Centuries later, house search heats up

Long-vanished Calvert summer ‘refuge' is sought

Friday, Oct. 23, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Sara Greenwell, left and Alex Flick, students at St. Mary's College of Maryland, sift through dirt that was unearthed this summer at His Lordship's Favor, a spot on an 8,800-acre tract near the Zekiah Swamp in Waldorf that appears to be the site of a summer house built in 1673 by Charles Calvert. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Anthropologist Julia King is on a treasure hunt on land nestled deep in the Zekiah Swamp in Waldorf where she hopes to find definitive proof of a summer house built in 1673 by Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore and second proprietary governor of Maryland.

Zekiah Manor, also known as Zekiah House, was a simple wooden structure with a wood roof and brick chimney, King said. It might not sound elaborate to folks today, but the home was considered elite for the late 1600s, particularly since it was built in a densely forested area that was often used as a hideout by the Piscataway tribe when their enemies from the north, the Seneca and Susquehannock tribes, conducted raids in the area.

In fact, King said she is also searching for artifacts from Zekiah Fort that was supposed to be built somewhere on the 8,800-acre Zekiah Manor tract.

Calvert was in constant contact with his father, Cecil Calvert, who was the first Lord Baltimore until his death in England in 1675, King said. Letters Calvert wrote to his father indicated that he was building a "summer house" on the property and was also considering the construction of a brick house on the land for his son, known as "Little Cecil" Calvert. That house was never built, however, because the young man died when he was still a teenager, she said.

King, an associate professor of anthropology at St. Mary's College of Maryland, and a couple of students took a first look at the area where they believed Zekiah Manor once stood, known as His Lordship's Favor, last summer. They knew about where to begin their search for archaeological evidence of the summer house because of research Scott Strickland, a student at the college, conducted, King said.

"He came across this plat dated 1705 that indicated there was a house on the property with a brick chimney," she said, adding the house is gone but the group did find artifacts that supported the theory that a house once stood on the land.

The area is located in a wooded parcel just behind the Charles County landfill off Billingsley Road, King said, adding the property is owned by American Community Properties Trust, the developer of St. Charles. During the search of the property King and her students found a lot of bricks, window glass, ceramics and tobacco pipes that appear to be dated between 1699 and 1700.

The idea of Calvert deciding to build a summer house in Charles County is amazing, King said.

"Charles had been in Maryland since 1671 and he knew what Maryland was like," she said. "Charles County was pure frontier and a person had to do a lot of land clearing and settling to build a house. It was a lot of work to settle in Maryland. The idea of a summer house conjures up images of leisure and the elite but folks didn't have a lot of leisure time back then."

Calvert also complained to his father in one of his letters about the cost of building a house in Maryland — an observation that still holds a lot of weight today, King said.

"Charles complained to his father about how expensive it was to build a house in Maryland," she said.

Calvert appeared to never actually live in the summer house because he was called back to England for several years and American Indian raids conducted by tribes from the north made living in the area precarious, King said.

The archaeological dig at Zekiah Manor will continue next summer, King said, adding the project is possible because of funding provided by The Smallwood Foundation and Newburg residents Michael and Laura Sullivan.

"We're going back next summer," she said. "I'm looking forward to it."

Zekiah Manor is the third major archaeological project being conducted in Charles County, King said. The Sullivans and King also spearheaded the Moore's Lodge project near La Plata last summer after research revealed that it was the site of the county's first courthouse, King said. So far, nearly 2,000 artifacts have been unearthed at the site, which is owned by the Xavier Garner family, she said.

"It's a great project," she said. "The family welcomed us with open arms. It's farm property and the family has no plans to develop it. They are providing the best stewardship of the property."

Meanwhile, the Port Tobacco project is in full swing, said James Gibb of Gibb Archaeological Consulting in Annapolis. The project, begun a couple of years ago, has so far unearthed 125,000 prehistoric and Colonial artifacts in the village of Port Tobacco, he said.

The Zekiah Manor dig will surely reveal another important chapter in Charles County's history, Gibb said.

"It's certainly a neat project," he said. "There are several sites that are really important to Maryland's history that people have known about for centuries but we don't know exactly where they are and one of them is the summer house of Gov. Calvert. I would think that the summer house of a governor would be hard to lose but we lost it."

Folks in Colonial times viewed the rural areas of Charles County, particularly the Zekiah Swamp, as safe places during troubled times, Gibb said.

"When you look at the Zekiah Swamp today it's hard to believe that some of the Colony's elite thought of it as a place of refuge," he said.

The archaeological projects now underway in the county are great tourism draws, said Donna Dudley, the county's chief of tourism.

"It's wonderful that we're having such a buzz in the county about archaeology," she said.

"We're finding so many new things. It's encouraging that these projects have created a new wave of interest in Charles County."

King said she is delighted to be embarking on the Zekiah Manor project and is hopeful that it will uncover more clues about the county's history.

nmcconaty@somdnews.com

Dig into history

Folks who are interested in volunteering for an archaeological dig this summer to search for artifacts connected with Zekiah Manor that was built in 1673 by Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore and second proprietary governor of Maryland, can call Julia King, associate professor of anthropology at St. Mary's College, at 240-895-4398.