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Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm

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Coordinates: 38°48′17″N 77°00′43″W / 38.8046°N 77.01182°W / 38.8046; -77.01182
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Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Map showing the location of Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm
Map showing the location of Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm
Map of the United States
Map showing the location of Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm
Map showing the location of Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm
Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm (Maryland)
LocationPrince George's County, Maryland, US
Nearest cityOxon Hill, Maryland
Coordinates38°48′17″N 77°00′43″W / 38.8046°N 77.01182°W / 38.8046; -77.01182
Established1959
Governing bodyNational Park Service
Oxon Cove Park
Oxon Hill Farm, December 2010
LocationGovernment Farm Rd., Oxon Hill, Maryland
Area289 acres (117 ha)
Architectural styleItalianate, et al.
NRHP reference No.03000869[1]
Added to NRHPSeptember 02, 2003

Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Cove Farm is a national historic district in Prince George's County, Maryland and Washington, D.C. operated by the National Park Service as part of National Capital Parks-East. It includes a living farm museum located at Oxon Hill in the Maryland portion of the park.

The park is a resource for environmental studies, wildlife observing, fishing, and other recreational activities made possible by easy access to the Potomac River. Fourteen buildings and two structures are located in the historic district and associated with the property's sequential development as a plantation, an institutional agricultural complex, and a farm museum.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.[1]

History

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Oxon Cove Park was formed in 1967, under the authority of the Capper-Cramton Act of 1930 when the land was transferred to the National Park Service for educational purposes.

Before European settlers arrived, the Piscataway Indian people were farming land along the Potomac River in the area.

From the late 17th century to the early 19th century, the farm was owned by John Addison and his descendants who grew tobacco, oats and corn on the land using enslaved people to do so. Part of the estate was known as Oxon Hill Manor at the time.

In 1811, Dr. Samuel DeButts, a native of Ireland bought part of the Addison property and renamed it Mount Welby in honor of his wife's family and he held onto the land until 1843 when his heirs sold it. He oversaw a diversified farm through the practice of slavery.[2]

During the rest of the 19th century the land changed hands many times until the federal government bought it, and an adjoining 100 acres, in 1891 as a farm to provide food for patients at nearby St. Elizabeths Hospital. Farming ended in the 1950s and the land was then transferred to the NPS in 1967. For some time it was known as the Oxon Hill Children's Farm.[3]

In 1937 the District of Columbia began using much of the park's land outside of the farm, on both the DC and Maryland sections, as a disposal area and landfill. They filled the site with dredged sediments from Oxon Cove and the Potomac River channel, excess soil and construction materials from the construction of I-295 and the Metrorail system, and sludge/solids from the nearby Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant.[4] Prior to the landfill operations, the northern area consisted of undeveloped wetlands and open water known as Oxon Bay, and the eastern area consisted of agricultural fields and wetlands. In 1969, the District transitioned landfilling operations from the Kenilworth Park Landfill to the Oxon Cove Landfill. From October 1969 to June 1972, the District disposed of approximately 1,500,000 tons of municipal waste and 275,000 tons of incinerator ash in the Park. During this time, the District also disposed of sludge generated at the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant. They stopped using it as landfill, after they were ordered by the courts to stop, in early July 1972.[5][6][7]

Shortly after the dump was closed, NPS began to build a long-planned golf course on the site.[8]

Over the years, the DC portion of the park has been considered for the golf course, as a composting facility for the Blue Plains Water Treatment facility, a swamp gas well and a women's prison but it has been mostly idle.[9][10][11]

In the 1990s the Park service built a 3.9 mile paved trail around the park and connected to DC via a bridge across Oxon Creek built in the 1980s.[12]

Oxon Hill Farm

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The Oxon Hill Farm includes the Mount Welby home, Farm Museum, barns, a stable, feed building, livestock buildings and a visitor activity barn. Farm animals include cows, horses and chickens. Visitors can view the animals up close daily and learn about the workings of a farm. The Farm Museum building displays historical farm equipment dating from the late 19th century.

The district also includes a hexagonal frame outbuilding; c. 1830 brick root cellar; c. 1973 frame hog house; c. 1890 frame horse and pony barn; c. 1991 frame chicken house; c. 1970 steel-frame implement shed; c. 1980 frame visitor barn; c. 1970 steel-frame windmill; c. 1940 frame hay barn; c. 1890 frame feed building; c. 1830 brick stable; c. 1970 frame tool shed; c. 1980 frame "sorghum sirip" shed; and a c. 1980 frame dairy barn, and c. 1940 tile silo. From the 1890s to 1950s, under the ownership of St. Elizabeth's Hospital, the site was used as a therapeutic treatment center for the mentally ill known as Godding Croft. The Oxon Cove Farm historic district is located on the crest of a ridge overlooking the Potomac River, north of I-95 and very close to National Harbor.[13]

Mount Welby

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The principal dwelling, known as "Mount Welby," is a c. 1807–1811 two-story three-bay brick structure laid in Flemish bond with Italianate detailing and sheltered by a shed roof, and visible to motorists crossing the interstate Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The house was built by Irish immigrant Dr. Samuel DeButts. It was entrusted to the National Park Service in 1959 in order to protect its resources from increased development.[14] From 1891 to 1950, the property was used as a therapeutic farm by St. Elizabeths Hospital, and was known as Godding Croft.

The house is operated as a historic house museum, with exhibits about period life in the early 19th century for the owners and slaves on the plantation. Other exhibits focus on the home's role at Godding Croft.

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  • NPS Official "Oxon Hill Farm / Oxon Cove Park Fall View," November 2008
    NPS Official "Oxon Hill Farm / Oxon Cove Park Fall View," November 2008
  • Mt. Welby and Root Cellar, December 2010
    Mt. Welby and Root Cellar, December 2010
  • Mt. Welby, December 2010
    Mt. Welby, December 2010
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ "Foundation Document Overview Oxon Cove Park" (PDF). Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  3. ^ "Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm". The historical marker Database. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  4. ^ Mitchell, Grayson (February 18, 1973). "Truckers Running Out of Dump Sites". The Washington Post.
  5. ^ "Oxon Cove Landfill Environmental Cleanup". Retrieved January 27, 2025.
  6. ^ "D.C. to Stop Dumping At Oxon Cove by 1972". The Washington Post. April 28, 1972.
  7. ^ Scharfenberg, Kirk (July 4, 1972). "New Incinerator 5 Delayed, City to Use Oxon Cove 9 Days". The Washington Post.
  8. ^ "Sludge Odors Causing a Stink". The Washington Post. December 1, 1973.
  9. ^ Hodge, Paul (January 6, 1977). "Trying to cope wiith a 600-ton-a-day sludge problem, naturally". The Washington Post.
  10. ^ Thompson, Cheryl W. (October 8, 1998). "Prison Company Assailed". The Washington Post.
  11. ^ Hodge, Paul (December 6, 1979). "Park Service Hopes to Tap Gas 'Lakes' Under Garbage Dumps". The Washington Post.
  12. ^ Hodge, Paul (January 14, 1993). "New Bike Trail Within Va. Riders' Reach". The Washington Post.
  13. ^ Kathryn Kuranda; Hugh McAloon & Michelle Moran (September 1994). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Oxon Cove Farm" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  14. ^ Oxon Cove Park: History & Culture
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