Big Bottom Farm is a farm in

Allegany County, Maryland Allegany County is located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 68,106. Its county seat is Cumberland. The name ''Allegany'' may come from a local Lenape word, ''welhik hane'' or '' ...

, USA on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

house was built ''circa'' 1845, possibly by John Jacob Smouse, and exhibits a level of historically accurate detailing unusual for the area. The property includes a late 19th-century barn and several frame outbuildings.

History

Located in the town of

Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

, Big Bottom Farm's central farmhouse was built in the mid-19th century by John Jacob Smouse, whose family owned land in the county around Evitt's Creek.

Description

Big Bottom farm includes a number of farm buildings dating from the 19th century and early 20th century. The oldest of these is the brick farmhouse itself, built with a number of features influenced by

architecture. It has two stories, five bays, and a gable roof, with a two floor extension in the rear with two additional bays. A later extension added on this rear wing added a third bay. The front of the building is decorated with

Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and Mortar (masonry), mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''Course (architecture), courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks ...

brickwork, with a centerpiece Greek Revival-influenced porch over a first floor door. A door from the second floor opens onto the top of the porch. This porch has fluted Doric columns, a dentiled cornice, and an iron railing surrounding its flat roof. It shades a four-panel door edged by transom and sidelights. There was likely a two-story porch on the rear extension as well when the house was originally built, but it has since been enclosed. The windows are 6/6 sash and have louvered shutters. Each gable end of the building is topped by a brick chimney. Inside, it has a central stair hall with a large room to either side, and is decorated with mid-19th-century Greek Revival woodwork, consisting largely of symmetrical molding, fluted in the main parlor, with mantles of flat pilasters supporting deep shelves. Aside from the farmhouse, the farm includes a late 19th-century barn, a machinery shed, a corn crib, a wash house, and two chicken coops.

Significance

The Farm was listed on the

in 1984. The core structure of its farmhouse is typical of farmhouses in western Maryland, but the Greek Revival touches make it unique among such buildings in Allegany County. Its detailing is largely intact.

References

External links

*, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses completed in 1845 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses in Allegany County, Maryland Buildings and structures in Cumberland, Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Allegany County, Maryland