About Brookeville Woolen Mill Worker’s House c.1800

The Brookeville Woolen Mill Worker’s House is a stone dwelling house that is representative of the mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century plantation environment in central Maryland. It may have been constructed as early as 1760-to-1780 and it may have held one or more mill worker families on 2 levels in the 1800s. There is evidence that at one time an external stairway provided a separate access to the second floor. There is also evidence that the free-standing, two-story fireplace and its associated knee-high stone foundation (both located on the north east side of the stone house) may have been an earlier, partially wooden structure to which the larger, 2 1/2 story stone house that we see today was added. This assertion is strongly supported by recent excavation showing that the stone house north east wall was actually built into the low foundation wall associated with the fireplaces.

The Mill Worker’s Stone House is located almost directly on the border between two Maryland Land Patents c.a. 1725-1735, “Bordley’s Choice” and “Gitting’s Hah Hah”. There is a strong, unbroken chain of title in Maryland land records and wills connecting the present day site to parts of both land patents and to the Riggs and Holland families. These families were land speculators and settlers from Anne Arundel County. They were major contributors to early plantations that were formative for Brookeville, MD and its vicinity. This title evidence is supported by several tax assessment and census entries for Montgomery County. The stone house is located only 25 perches (413 ft.) from the “Beginning Tree” (a large White Oak) featured in the land patent survey for “Bordley’s Choice”. This tree is the same as the “Bounding Tree” of the “Gittings Hah Hah” land patent. The site of this white oak tree is on the property line of the Brookeville Woolen Mill Worker’s House site. There are two large white oaks near this point today in the forest conservation area. Survey stones for both land patents are also found on the subject site. This evidence supports a possible statewide significance for the subject site.

The main significance of this house derives from association with and context for the Brookeville Woolen Mill (Maryland Historic Trust site #23-9). The Woolen Mill was in use throughout much of the 1800s into the early 1900s and the subject house is of similar construction to both the Woolen Mill and the Miller’s house. The subject house is located 300 yards southwest of the Brookeville Woolen Mill. There is oral family history in the Hottel family (owners of the subject house through much of the twentieth century) that links the subject house to the Woolen Mill and supports its use as Mill worker’s housing. There is aerial photographic evidence from 1943-1944 (Sandy Spring Quadrangle Maryland map) that a short unimproved dirt road, ran directly between the Mill and the subject house, literally connecting them. The subject Brookeville Woolen Mill Worker’s House site and the Mill itself were both embedded in contiguous parcels of Holland family land from the time of the land acquisitions of James and John Holland, (1742 and 1768 respectively). The Mill Worker’s House site persisted in the Holland family until its sale by Willie Grafton Holland to the Hottel brothers in 1931. The time period from 1768-to-1931 spanned the era of the Brookeville Woolen Mill operation. The Brookeville Woolen Mill is reported to be the only surviving one of its type (woolen felting mill) in the State of Maryland. This gives support for a possible statewide significance for the Brookeville Woolen Mill Worker’s House.

The Brookeville Woolen Mill Worker’s House is also only 1,000 yards northeast of the Riggs family site and Cemetery at Pleasant Hill (Maryland Historic Trust site #23- 67). This places the subject house directly on a line linking the two Historic Trust sites and thus serves as context for understanding them both. Furthermore, since the Riggs family, Pleasant Hill Site has deteriorated stone ruins that can be preserved only for archeological purposes, keeping the Brookeville Woolen Mill Worker’s House intact attains added importance.

The Brookeville Woolen Mill Worker’s House comes down to us remarkably intact and in good condition. The stonework of the main house is structurally sound with four good, true walls that are essentially unaltered except for two, second story doors and a first story window that were sealed with stone. There is evidence that interior wooden renovations, a roof, and some masonry repointing were completed in the mid twentieth century to support occasional use as a girl scout camp. The house is now zoned as a single family dwelling on a large, 25 acre parcel of farmland that is adjacent to an additional 25 acre forest conservation area, an additional part of the original “Bordley’s Choice”. Thus the house and approximately 50 acres of its original site are protected. They adjoin the Brookeville Woolen Mill site, with its 13.23 acre site, and the large land area of the Hawlings River Stream Valley Park.

ref: Maryland Historical Trust State Historic Sites Inventory