GRACE FOUNDATION OF TAYLORS ISLAND, MD
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        • Windmill locations 1877
      • The Canning House >
        • Tomato Picking Time
    • 1920's - photos
    • Visit by sitting U.S. President
    • Geological Survey
    • Radio Program Transcript - 1969
  • Battle of the Ice Mound
    • Oral History of Battle of Ice Mound (as memorialized in 1931)
    • Audio Description of Battle
    • Bicentennial celebration of the battle >
      • Recognition for a well planned event
      • USPS recognition of Battle of Ice Mound Bicentennial
    • Floeberg 1936
    • British on Punch Island Creek
    • BRITISH ON SLAUGHTER CREEK
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    • Grace Episcopal Church >
      • Interior of Grace Church
      • MD HISTORICAL TRUST INFO
      • The Story of the Bell
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      • Interior Chapel
      • Interior Chapel from balcony
      • Historical Marker
      • MD HISTORIC TRUST INFO
    • Bethlehem "Brick" Church >
      • Interior photos
      • MD HISTORICAL TRUST INFO
      • Ministers of Bethlehem Church 1820--1900
      • Church Minutes (selected minutes 1860, 1873 & 1876)
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      • Interior Photos Chaplain Memorial Church
      • MD HISTORICAL TRUST INFO
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      • Lane Church Images
      • MD HISTORIC TRUST INFO
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      • Robson Cemetery Grave Photos
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  • Notable Islanders
    • Early Islanders
    • Samuel M Travers
    • HON. LEVI D. TRAVERS
    • Dr. Washington A Smith
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      • Family Burial Ground of Elijah Tall
    • THOMAS BROOME TRAVERS >
      • Thomas Broome Travers (genealogy)
    • Revolution
    • T. Reynolds Carpenter
  • Schools & Students
    • School used as museum
    • Schoolhouse MD Historical Trust Info
  • African American Schoolhouse
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  • Slaughter Creek & The Bridge
    • Old Store at bridge
    • Bridge to Meekins Neck
    • Ferry to Meekins Neck
  • Island Folklore
    • The Tea Set
    • The Story of Polly
    • Taylors Island During Prohibition
    • Clara Bow
    • The Tale of the Swan Decoy
  • Lists of Business Persons & Farmers
    • 1887
    • 1894-95 >
      • Wm. D. Travers
    • 1908-09
    • 1915-17
  • Taylors Island Ship Building
    • Travis Spicer & Sons Shipbuilders
    • Historic Ships of Taylors Island >
      • Moses Henry Geoghegan
  • Slaughter Creek Marina
    • Coast Guard Station Photo
  • James Island
    • James Island photos
    • James Island sketches
    • James Island Videos
    • Aerial Photos of James Island
    • James Island Articles
    • James Island School
    • Sika Deer of James Island
    • James Island Restoration
  • Remembrances from bygone days
    • History by Laura Robinson Navy -1977
    • Old mode of transportation
  • Grace Foundation History
    • Senator George L. Radcliffe
    • The Promise
    • 1st Meeting of Grace Foundation May 13, 1951
  • Membership Information
    • 2022 Membership Letter
    • 2020 Membership Letter
    • 2020 Membership Roster
    • Membership Application
    • 2019 Membership Letter
    • 2015 Membership Letter
  • Champion Trees of Taylors Island
    • Bicentennial Tree
    • Persimmon Tree
    • Post Oak
    • Trees harvested to be used as roads
  • Taylors Island Volunteer Fire Company
    • TIVFC articles
    • TIVFC Photos over the years
    • Tragic Fire
  • Transpeninsular Line
    • 1971 Article on Transpeninsular Line
  • Home
  • About Taylors Island
    • History of Taylors Island
    • Directions and Driving Tour
    • Old Post Office
    • Tour Pamphlet
    • Self-Guiding Nature Trail
    • Map showing Taylors Island from 1670
    • 1877 Map of Taylors Island
    • Historic Structures >
      • Becky Phipps Cannon >
        • 1912 Balt. Sun Article - Cannon Blown Apart
        • Cannon re-dedication 1999
        • Cannon - MD Historical Trust Info
      • Historic Old School House >
        • Historic Schoolhouse (MD Historical Trust Info)
      • Ridgeton Hall >
        • Ridgeton Hall - Maryland Historical Trust Info >
