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Wilson House
Main Street
Galesville, Maryland
Anne Arundel County
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Directly off Route 255 in Galesville, Anne
Arundel County, is the Wilson House, a three-bay, two story
transitional frame
house with a two-story, braced-frame rear wing believed to
be built by a former slave, Henry Wilson. The homestead is
the focal
point of a 27.5-acre property that Wilson began to accumulate
the land for in 1865. He bought 2 acres for $250, and the additional
25.5 acres (from Ann Sarah Hughes and Thomas Franklin) in 1871
for $1275. In 1870, Wilson was one of 2,730 freedmen who owned
property in Maryland, but more importantly, one of only 462
who owned a house in the state. (Schweninger 1990,153, 180).
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Henry Wilson manumitted by his father, Thomas,
in July 1828, when Henry was twenty-three years old and deemed "able
to work and gain a livelihood." (Manumission Record) In
1830, two years after Wilson was freed, there were 4,076 freemen
in Anne
Arundel
County, compared
to 10,347
slaves and 13,872 whites. (Wright 1921, 86 - 87). In that
same year, ther
were a toatl of 52,938 freemen and 102,994
slaves
in Maryland;
in
the United
States a total of 319,599 freemen and 2,009,043 slaves combined
to form the African-American population (Wright 1921, 92).
Land and home ownership would become the most visible measurement
of
African-American's
freedom from slavery and white oppression.
Th exact date of Wilson's demise is unknown, but he had died
by at least 1878 and the house remained in his family, beginning
with his wife, Kate, and ending with his grandaughter Mary Louise
Crowner. Ms. Crowner moved out of the home in 1970. |
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The main block of the gable-roofed building measures approximately
32 feet wide by 16 feet deep. Modern asbestos shingling covers
the exterior walls. This portion of the house can be accessed
by the central front door on the south elevation, or from
a door in the north elevation. |
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| At the time of documentation the windows were boarded up and
there is no evidence of the window configuration left, but it
is most likely they were six-over-six light, double-hung sash
windows. The openings on the south (front) elevation are symmetrical.
The first floor openings consist of a central door flanked by
one window on each side. The second floor contains three windows
placed directly above the first floor openings. There is a diamond-shaped
window located in the cross gable of the south elevation. |
| The north, rear, elevation displays a similar balance of
openings, but the presence of the rear wing obscures the
view of all openings. Visible on the first floor is a central
door and one window to the right and the second floor contains
two windows placed directly above the first floor openings. |
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| The east elevation has one opening located at the attic level
directly beneath the peak of the gable. The west elevation contains
three windows, one on each floor, vertically aligned under the
peak of the gable. |
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| The Wilson House exhibits a central hall, single-pile floor
plan, with chimneys located in the center of the main block.
A rear wing is located off the northwest corner of the house.
The front entry door on the main block opens into a central stair
passage that extends to the back (north) wall, where another
door is located. |
| The central hallway contains an open-string,
straight staircase on the west wall that leads to the second
floor. Most of
the banister is gone, but originally it was designed with
two square balusters per tread. |
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| Two rooms of equal proportion, 12 feet wide by 15 feet deep
open from the central hallway. Each room has two windows, but
the fenestration pattern is different. The west room contains
one window on the south elevation and one on the west elevation.
The door from the hallway to the west room is located near the
rear (north) wall of the hallway. The door from the hallway to
the east room is located near the front (south) wall of the hallway. |
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| There is a fireplace in each room, located against the hallway
wall. The west room has a door that leads into the rear addition.
The current floor in the west room appears to be a later addition,
as it covers part of the original hearth bricks. The hearth bricks
are painted a bright red and bulge upward in a mound formation. |
| Essentially, the first floor plan is replicated on both the
second floor and in the attic level. At the end of the second
floor hallway are two doors, each opening into a room measuring
12 feet wide by 15 feet deep. Both rooms have a window on the
south wall, while the west room has a window in the west wall
and the east room has a window in the south wall. Each room contains
a closet. The closet abuts the chimney stack that jogs from the
central wall partition. |
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| The same staircase provides access to the attic floor, where
two rooms are located. Both rooms have a window in the gable
end wall, which is directly across the room from the chimney
stack. |
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| The rear gable roof wing measures approximately 14 feet wide
by 12 feet deep. It appears that the rear wing's actual construction
pre-dates that of the main block, suggesting that it either stood
on this site before the later portion was built or it was moved
from another location to serve as a kitchen wing for the main
dwelling. Like the main block, its exterior walls are covered
with asbestos shingling. |
| The rear addition could be accessed through an interior
door in the west room of the main block or an exterior door
in the east wall of the wing. One window is located in the
west wall, but its sash is missing. An interior chimney stack
jogs out from the north wall, with a circular opening for
a stove pipe. |
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The Period I walls were covered with lath
and plaster above the chair rail and wainscoting below. The
modern,
Period
II, walls are covered with wallboard above the chair rail.
Originally, a ladder stair allowed access to the second floor
of the wing, but the only evidence that remains is a 5 feet
wide by 2 feet wide deep opening in the ceiling. |
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| The wing has a braced-frame system, with sash-sawn timbers. |
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| The family has no concrete plan of action for preserving the
house, but they hope to restore the home as it was when Henry
Wilson occupied it. Steps have been taken to secure a 501-C3
status, with the idea that the next step will be to seek out
and secure financial assistance to preserve and restore the building.
Currently, the windows are boarded up to prevent any further
damage to the interior of the house. |
Contact Person: Jack Smith (410) 867-1215
Gertrude Makell (410) 867 - 4612, e-mail: grandkids_0011@msn.com
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Anne Arundel County Manumission Record (1816-1844), 401 – 402.
"To
Whom It May Concern let it known that I Thomas Wilson of Ann
Arundel County in the State
of Maryland far divers good Causes me therein to moving?
and also for the further consideration of Ten Dollars Current
to
me in hand Paid have released from Slavery manumit and set
free negro Henry Wilson my son and slave aged about twenty
three years and able to work and gain a livelihood and him
the said Henry Wilson I do declare to be henceforth free
and manumitted and discharged for all manner of service or
servitude
to me my heirs executors and administrators and assigns forever
in ? whereof I have here unto set my hand and seal this Tenth
Day of July 1828. His Thomas X Wilson mark Signed, Sealed,
and Delivered in presence of Gidean White.”
Schweninger, Loren. Black Property Owners in the South,
1790 - 1815 Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990.
Wright, James M., "The Free Negro in Maryland, 1634 -
1860," in Studies in Histroy, Economics, and Public
Law Volume XVCII, Number 3. NEw York: Longmans, Green,
and Co., 1921. |
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