Melford is a historic

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...

located on the grounds of the Maryland Science and Technology Center, near the intersection of U.S. Route 301 and

U.S. Route 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic ...

, at Bowie,

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 ...

. The house is multi-part,

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

-roofed, brick and stone dwelling house constructed probably in the mid-late 1840s, with elements of the

Greek Revival Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...

style.

History

The land that made up the Melford plantation was part of a tract, originally called Howerton's Range which was a 400-acre parcel that John Howerton obtained in 1670. It is part of

and had historically been inhabited by the

Piscataway people The Piscataway or Piscatawa , are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They spoke Algonquian Piscataway, a regional dialect similar to Nanticoke. The neighboring Haudenosaunee, called them the Conoy, with whom they partly me ...

, an

Algonquin language Algonquin (also spelled Algonkin; in Algonquin: or ) is either a distinct Algonquian languages, Algonquian language closely related to the Ojibwe language or a particularly divergent Ojibwe language dialects, Ojibwe dialect. It is spoken, alon ...

speaking tribe, as well as the Patuxent people and other Native American groups. Melford was built by Dr. Richard Duckett in 1810, replacing a previous structure. Dr. Richard Duckett was the brother of Allen Bowie Duckett, and the son of Thomas Duckett, who in 1796 was judge of the Prince George's County Court, and one of the principal slaveholders in the area.Thomas, William G. ''Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation's Founding to the Civil War''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022, p. 75. Melford 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 1988.

Grounds

The grounds include three outbuildings: a three-bay gable-roofed slave quarter probably dating from the 18th century; a pyramidal-roofed meat house also dating from the late 18th century; and a 20th-century pyramidal-roofed pump house. The landscape consists of terraced gardens, falling away from the house on three levels. Melford was home for 140 years to two prominent local families, the Ducketts and the Hardestys.

References

External links

*, including photo in 1974, at Maryland Historical Trust website
Melford, Crain Highway (U.S. Route 301), Mitchellville, Prince George's County, MD
25 photos and 13 data pages, at

Historic American Buildings Survey The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

Melford, Slave House, Mitchellville, Prince George's County, MD
1 photo and 1 data page, at Historic American Buildings Survey
Melford, Smokehouse, Mitchellville, Prince George's County, MD
1 photo and 1 data page, at Historic American Buildings Survey Historic American Buildings Survey in Maryland Houses in Prince George's County, Maryland Buildings and structures in Bowie, Maryland Greek Revival houses in Maryland Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Plantation houses in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Prince George's County, Maryland Plantations in Maryland {{PrinceGeorgesCountyMD-NRHP-stub