PG 68-002 Walker-Mowatt Mill Site MIHP.Pdf
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Maryland Historical Trust Inventory No. PG: 68-002 Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties Form 1. Name of Property (indicate preferred name) historic Walker-Mowatt Mill Site other 2. Location street and number Paint Branch Parkway at Kenilworth Avenue, within Anacostia River Park not for publication city, town Riverdale X vicinity county Prince George's County 3. Owner of Property (give names and mailing addresses of all owners) name Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission street and number 6600 Kenilworth Avenue telephone city, town Riverdale state MD zip code 20737-1314 4. Location of Legal Description courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Prince George's County Courthouse liber 2437 folio 333 city, town Upper Marlboro tax map 42 tax parcel 3 tax ID number 19 2148575 5. Primary Location of Additional Data Contributing Resource in National Register District Contributing Resource in Local Historic District Determined Eligible for the National Register/Maryland Register Determined Ineligible for the National Register/Maryland Register Recorded by HABS/HAER Historic Structure Report or Research Report at MHT X Other: Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Prince George's County Planning Department 6. Classification Category Ownership Current Function Resource Count district X public agriculture landscape Contributing Noncontributing building(s) private commerce/trade recreation/culture buildings structure both defense religion 1 sites X site domestic social structures object education transportation objects funerary work in progress 0 1 Total government unknown health care X vacant/not in use Number of Contributing Resources industry other: previously listed in the Inventory 1 7. Description Inventory No. PG: 68-002 Condition excellent deteriorated good X ruins fair altered Prepare both a one-paragraph summary and a comprehensive description of the resource and its various elements as it exists today. The Walker-Mowatt Mill Site is located along the east side of the Paint Branch Creek in Anacostia River Park, Maryland. This 16.42-acre parcel is west of the intersection of Kenilworth Avenue (MD 201) and Paint Branch Parkway. This parcel, designated as Parcel 3, was part of the tract of land known as the “Old Mill Tract.” However, Prince George’s County’s GIS mapping documents the mill as being located southwest of the intersection on Parcel 4. It is possible that this mill was located on Parcel 4 as it is adjacent to Parcel 3 and both were owned by Charles B. Calvert in the mid-nineteenth century. Paint Branch Creek was dry at the time of the 2007 on-site survey, so access to along the bank was possible. Approximately 100 feet to the east of the streambed is a small hill where scattered pieces of concrete, stone, and wood remain on the hill, indicating it may have been the site of the Walker-Mowatt Mill. MILL According to research conducted in 1973 by Michael F. Dwyer, the Walker-Mowatt Mill was a small wood-frame building with a water wheel. 1 The mill is no longer extant; during the 2007 on-site survey the site included remnants of concrete, stone, and wood, which may be associated with this mill site. INTEGRITY The Walker-Mowatt Mill Site does not retain sufficient integrity to convey its significance as an example of a nineteenth-century mill in Prince George’s County. The site, located along a dry streambed, is indistinguishable from the surrounding bank and has lost its integrity of materials, design, workmanship, association, and feeling. This site may have potential to yield archeological information related to nineteenth-century mills. 1 Michael F. Dwyer, “Walker/Mowatt Mill-Site,” (PG: 68-2) Maryland Historical Trust Inventory Form for State Historic Sites Survey (1973), 7:1. 8. Significance Inventory No. PG: 68-002 Period Areas of Significance Check and justify below 1600-1699 agriculture economics health/medicine performing arts 1700-1799 archeology education X industry philosophy X 1800-1899 architecture engineering invention politics/government 1900-1999 art entertainment/ landscape architecture religion 2000- commerce recreation law science communications ethnic heritage literature social history community planning exploration/ maritime history transportation conservation settlement military X other: Local History Specific dates c. 1860 Architect/Builder Unknown Construction dates c. 1860 Evaluation for: National Register Maryland Register not evaluated Prepare a one-paragraph summary statement of significance addressing applicable criteria, followed by a narrative discussion of the history of the resource and its context. (For compliance projects, complete evaluation on a DOE Form – see manual.) STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The Walker-Mowatt Mill, no longer extant, exemplifies the diversity of economic activity in Prince George’s County during the mid-nineteenth century. Although never a dominant form of economic activity for the tobacco-producing county, grist mills were significant ancillary