Woodlawn Manor Cultural Park, Maryland

Woodlawn Manor Cultural Park was a historic farm in Montgomery County, Maryland. Doctor William Palmer built the house in the early 1800s and ran a farm here. The family also ran a boarding school for a while. Francis Scott Key, writer of the American National Anthem, visited several times since his daughter was enrolled there. The construction of the manor house follows the Federal style popular then. Tours are available on the weekends, but I visited on a weekday. 

Woodlawn Manor

A double side porch!

The back of the house

Lawn with gazebo but not much wood

Fairly soon after building the manor house, Dr. Palmer had the Stone Barn constructed. It is a large, multi-level structure that houses the on-site museum (which was also closed). It is one of the most impressive barns in the area.

Stone Barn

The back of the barn

Another view of the back

Several of the minor outer buildings are still extant. A smaller stone structure, thought to be a springhouse or meat house, is just behind the manor house. Possibly it served as the kitchen back in the days when a hot and hazardous kitchen was kept separate from the main house, to prevent summer overheating and the spread of a fire. 

Too small to be another barn

A board and batten tenant house and a log building may have served for the school and for the enslaved farm workers. The tenant house has a statue nearby. "The Inner Light" by Marcia Billig is a bronze sculpture installed in 1988. A Quaker woman holds a child up who has a bird landing on his upheld hand. 

Two nearby structures

"The Inner Light"

The carriage house has been turned into the visitor center for the property. Happily, the bathrooms were open to the public even if the center wasn't!

Carriage house

The property is part of the Rachel Carson Greenway. 

Rachel Carson Greenway sign

This particular part of the greenway is also the Underground Railroad Experience Trail, which we visited a while ago (see the blog post). The nearby town of Sandy Spring had large Quaker and African-American populations. Thanks to their religion, most Quakers freed their slaves, resulting in a large free Black community in the area. African Americans owned and worked on farms, ran schools and churches, even the local Odd Fellows Lodge. All of this made the area a natural path for escaped slaves to find assistance on their way North to freedom. 

Underground Railroad Experience Trail

The Montgomery Police department have a training facility here as well. There are no visiting hours there!

The forbidden zone