E News and Notes

Newsand Notes E EE e PrinceGeorge's County g E ET .a E HistoricalSociety - January-February 2002 Our 50'hYear XXXI Number I '4 LOSS OF A LANDMARK In November2001, Prince George's County lost a very noticeablelandmark in CollegePark - Brown's Tavern,also known as White HouseTavern, which stoodon the west sideof U.S. 1, just outsidethe CapitalBeltway. County inspectorshad determinedthat the building was in such deterioratedcondition that it was structurallydangerous, and their determinationwas confirmed by severalstructural engineers. The building was demolishedon November29,2001. The CountyHistoric PreservationCommission is now in the processof drawingup a memorandum of agreementwith the property owners. The agreementwill contain severalmeasures to compensatefor the loss of the historic landmark- o.9.,the developingproperty will containa landscapedgarden space with a commemorativeplaque and areplica of the historic turnpike milestone,the new developmenton the propertywill include an educational,interactive computerexhibit on the history of the tavern,and a restorationfund will be establishedand dedicatedto the preservationof the County'sother historic properties. Brown's Tavern was a two-and-one-half- his real estatewas bequeathedto two story frame side-gabledbuilding, with executors, William Lorman and William numerousadditions on the side and rear, and Gwynn, in trust for his daughter, Sarahowho a prominent twentieth-century front portico. was the wife of JacobGiles Smith. Lorman The main block of the building dated from and Smith, both of whom lived in Baltimore, the 1830s,and part of the rear wing may soon becamemuch involved in the building have been significantly earlier. The building of the Washingtonand Baltimore turnpike. servedfor nearly fifty years in the nineteenth By Act of Assemblyin 1812,a companywas century as a tavern and stage stop on the incorporated to build the road, sixty feet turnpike between Washington and Baltimore. wide, from Baltimore south,past McCoy's For nearly fifty years during the twentieth tavern at Vansville, past Evans' White century it servedas the centerpieceof a House tavern,and Ross'sTavern (now motor-hotel complex. On the groundssouth known as the RossboroughInn at the of the tavern building stood an original, and University of Maryland campus),then badly weatheredTurnpike milestone. through Bladensburginto Washington. Carved into its east face was the inscription: Both Lorman and Smith were appointed *25 M to B" (25 miles to Baltimore). In supervisorsfor constructionof the road at 1998the historic milestonewas removedfor the Baltimore end. The White HouseTavern, safekeeping,and stored at one of the during the possessionof JacobSmith and his headquartersof the State Highway wife, becameone of the principalstops for Administration; a replica will soon be created the stagecoacheswhich ran along the new and placed at the site of the historic tavern turnpike. complex. JacobSmith died in the 1820s,leaving his The White House Tavern stood on a tract of widow, SarahEvans Smith, and two adult land known as Chew's Folly, which belonged children. In 1830the Smithheirs, together at the end of the eighteenthcentury to with trusteeLorman, conveyedthe 500-acre William Evans of Baltimore. Evans owned Evans/Smithland to Richard Stockton and the "White House" Tavern at this location, William Stokesof the prominentStockton on the west side of the road which ran and Stokesstagecoach company. This land betweenBladensburg and Vansville; it was a included the improvements"known as White two-story frame structure,30 by l8 feet, House and at which a Tavern was formerly with a rear addition of essentiallythe same kept, describedin Evans' will as that at size, and at the end of the century it was which the line of stagesfrom Baltimore to occupied and operatedby a num named Washingtonwere accustomedto stop." This Thomas Roades. 500-acrefarm was purchasedby John W. Brown in 1835. At the end of the eighteenthcentury, the GeneralAssembly began to consider the John W. Brown was born in New York in establishmentof a toll pike betweenthe new 1799;circa 1818,he cameto Maryland,and FederalCity and Baltimore. The first Act of beganto work as a stagecoachdriver on the Assemblyrelated to this subject was in 1796, Baltimore Washingtonpike. At somepoint but the construction of the road did not during this period, he becamethe managerof beginuntil the end of I 812. In the meantime the White House Tavern, and, if family (1807), William Evansdied in Baltimore, and tradition is correct, also servedtemporarily as the managerof Ross's Taverg which was considerablereal estate(by then over 1500 owned after l82l by George Calvert of acres), including the White House Farm and Riversdale,one of the directors of the Tavenr, to be equally