industries. Little is known about the operations of the mill and its subsequent demolition. However, the operators of the mill may have left an archeological record. Currently, the Walker-Mowatt Mill Site is located at the north end of Anacostia River Park, east of the Paint Branch Creek. The property’s importance as an archeological site could not be determined at the time of the 2007 on-site survey. This site no longer retains sufficient above-ground integrity to convey its significance as part of the county’s nineteenth-century industrial and economic history. HISTORIC CONTEXT Situated on the east bank of Paint Branch Creek, the Walker-Mowatt Mill Site is located east of University Park, south of Berwyn Heights, west of the Baltimore Washington Parkway, and north of Riverdale and Bladensburg. Although considered a “country mill,” the Walker-Mowatt Mill was prosperous due to its location near Bladensburg. Originally known as Garrison’s Landing, Bladensburg was an important port, shipping flour and tobacco. By the early nineteenth century, silting of the river made the water unnavigable. The proximity of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad may have allowed the Walker-Mowatt Mill to be more accessible and, subsequently, more prosperous. 2 According to research conducted in 1973, “Walker and Cross owned the mill during the 1860s. Nicholas Stevens (of Bostwick) owned the mill in the 1870s.”3 The mill was documented on the 1878 Hopkins Map, with Stevens’s dwelling located to the east.4 However, none of these men appeared during chain-of-title research. 5 2 Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and Prince George’s County Planning Department, Historic Sites and Districts Plan (1992), B-4. 3 Dwyer, “Walker/Mowatt Mill-Site,” 8:1. No information was found for Walker or Cross; neither could be located in the federal census. 4 G.M. Hopkins, Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington, Including the County of Prince George Maryland (Philadelphia: G.M. Hopkins, C.E., 1878). Maryland Historical Trust Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. PG: 68-002 Historic Properties Form Walker-Mowatt Mill Site Continuation Sheet Number 8 Page 2 Furthermore, research in 1975 states that “the Mowatts were the last private owners of the mill” and owned the mill during the early twentieth century. 6 However, recent chain of title research indicates that no members of the Mowatt family were documented as owning this property. The Walker and Mowatt families were likely the operators of this mill, not the owners. The land on which this site is located, as well as a majority of the surrounding area, was originally owned by Charles B. Calvert, who owned Parcel 3 and Parcel 4. Calvert, a descendant of Lord Baltimore, descended from one of the nation’s oldest families (among them the Stiers of Riversdale). Calvert was born in Riverdale, Maryland in 1808. A graduate of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1827, Calvert engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock breeding. Calvert was a member of the State house of delegates in 1839, 1843, and 1844 and one of the early advocates for the establishment of the United States Department of Agriculture. He served as a Unionist to the thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861 through March 3, 1863). Although Calvert aspired to be a successful land developer, he is best known for establishing the Maryland Agricultural College in the 1850s. This small college would evolve to become the University of Maryland. The current 16.42-acre property (Parcel 3) is composed of two parcels that were joined under the ownership of Edwin G. Paul at the beginning of the twentieth century. The first parcel, (A), which traces back to the platting of Lakeland, will be discussed first. Next, the second parcel, (B), which traces back to Charles B. Calvert, will be discussed. Finally, the property’s history will be followed from the ownership of Edwin G. Paul when these two parcels were joined. Parcel (A) Lakeland was developed as a late-nineteenth-century resort community in northwest Prince George’s County, northwest of the Walker-Mowatt Mill site. Edwin A. Newman, a Washington DC-based real estate developer, platted the community of Lakeland in 1890. 7 Newman designed the community as an exclusive resort area, which would be conveniently located to both Lake Artemesia and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 8 Newman called the community Lakeland, “on account of the beautiful lake which is to form a delightful feature of its landscape. This lake will cover an area of seven acres, will be fifteen feet deep, and is to be named Lake Artemesia in honor of Mrs. [Clara Artemesia] Newman.” 9 The lake was originally dug as a gravel extraction pit in the 1860s by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. Water for the lake was supplied by more than a hundred springs and a pipe that brought water from the Paint Branch Creek to Lake Artemesia. Newman created 5 At the time of the 1870 census, Nicholas Stevens, born 1838, worked as a carpenter and lived with his wife Maria who was born c.