places describes a notable feature of the main dwelling. - AsNotedIn

a water system was installed which is considered unique in Frederick County. This system involved raising drinking water through an iron pipe encased in wood from a spring housed in the meadow to the house, day and night, by a ram pump powered with water channeled from Clemson Branch through the pump building to the undershot water wheel. Once in the main house, a tank stored the water in the attic, a sensible location because it provided pressure by gravity flow to the bathroom directly below. This was the first bathroom and it is still in use in the county outside of Frederick City, and it is said that people came from miles around to see it. It is obvious how this arrangement increased the interplay between house and land. Since the water was pumped continuously from the meadow, that water not needed in the house drained from the attic tank into a specially constructed dairy building west of the house. There, the water ran through a trough where crocks of dairy products were placed to remain cool. After that, the water continued down to the new barn and through a watering trough for the livestock. From there, it drained into a small pond which drained into Clemson Branch. This system operated until the mid 1950's when a barn was provided with its own water and an electric pump was installed in the meadow.
NRHP


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Timeline

Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
1762/00/00 Robert Strawbridge Vocation Robert Strawbridge preaches at the Maynard house (lost) in Maryland and conducts the first Methodist baptism in America in a spring on the farm. Now lost, the staircase from the Maynard house was install in 1966 in the new wing at Hopewell.
1816/00/00 Construction on the "L" shaped main house at Hopewell is begun. The hip roofed one story porch, with chamfered posts, delicate brackets and wooden pediment over the central bay is original.
1818/00/00 The main house is completed for James and Mary Howard Clemson at a cost of $10,000. The house will be passed from one generation to another for at least six generations. Glass protected silhouettes of the couple are installed in the parlor mantlepiece.
1825/09/13 William Henry Rinehart Born Mary Snader Rinehart, wife of Israel Rinehart, gives birth to a son, William Henry Rinehart, near Union Bridge, MD. Woodwork removed from the Rinehart birthplace, razed by the Lehigh Portland Cement Co in 1966, was install in the new wing at Hopewell.
1838/00/00 James Clemson's Inventory lists rye, wheat and corn as the main crops, with oats and hay as secondary crops. Horses appear to provide the labor for cultivation while other livestock includes hogs, sheep and cattle.
1858/00/00 The F R Shriner Farm house, also known as Sam's Creek Farm, is built at the bottom of a quarter mile dirt road, which intersects Clemsonville Road three quarters of a mile north of its intersection with Pearre Road.
1871/00/00 Hanson Clemson's Inventory shows that farming, mostly wheat, is carried on under a form of a sharecropping. Rye, oats, corn and hay are also harvested. The only livestock appear to be a pair of elderly horses and a few hogs and cattle.
1872/00/00 Oliver H Pearre CSA Groom Mary Anne Clemson, Hanson Clemson's only surviving child, marries Oliver Hazard Pearre, who, being one of nine children, will move from his home, Pearre's Retreat, two miles south of Hopewell, to that of his wife.
1874/00/00 Oliver H Pearre CSA Architect Over three years, Oliver Pearre extensively modernizes the farm. All the 1st floor windows on the south side of the house are lowered. The slave quarters on the SW of the house are removed. The old barn is moved and a new barn is built.
1875/00/00 Oliver H Pearre CSA Architect Hopewell Tenant House No 1 is probably built in the 1870's by Oliver Pearre. The two story clapboard covered house with metal gable roof and outbuildings is located one-third of a mile east of the junction of Pearre and Clemsonville Roads.
1875/00/00 A water system is installed which raises drinking water to a tank in the attic from a spring in the meadow through an iron pipe via a ram pump powered by a water wheel in the pump building.
1922/00/00 Oliver Truman Pearre, the younger son of Mary and Oliver Pearre, inherits Hopewell. During the next 35 years he will install electricity throughout the farms full conversion to dairy operations.
1957/00/00 Oliver Truman Pearre's son, Douglas Worthington Pearre, receives Hopewell, who will update the house, while carefully maintaining the historic fabric. For example, he will not install central heating to protect the walls from damage.
1960/00/00 Douglas W Pearre redesigns the gardens. The Upper Garden incorporates a fountain from the Baltimore estate Mondawmin, razed in 1950. The Lower Garden is based on gardens at Mulberry Fields in St Mary's County and at Newby Hall in Yorkshire.
1966/00/00 The large clapboard wing is added to Hopewell house partially, at least, so that woodwork saved from two condemned local houses, as well as a discarded c 1810 mantelpiece from Patrick Henry's Scotchtown, can be reused. Scotchtown Mantelpiece
1975/00/00 Anne Custis Peter Pearre Owner To protect Hopewell and Sam's Creek Farm as open country side, Anne Peter donates an agricultural easement to the Maryland Environmental Trust. The entire acreage is also listed with the Maryland Ornithological Society as a wildlife sanctuary.

Data »

Particulars for Hopewell Farm:
Historic Use Agricultural outbuildings
Area of Significance Agriculture
Area of Significance Architecture
Criteria Architecture-Engineering
Sight Category Building
Area of Significance Invention
Area of Significance Landscape Architecture
Criteria Person
Owner Private
Historic Use Processing
Historic Use Single dwelling



US National Registry of Historic Places Data »

Accurate at time of registration:

PLACE DETAILS
Registry Name:
Registry Address:
Registry Number: 80001803
Resource Type:
Owner: Private
Architect: Clemson,James; Pearre,Oliver
Architectural Style: No style listed
CULTURAL DETAILS
Level of Significance: State
Area of Significance: Landscape architecture, Architecture, Invention, Agriculture
Applicable Criteria: Architecture-Engineering, Person
Period of Significance: 1900-1924, 1875-1899, 1800-1824, 1825-1849, 1850-1874
Associated People: Pearre,Oliver Truman
Historic Function: Domestic, Agriculture, subsistence
Historic Sub-Function: Processing, Single dwelling, Agricultural outbuildings
Current Function: Domestic, Agriculture, subsistence
Current Sub-Function: Single dwelling Processing Agricultural outbuildings

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