          • Judge Levi Travers
      • General Store >
        • General Store (MD Historic Trust Info)
        • Christmas Eve General Store Tradition
      • Mulberry Grove >
        • The History of Mulberry Grove >
          • Article About Mulberry Grove
          • Silk Worms of Mulberry Grove
          • Mulberry Grove - MD Historic Trust Info
      • Spicer Bungalow
      • Kirwan Farm >
        • Maryland Historical Trust Info - Kirwin Farm
      • "The LeCompte" a/k/a "Cator" house >
        • Cator-LeCompte House (MD Historic Trust Info)
      • Other Structures (inventoried by the Maryland Historical Trust)
      • Old Windmill >
        • Windmill locations 1877
      • The Canning House >
        • Tomato Picking Time
    • 1920's - photos
    • Visit by sitting U.S. President
    • Geological Survey
    • Radio Program Transcript - 1969
  • Battle of the Ice Mound
    • Oral History of Battle of Ice Mound (as memorialized in 1931)
    • Audio Description of Battle
    • Bicentennial celebration of the battle >
      • Recognition for a well planned event
      • USPS recognition of Battle of Ice Mound Bicentennial
    • Floeberg 1936
    • British on Punch Island Creek
    • BRITISH ON SLAUGHTER CREEK
  • Churches
    • Grace Episcopal Church >
      • Interior of Grace Church
      • MD HISTORICAL TRUST INFO
      • The Story of the Bell
    • Chapel of Ease >
      • Interior Chapel
      • Interior Chapel from balcony
      • Historical Marker
      • MD HISTORIC TRUST INFO
    • Bethlehem "Brick" Church >
      • Interior photos
      • MD HISTORICAL TRUST INFO
      • Ministers of Bethlehem Church 1820--1900
      • Church Minutes (selected minutes 1860, 1873 & 1876)
    • Chaplain Memorial >
      • Interior Photos Chaplain Memorial Church
      • MD HISTORICAL TRUST INFO
    • Lane Methodist Episcopal Church >
      • Lane Church Images
      • MD HISTORIC TRUST INFO
    • Video Tour of Churches
    • History of Island Methodism
  • Cemeteries
    • Grace Foundation Graveyard Policy
    • Bethlehem Church Cemetery Records
    • Grace Episcopal Church Burial Records
    • Lane Cemetery
    • Robson Cemetery >
      • Robson Cemetery Grave Photos
    • Hoopers Point Cemetery
  • Notable Islanders
    • Early Islanders
    • Samuel M Travers
    • HON. LEVI D. TRAVERS
    • Dr. Washington A Smith
    • J. Hooper Bosley
    • Tall Family >
      • Family Burial Ground of Elijah Tall
    • THOMAS BROOME TRAVERS >
      • Thomas Broome Travers (genealogy)
    • Revolution
    • T. Reynolds Carpenter
  • Schools & Students
    • School used as museum
    • Schoolhouse MD Historical Trust Info
  • African American Schoolhouse
    • African American School - MD Historic Trust Info
  • Slaughter Creek & The Bridge
    • Old Store at bridge
    • Bridge to Meekins Neck
    • Ferry to Meekins Neck
  • Island Folklore
    • The Tea Set
    • The Story of Polly
    • Taylors Island During Prohibition
    • Clara Bow
    • The Tale of the Swan Decoy
  • Lists of Business Persons & Farmers
    • 1887
    • 1894-95 >
      • Wm. D. Travers
    • 1908-09
    • 1915-17
  • Taylors Island Ship Building
    • Travis Spicer & Sons Shipbuilders
    • Historic Ships of Taylors Island >
      • Moses Henry Geoghegan
  • Slaughter Creek Marina
    • Coast Guard Station Photo
  • James Island
    • James Island photos
    • James Island sketches
    • James Island Videos
    • Aerial Photos of James Island
    • James Island Articles
    • James Island School
    • Sika Deer of James Island
    • James Island Restoration
  • Remembrances from bygone days
    • History by Laura Robinson Navy -1977
    • Old mode of transportation
  • Grace Foundation History
    • Senator George L. Radcliffe
    • The Promise
    • 1st Meeting of Grace Foundation May 13, 1951
  • Membership Information
    • 2022 Membership Letter
    • 2020 Membership Letter
    • 2020 Membership Roster
    • Membership Application
    • 2019 Membership Letter
    • 2015 Membership Letter
  • Champion Trees of Taylors Island
    • Bicentennial Tree
    • Persimmon Tree
    • Post Oak
    • Trees harvested to be used as roads
  • Taylors Island Volunteer Fire Company
    • TIVFC articles
    • TIVFC Photos over the years
    • Tragic Fire
  • Transpeninsular Line
    • 1971 Article on Transpeninsular Line
GRACE FOUNDATION OF TAYLORS ISLAND, MD