divided between his Washingtonand Baltimore Turnpike. wife and nine children. His widow continued to operate the Tavern for approximatelyten According to family tradition, the old White more years, serving also as trustee for the House Tavern was destroyedby fire during three youngest (minor) children. When the Brown's management,and it was he who property was divided among the heirs, it was built the familiar structure to replaceit circa the Browns' youngest surviving daughter, 1834. Certainlythe structuralmembers and Almira Brown Mulloy, who receivedthe interior trim of the building would support portion where the tavern stood. It remained this date of construction,as doesthe in her possession,as a rental residence,until noticeableincrease in the assessedvalue of 1913. The property changedhands several the property recordedin 1834. The new more times before it was purchasedby the tavern was significantly larger (circa 45 by Irwin family in 1940. 30 feet) than the original; the rear kitchen *ing, however, had dimensionssimilar to The twentieth century saw another great thoseof the rear addition recordedin 1798, changein transportation patternswith the and may have rested on those older advent of the automobile. Whereasrraffic on foundations. It has not been firmly the turnpike road had decreasedduring the substantiatedwhether the new building nineteenthcentury due to the competition of occupiedthe preciselocation of the original, the parallel rafuoad, line, it beganto increase but in any case,Brown purchasedthe entire againin the 1920sand 1930swith the 500-acreWhite HouseFarnL includingthe growing number of privately owned new Tavern,early in 1835. automobilesand the improvementof the old turnpike road into the heavily traveled Route John W. Brown occupiedand operatedthe 1. In 1940 Almira Brown Mulloy's ten-acre new White House Tavern from the time of allotment was purchasedby Felix lrwill and its constructioncirca 1834 until his deathin the century-old tavern structure wim 1862. Ironically, within a short time after convertedinto a motor hotel. The two-story the constructionof the new tavern,the Victorian verandawith its jigsawn Baltimore and Ohio railroad line beganto balustradesand perforated frieze coursewas operate,on a line just a half mile to the east, removed, and replacedwith tall tile columns; betweenBaltimore and Washington. After in place of the second-storyverandq a small 1835,traffic on the turnpike beganto second-storybalcony wils built to frame the decrease,replaced by the convenienceof the central entrance. A porch along the north new railroad; in defenseagainst its new gable end was enclosedto serveas the office competitor, the turnpike directors beganto entranceand waiting room. Within a few decreasethe turnpike tolls, maintenanceof years, small brick cottage units were built on the road consequentlydeteriorated, and by the grounds north and west of the tavern, the period of the Civil War, the Washington substantially increasing the capacity of the and Baltimore Turnpike was in serious motor hotel. Although its appearanceand its trouble. setting had beenconsiderably altered, the White House Tavern had once aguncome to John W. Brown died n 1862,leavinghis reflect a latter dav manifestation of its original function, i.e., a stopprngplace for African-American education. Ms. Gray who travellers on a heavily-usedartery of both attendedthe school and taught there, transportation. also representedthe Ridgely family that is so closely associatedwith the school and the The complex operated as a motel for nearly nearby Ridgely Church. Ms. Pearl also fifty years in the twentieth century. By the representedthe Historic Preservation 1990s,the motel complex had shut dowrtr Commission,through which the Ridgely and the historic tavern building was in School may achieveHistoric Site designation seriouslydeteriorating condition. Various (and thus protection). They were joined by plans beganto be consideredfor Carolyn Rowe, representingthe Historical developmentof the property. Years of and Cultural Trust and its current project to neglect, vandalisnLand finally the tornado of erect historical markers at severalof the September2001 took their toll, and the County's Rosenwaldschools. (For building was determinedto be beyond information about RosenwaldSchools, see salvage. Its demolition late in November PGCHS Newsand Notes,XXVIII, Number 2001 has taken away a familiar landmark of 2, March 2000.) All expressedconcern considerablehistorical importance. about the deterioratingcondition of the building, presentlyused as the County Swon G. Pearl, January 2002. The School bus dispatchdepot, and the hope following qrticle is also by Susan and that, like the HighlandPark School (a includes previously publ

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