Haslup/Burns House (18HO266)

The Haslup/Burns House site (18HO266) is a mid-19th to mid-20th-century farmstead east of Savage in Howard County. A minor prehistoric component is also present. The site overlooks an unnamed tributary of the Little Patuxent River.

18HO266 is associated historically with the Haslup family. They began acquiring land in the vicinity of the site by 1796, when William Haslup purchased a tract along what is today US Route 1 in the town of Savage. The family bought and sold other nearby parcels throughout the 19th century. In 1843, Charles Haslup, grandson of William, inherited the tract encompassing 18HO266, and it stayed in the family until it was purchased by the Maryland State Highway Administration in 1978. Charles likely constructed a house within several years of his inheritance, if not before. Census records from 1850 to 1870 indicate it was home of Charles and his wife Mary, their 11 children, and various slaves, servants, and live-in housekeepers with their own children. The Haslup Cemetery (18HO118), southeast of 18HO266, contains the remains of Charles and his descendants. After Charles’ death in 1876, his son James eventually acquired the property. In 1888 he sold a small parcel containing 18HO266 to his sister Ann Louise Burns. She and her husband Charles built a new house in 1908, but the documents don’t indicate if this was at the exact location of the earlier structure. Through the rest of the 20th century, the house was a residence at various times for Burns family descendants or tenants who rented it. It burned down in the 1960s or early 1970s.

The site was first recorded archaeologically in 2005, when the presence of a stone house foundation and three smaller foundations was noted. In 2010, Phase I and II investigations were conducted in advance of construction for the Savage Volunteer Fire Department. Phase I work consisted of surface collection and the excavation of 70 shovel test pits. The artifacts recovered indicated a residential occupation dating from the mid-19th to mid-20th century.

During the Phase II study, 43 additional shovel test pits and 12 test units were excavated, one portion of the site (Feature 5, an artifact scatter) was surface collected, and the foundations visible at the surface were mapped. The investigations identified four structural features, two discrete artifact concentrations, and 18 smaller features. Most features consisted of pipe alignments passing under and behind the house, or interior structural features (such as a chimney base and an interior wall). All appear to date to the early 20th century or later, and therefore associated with the period of the 1908 house. Archaeological evidence for the earlier house was limited to a handful of artifacts found in mixed contexts. Feature 1 was the foundation for the main house, while Features 2 and 5 were related to a small 20th century tenant house also located on the property. Features 3 and 4 were the foundations of unidentified outbuildings.

The Phase II investigations did not identify any 19th-century features or unmixed artifact assemblages. The 20th-century material was mostly in the upper A horizon, and the few prehistoric artifacts recovered came from mixed contexts. Therefore, 18HO266 was not considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

(Edited from the Maryland Historical Trust Synthesis Project)