                                                         Two Unusual Houses
                                                          By James C. Wilfong
 
When the Federal Writers Project published a series of guides on a state by state basis in the early 1940’s readers in Maryland and Virginia were treated to some delectable texts not known in any travel folder. Readers with an architectural beat must have been particularly pleased. In Anne Arundel County, for instance, the following entry appeared for an old home on Route 178 between Parole and Crownsville:
“At 4.6m. is (L) the dirt entrance lane of Belvoir , whose two and a half story brick house was built in 1730 by John Ross, great grandfather of Francis Scott Key. The original six-bay T-shaped house, with gabled and white-painted entrance portico placed slightly off center on the front façade and flanked by ancient boxwoods, has been greatly altered. The former gambrel roof of the front section of the house has been changed to a gable-the front brick wall clearly showing the mark of this alteration. The clapboarded and gambrel-roofed wing at the right is of recent construction. The walls are fully five feet thick at the foundation. In the garden is the fenced in grave of Ann Arnold Key, Francis Scott Key’s grandmother.”
A basement wall five feet thick is something to behold. That builder of 240 years ago must have been determined that settlement would never be a problem at his plantation home. It has not.

Another builder in Dorchester County, west of Cambridge, must have had some similar thoughts. The Guide had this to say of his home erected on Taylors Island, just off the mainland:

“The mile-long entrance lane (L), 11.4 m., leads to Mulberry Grove, the Pattison estate for the past 250 years.

The land, originally called Dover, received its present name when an early 18th century attempt was made to establish a silk industry here by importing mulberry trees to nourish silk worms. The story-and-a-half center section erected in 1684 has brick walls 54 inches thick.

These walls are now partly plastered and partly clap boards fastened with wooden pegs. The foundation is built of cedar blocks two fee square. The interior contains large fire places and old pine paneling. The small structure behind the house was the first schoolhouse on Taylors Island, built in the late 1700s.”
​
Someone in this century added a screened porch in the interests of creature comfort and this obscures the remarkable 54-inch brick walls. Dr. H. Chandlee Forman located Mulberry Grove in preparing his 1834 Early Manor and Plantation Houses of Maryland.

To hint of the genuine antiquity, Forman wrote that it was even then about 250 years old and that the small hall was paneled with vertical random-width boards with great diagonal exposed braces. He did not comment on the unique basement walls.

It would seem that if ever a property might be a monument to the art of making do, or the use of the material at hand, Mulberry Grove must qualify.

The writer of this column has had a long love affair with historic houses in this area. He works for C and P Telephone Co.
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