Archaeologists uncovered the remains of a small wooden house on a hill near this spot.

This two-room house was built in the early 1900s using hand-hewn timbers that may have come from an earlier structure. It was heated by a woodstove.

Thomas and Alice Brown, a young African American couple, and their children were the last people to live in the house in the early 1940s. We do not know who lived here before, but the house may have belonged to tenant farmers, sharecroppers, or laborers who worked the Sellmans’ land.

Meet the Browns

Thomas and Alice Brown and their children lived in this house in the early 1940s.

From census records, we know that Thomas had previously worked as a laborer at a private residence and went on to become a janitor for the Naval Academy Athletic Association in Annapolis. Alice later worked as a cook, maid, and nanny for the Kirkpatrick-Howat family at Woodlawn House. She was a skilled cook and contributed recipes to The Maryland’s Way Cookbook, published in 1986.

Members of the Brown family still live in the area today.

OUTLINE OF THE BROWN FAMILY HOUSE

Image above: A topographical map shows the outline of the Brown family’s house, including the locations of windows, doors, and brick piers.

Image above: Years of traffic by people, animals, and vehicles has created sunken roads, like Contees Wharf Road, pictured here. (Courtesy of Christine Dunham)

What did archaeologists find here?
Archaeologists found bricks and hand-hewn timbers at this site as well as agricultural tools and food storage artifacts. These remnants help paint a picture of what the house may have looked like.
Right image: The site of the Brown family’s house during excavation.

Tied to the Land

This house originally may have belonged to a tenant farmer, sharecropper, or laborer. 

After the Civil War, many former slaves continued to work on land owned by wealthy white families, like the Sellmans. They often worked the land in exchange for a share of the crop. Unpredictable harvests and high interest rates made it difficult to make a profit. Many found themselves tied to the land and forced to work off their debt, a situation little better than slavery.
Above right image: A sharecropper family in Alabama, 1937 (Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-USF34-025385-D)
Right image: Farm laborers harvesting tobacco with oxen.
Image below: Many wooden dwellings once dotted the surrounding farm fields. In 1880, there were at least ten structures housing multiple large families on the Sellman farm.