Sunnyside is a historic home located in Aquasco,

Prince George's County Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it the second-most populous ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is a five

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

wide two-story frame house with a center hall and north and south parlors, facing east on a brick foundation. The building dates to 1844. The main block of the house is a fine example of a mid-19th century

I-house The I-house is a vernacular architecture, vernacular house type, popular in the United States from the colonial period onward. The I-house was so named in the 1930s by Fred Kniffen, a cultural geographer at Louisiana State University who was a sp ...

, and possesses a great deal of intact original fabric. The significance of the property is enhanced by the 18th century wing, in good repair and possessing its original

hearth A hearth () is the place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by a horizontal hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos (a low, partial ...

with iron fittings. The house and outbuildings are well preserved examples of

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

southern Maryland Southern Maryland, also referred to as SoMD, is a geographical, cultural and historic region in Maryland composed of the state's southernmost counties on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. According to the state of Maryland, the region incl ...

architecture dating from the 18th through the mid 19th century. Sunnyside is also significant for its association with its builder, Dr. Michael Jenifer Stone (II) (1804-1877). Descendants of Dr. Stone inhabited the property through 1980. Dr. Stone, prominent in the Aquasco community and in Prince George's County, was the son of

Michael Jenifer Stone Michael Jenifer Stone (1747 – 1812) was an Americans, American planter and statesman from Charles County, Maryland. He represented Maryland in the United States House of Representatives. Early life and education Stone was born to David a ...

, a member of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, and nephew of

Thomas Stone Thomas Stone (1743 – October 5, 1787) was an American Founding Father, planter, politician, and lawyer who signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a delegate for Maryland. He later worked on the committee that formed the Arti ...

, a signer of the

United States Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America in the original printing, is the founding document of the United States. On July 4, 1776, it was adopted unanimously by the Second Continen ...

. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1987.

References

External links

*, including photo in 1986, at Maryland Historical Trust website
virtual tour of Sunnyside
Houses in Prince George's County, Maryland Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses completed in 1844 I-houses Stone family residences National Register of Historic Places in Prince George's County, Maryland Jenifer family {{PrinceGeorgesCountyMD-NRHP-stub