FHD-243 late 18th C. Frederick Barracks 242 South Market Street Frederick Public Following the general concept of military barracks in North America constructed during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the Frederick Barracks is a handsome two story, L-shaped stone structure. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, the barracks has adapted itself to a variety of public uses: a state armory, an agricultural exhibition hall, a temporary hos­ pital during the Civil War, and finally the first classrooms for the Maryland School for the Deaf. Presently, the building serves as the school's museum. I ~U'-i-J.L/ 3 Fer• 10·300 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STA'tE! (Julr 1969) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Maryland ~ ..------ COUNTY• NATIOtolA.L REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES , Frederick INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM FOR NPS USf ONLY ENTRY NUMBElll I DATE (Type all cntrif's - complete applicable sections) I Il. 11. NAME l C OM>fON • . Hessian Barracks t ., I AND· OR HISTORIC: l Frederick Barracks. Revolutionarv Barracks I 12. LOCATION ' STREET ANC' NUM•IER: . 242 South Market Street -CITY OA TOWN: i Frederick STATE I CODE !COUNTY: I CODE .l Mar~land I 24 I Frederick In.,, t (3. CLASSIFICATION CATEGORY ACCESSIBLE OWNfRSHIP STATUS (CMC'I< On•) TO THE PUBLIC "'z [] District [X Building (lQ Public Public Acquialti-: fiCI Occupied Yea: 0 Restricted r 1 Site 0 Structure 0 Priwote 0 In Process D Unoccupied Kl Unrea tr i cted 0 Object 0 Both 0 Being Co.naidered 0 Proaer•otion work D l- In progress D No u P•IESENT USIE (C"hrdr One or AJore ns Appropriate) ..:. - ::> L I Agriculturol n Gov•rnnaent 0 Pork 0 Tronaportotion oc-onta Q: 0 c-.-rciol LI lndu•triol 0 Priwota Re&"idence 0 Other (Speclly) t- fKI Educotionol Ci Mililor_y 0 ~eligioua 0 Ente;toin111ent rx Muse"'" 0 Scientific ., ' l l•. OWNER OF PROPERTY iUWNER'S NAMEo (Contact: David M. Denton, Superintendent) 3: ..... PJ > ( State of Maryland (for Maryland School for the Deaf) t1 ... w STREET AND NUMBER: I"<; !'.' ; • ..... w 101 Clarke Place PJ I .. CITY OR T0•1N: STATE: CODE =' "' 0. t, -Frederick------ -----·---r--·· Marv. land 24 5.'. l OCATION OF.... LEGAL DESCRIPTION :ouRTHOUSE. REGISTRY OF" DEEDS. ETC: n '%J 0 (no legal documents available at this time) '1 c ro z STREET AND NUMBER:. p. ... ro o( ·~ I '1 !:1TY OA TOWN: STATE CODE ..... 0 .. .. ;.;- I •• I •• ' d EPRESENTATl~N-~N EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE OF" SURVEYo .."'z f' Historic American Building Survey :II .,, o( 0 I >ATE OF" SURVEY: 1 Q&;:Q Xl Federal 0 Stat• 0 County 0 Local z » ~EPOSITORY F"OR SUR YE Y RECORDS: c z "ll. Library of Congress 'Ill "' :II c: STREET AND NUMBE.R: "' .. m"' 0z ..._ .__ .- <.:ITY OR TOWN: I STATE: CODE -c Washington Dist.of Columbia , , 0.. ..... ·---------· -~-.---- -------------· • ' )' ..-.. • l i .• ~· fCllec:l One) e 0 f•cellent 0 Goo4 Cl Foir 0 Deteriorated 0 Ruina CONDITION fCll.clr-On·-.,-------,--,------:-:,c=h-ec-:-l-:On:--:-e)_____ __. I ID ,.,,.,.11 0 Unolterell n Mo••lf ~ Original Site ' I EICRIBE THE PREIENT AND ORIGINAL,,, •nown) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE l The two-story stone structure with gallery porches is •L" shaped. An "A" roof covers the structure including the porches.· .. 0 I r' This structure remains of two original "L"-shaped ··- buildings which, between the two, enclosed a yard. The t •I reputedly older building was demolished c. 1870 to supply materials to erect the Maryland School for the Deaf brick building which overshadows the remaining "barracks." : I • The longer (north) exterior wall of the existing '" building and the short (east) exterior wall (the short, base, of the "L") are pierced by occasional small, double-hung ,.. sash windows. The interior walls, along the galleries, t are regularly pierced on both floors by stqrdy doors with six deeply beveled panels, and with double-hung windows that m show some early glass panes. Pegged frames with heavy cyma m I reversa mold surround each window opening; most of the wood r trim throughout the structure appears to be early. z f ' • ·-~ The doorways on each floor open into a series of l plain, rectangular rooms. At neither.level is there an -I , interior passageway. The inter-room door of each room ;o !1 leads directly into the next in line. The interior common­ •' - wall between each two rooms are fitted with fireplaces, c back-to-back; the stack of each couple rises to just above n the ridge pole appearing as a series of wide, squat chimneys. -I There are two interior plain, narrow, wooden staircases 0 between the two story levels. Two exterior, plain, wooden z . ~- staircases rise from the lower to the upper galleries. Thls stone·~tructure closely·resembles the extensively ,. ~ restored, circa eighteenth-century, military barracks at l Trenton, New Jersey, and follows the general concept of military barracks in North America constructed during the nineteenth centu~y. The Hes~iari Barracks are located at 242 South Market Street (east side of the street) in Frederick, Maryland, on the grounds of the Maryland School for the Deaf. I I ~. ·. ( ··L .