Cedar Park is a historic home at Galesville,

Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, whi ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It was originally constructed in 1702 as a -story post-in-the-ground structure, with hand-hewn timbers and riven

clapboards Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

and chimneys at either end, the earliest surviving earthfast constructed dwelling in Maryland and Virginia. Later additions and modifications, in 1736 and in the early 19th century, resulted in the brick structure of today. Also on the property is a frame tenant house or slave quarters of the mid-19th century. It was the birthplace and home of

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

John Francis Mercer John Francis Mercer (May 17, 1759 – August 30, 1821) was an American lawyer, planter, and politician from Virginia and Maryland, who served as Maryland's governor, as well as terms in the Continental Congress (representing Virginia), U.S. Hou ...

, and between 1825 and 1834 it was an academy for young women operated by his daughter,

Margaret Mercer Margaret Mercer (July 1, 1791September 17, 1846) was an American abolitionist and educator. She worked to end slavery and freed the Maryland slaves that she inherited from her father, sending six of them to Africa. Mercer started a school and a c ...

, as "Miss Mercer's School." Cedar Park was listed 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 ...

in 1969.

References

External links

*, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust * Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses in Anne Arundel County, Maryland Historic American Buildings Survey in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Anne Arundel County, Maryland 1702 establishments in Maryland Slave cabins and quarters in the United States Homes of United States Founding Fathers {{AnneArundelCountyMD-NRHP-stub