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Presenting the "Wyand Brick House & Farm," per the Maryland Historical Trust, also known as "Seven Gates Farm." The value of this unusual, beautiful property is in the history, the many outbuildings, & extensive gardens. If you're looking for the "Secret Garden" of your lifetime, this it! <br />
At the edge of Keedysville, large trees shade the grounds & gardens of extensive hedges, plantings, & boxwoods, w/garden paths, quiet spaces, small formal areas, & accessory buildings. 2 original outbuildings, a wash house & a log smokehouse are behind. There is a cistern w/a pulley hanging from its roof. The 4-bay house is brick-encased log. Chimneys (likely non-functional) rise inside the gable ends, & a bay window allows natural light. A covered porch stretches across the front façade & a transom window sits above the front door, likely dating from the 1840's. A two-story wing w/double porches is on the west side of the house. Inside, it is simple, without pretension. The gardens are a different story. Everywhere you go outside on this property there are different species of plants: Flowering, evergreen, deciduous, heirloom, you name it. Every season is beautiful on this little homestead! Once part of an 80 acre farm, it belonged to Jacob Hess, builder/owner of the town's mill, which dominated the community into the 20th century. Early deeds show it was part of original land grants called "Resurvey of Fellfoot Enlarged & Hills & Dales & The Vineyard." In 1833, Hess heirs sold the farm to George Geeting, Sr. Twenty years later, Geeting’s heirs sold to Simon Wyand. Generations of Wyands divided & sold off land, leaving the current farmstead of .67acre of land. In 1984, it was sold to Dean Johnson & James Cramer, & out of the Wyand family’s control for the first time in 131 years. Dean & Cramer were editors of Country Garden & of Country Home, and contributed many articles. They brought their creativity to restoring the neglected house & its grounds. Their efforts resulted in 2 books, "Seasons at Seven Gates Farm" & "Window Boxes Indoors & Out." The house originally had two rooms, side by side, on the first floor. The front door opens into one original room & the bay on the left expands the room. A simple mantel decorates a fireplace, now closed w/a wooden cover & beyond are stairs to the 2nd floor. Woodwork is simply molded w/plain corner blocks. Interior doors have four panels. First floor ceilings were stripped of plaster to reveal joists above & the laths that held plaster were hand split. Floors have been stripped & left bare of finish and true to the period. The other original 1st floor room was split into two. In one room a shallow fireplace has a simple mantel & a brick hearth. In the other room is a full bathroom. Behind the front rooms & 2steps down, is the kitchen wing w/a large cooking fireplace that burns with gas logs. Log walls have been exposed here & there are narrow back stairs. There is also a door to the lower porch & another doorway opens to a pantry. Upstairs, 3 bedrooms are in the main block of the house, w/a large workroom above the kitchen. The workroom is frame construction above the log kitchen below & rudimentary, w/only 2of 5 openings having the same moldings; all others are different. As stated before, the gardens are the property's glory. Large, flat stepping-stones had been buried for decades & were dug up & reset. The wash house was restored & furnished w/a table & chairs set before a large fireplace. Specimen plants & heirloom varieties fill garden beds. An English cold frame shelters fall crops. The log smokehouse w/a steep hip roof had been restored & topped w/an old finial. New structures were added as well: A small barn with vertical siding, a small hexagonal dovecote housed domesticated pigeons, and a glass greenhouse. All in disrepair.<br />
The above was edited & pared down from an article- Herald-Mail Sunday, November 12, 2000- as the 133rd in the series.<br />
This property is being sold as-is, where is. |