·.. · __· ------~- ------------------------------' '-·--- ---- -----.. ---- . ~- I: ... "--...:.• _____,N~·~~-- (B •. SIGNIFICANCE P£ .. IOD CCll•r• o .. or lllor• •• Approprlal•) O Pr~·C.1.;.,,ltien l 0 16th Centurr 0 181h Centurr O 1 Sth CentvfJ 0 17th Cenlurr XJ 19th Centurr .. SPECIFIC DATEISI '" Appllcal>I~ and"_,,, before 1860 ... .. EAS OF SIGNIFICANCE (Chee• On• cw llor• •• Apprvprl•I•) Al.or iei-1 0 E4..ceti• O Politico! 0 Urkn Plo..,i"I ~l· Prehia-ic De,.,;,...,,.,. 0 Othor (Specify) ,_ 0 0 Roli9ion/Phi. r.-·. 0 Hiatedc . DI ln4ua1,, ....... , O Aplcultu,. 0 '-Ii- O $ci-co ..' ~~ ; .. GD Archilectur• Le.. 4scope .. t· ·o 0 Sculpture ~ 0 Art Architect- 0 $aciol/H-· 0 Literature \ oc-c•. 11.1... r o c--icoti- IJl Militerr 0 n ...... .. 0 c-a-otion O Mualc 0 Tronaponetion ~· ..,,. i,... STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE [Ed.: Footnote references are under 191 Two historians of Frederick, Maryland, Lucy Leigh Bowie "' (in 1939) and J. Thomas Scharf (in 1882) maintained that z the Hessian Barracks were built during~the French and Indian 0 War (1754-1763).1 . ... The first principal (William D. Cooke) of the Maryland u School for the Deaf located on the barracks grounds, in his hist~ry of the institution, was unable to date the barracks :::> exactly. He did state: "It is known, however, that they D:: [the barracks] were built du;ing the reign of George II i. ... [of Great Britain], and that they were occupied by General [Edward] Braddock and his troops on their route to Fort "' Dusquene .... 2 . ·.( z J, ...·, ' Judge T. J. c. Williams, the co-author of the accepted "~ w history of Fred~rick County, stated that the barracks were •t w built following a law passed in 1777. Wi11iams•also mentions a letter dated July of 1775 _from John Hanson to Peyton •~ ·•·- "' Randolph (The latter Williams names as the President of the 1! Continental Congress.), which referred to the barracks.3 - • - Unfortun~tely, Williams gave no source for his statement. ,.r- ~ An examination of the published volumes of the Archives of Maryland reveals that the State contracted to build "a" barracks in Frederick .in the summer of 1777. This structure ... was not completed in 1781.4 A letter from a British officer, a prisoner of war, to Governor Thomas Sim Lee, dated It January 30, 1781, reveals the condition of the barracks, • then to be used as a prison. .• · I have the honor to inform Your Excellency, ... that on the arrival of the British Troqps of i : .. Convention here, I made a demand of boards and nails to make the barracks habitable for the men ·,.. -_;- .. and to give them reasonable space equal. to their numbers. [sic.] which is so far from the case at prese~t, that one half cannot measure their SEE CONTINUATION SHEET •· ,. r ~. :. .",.. ~ ~ f- .. " .· ; ..... t ..... -~·"· .. ·. ·. _:...---- -···.'. ·~ .. k·~ ·- .. : --~ . • • ~ "•Fi ITAT& . .. ,.,. 10°300• · UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF.THE INTERIOR . ,,.,., 1969) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Maryland NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES COUNTY Frederick V'HD-d.Y3 INVENTORY· NOMINATION FORM FOR NPS USE ONLY ! ENT"Y HUMBEi' I DATii i (Confinuation Sheet} I 1l l. I· . Hessian Barracks I . ., I f6. REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS continued I Maryland Register of historic sites and landmarks I 1970 - state ' . 'Maryland Historical Trust Post Office Box 1704 I Annapolis, Maryland 21404 code: 24 l 18. SIGNIFICANCE continued ' lengths on the few floors they have. To alleviate which, had boards, nails and tool~.been provided, they would have willingly ., with my authorizing them completed the barracks.S .! It may be deduced from.the af6rementioned quotes that the barracks described above were what is known today as the "Hessian Barracks." However, no land record has been un­ covered to substantiate this deduction. The Laws of Maryland, February Session 1777, Chapter X, authorized the Governor of the State to purchase prop~rty for l the erection of barracks. In August, two months after the 1 State Council had engaged Abraham ··Faw to build a barracks, t Thomas Johnson, the Governor of Maryland, did purchase five­ and-one-fou~th acres of land in,Frederick County ~o be held J in the name of the incumbent Governor of Maryland in perpetuity.6 However, this five-and-one~fourth acre tract is not· the piece of land on which the Hessian Barracks sits today. An early documentatiQn of a barracks on the same grounds of the existing.barracks is found in a deed dated April 14, 1820.7 l ,.; French prisoners of war captured during the undeclared I'. • l sea war with France (1799) and Britisi soldiers taken prisoner ~ ' ,.