Site History

The Willow Grove site represents an antebellum plantation and post-war farm complex that was founded by the prominent Bowie family near the end of the 18th century. The construction of the main house has been attributed to Walter Bowie Sr., who inherited the property in 1791. Walter Bowie Sr. had a large commercial tobacco shipping business in addition to nearly 1000 acres of land, with its associated structures such as his dwelling, tenant homes, slave housing, meat houses, outhouses, etc. The 1798 tax assessment lists 56 slaves as being owned by Bowie. Bowie’s son Walter Bowie Jr. built a major addition to the main house in the 1830s and reoriented the house façade so that it would look impressive from the entrance to the 1836 reconstructed Holy Trinity Episcopal Church across the street. The Bowies were parishioners of that church and those who lived at Willow Grove are buried in its churchyard.

After the Civil War, the Bowie family continued to operate a farm at the site, though by the end of the 19th century the size of the property was reduced to about 300 acres. Many of the former slaves stayed on the farm as tenants, and some of the tenants on the property are mentioned in the historical documents. For example, the 1900 census lists the white farm manager Thomas Simpson and his family, three black farm laborers named Joseph Fletcher, Robert Jackson, and John Hawkins and their families, and a black railroad worker named Benjamin Johnson, among others. Other freed slaves from area plantations settled in the nearby village of Collington.

The main dwelling on the farm was occupied well into the 20th century, but in a 1968 photo it appears to be abandoned. It stood until 1974 when it caught fire and was subsequently razed. Tenants also seem to have stayed on the property into the middle of the 20th century.

Archaeology

A Phase III data recovery was conducted on a 29.3-acre portion of Willow Grove prior to residential development. The data recovery focused on four areas that had been identified as potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places during Phase I and II testing. Locus 1 concentrated on the main house, its yard, and associated outbuildings such as the kitchen, ice house, meat house, blacksmith shop, well, tobacco barn, and frame garage. Locus 2 and Locus 3 both contained possible slave or overseer quarters turned tenant houses (Structures 2 and 4). Locus 4 concentrated on a late 19th-early 20th century probable tenant house (Structure 5).
    
References

The Willow Grove archaeological collection is owned by the Maryland Historical Trust and curated at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory.