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Cover's Tannery
Inventory No.:
CARR-1583
Date Listed:
9/27/2019
Location:
626 Francis Scott Key Highway (MD 194), Keymar, Carroll County
Category:
Buildings
Period/Date of Construction:
ca.1970 - ca.1930
Architect/Builder:
unknown
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Description:
Cover’s Tannery consists of a ca. 1790 log house with a ca. 1830 stone addition, a contemporaneous frame bank barn and frame summer kitchen, and a late 20th century garage. The house faces east toward the road and has a rubble stone foundation. It is a two-story log structure with five bays on the first story and four on the second story. The building is two bays deep. It is sheathed with beaded bottom edge weatherboards on the first story of the east elevation and plain weatherboards elsewhere. It has a gable roof with wood shakes and a northeast to southwest ridge. There is an interior brick chimney on each gable end. The east elevation on the first story has a center entrance with a wide door frame and a new door set in it. The doorway has been narrowed with infill on either side of the door. There are two 9/6 sash on either side of the door that are old but not original to this structure. They are set in mortised and tenoned and pegged frames that have ovolo backbands. The first story has a one story five bay porch that has recently been rebuilt to match the remains of the earlier porch. The four bays of the second story do not align with the openings of the first story. Each bay has a 6/6 sash set in a wide frame that has an ovolo backband; these frames do not appear to be pegged. On the southwest end, flush with the east elevation is a 1-1/2 story 2 bay by 1 bay wing of rubble stone. The east elevation of the wing has a 6/6 sash with head cut trim in the south bay and a new door in an original frame in the east bay. There is a wood box cornice and an interior brick chimney on the southwest gable end. The southwest elevation of the wing has a four-light sash set in a small opening to the west of the first story; there is a 6/6 sash in a new frame in the gable end south of the chimney. The west elevation of the wing has a new door in an original frame in the north bay and a 6/6 sash with new trim in the west bay. The roofing on this elevation is corrugated metal and there are three new skylights. The roof continues down at the same pitch to cover a porch across the entire west elevation of the wing. The north end of this porch has new weatherboard infill. On the west elevation of the main block, the first story is three bays wide, with a center entrance that has a beaded-edge-vertical-board door with a six-light sash set into it. The door frame is wide and has a cavetto-and-bead backband. There is a 6/6 sash to either side of the doorway and the frames match the door frame. There is a bulkhead cellar entrance below the north bay. On the second story the end bays have the same 6/6 sash and frames as the first story; there is no opening in the center bay. On the north elevation the first and second stories each have two 6/6 sash with replaced trim; the gable peak has two four-light sash. The first story has a center passage double pile plan. In the center passage the original front door jamb survives, the doorway is about 3ft 10" wide and on either side are pintel holes with small holes below them suggesting that originally double doors hung on rat-tail hinges. The passage has new flooring, new baseboard and new architraves. The walls are hand planed beaded-edge tongue-in-groove vertical board. The crown molding in the passage is a recent addition. The doorway to the southeast room had been widened at one point; it has been returned to its original width but relocated slightly east of its original position. The door in this doorway was moved here from between the southeast and southwest rooms. It is a six panel door hung on HL hinges that are original to the door. The door has a slide bolt and a ghost of a rimlock. The original opening from the passage to the southwest room has been closed; the door, similar to that described for the southwest room, is stored in the barn. Extant outbuildings include that bank barn, a frame summer kitchen, and a late-20th century two-car garage.
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Significance:
The Cover’s Tannery property is significant in that the house and barn are outstanding examples of regional vernacular architecture from the period 1790-1820. Both the house and barn reflect the influence of Germanic building traditions. The barn, with its siting in an excavated bank, projecting forebay, and heavy timber frame above a stone lower story, reflects a traditional form particularly associated with Germanic farmsteads in the Pennsylvania Culture Region. Dating from the early 19th century, it is an exceptionally early example of frame barn construction in central Maryland. The house similarly reflects Germanic influence in its log construction, wrought iron hardware, and interior plan, particularly on the second story which has survived largely unaltered. A noteworthy feature of the principal façade is the adaptation of the first floor to a symmetrical, five-bay, central entrance arrangement more characteristic of Anglo-American architecture in the period, while retaining the Germanic four-bay layout above. This may reflect a pattern of adaptation to the dominant culture in the region. The property derives historical significance for its association with the early industrial development of the region. Several small-scale tanneries operated in Carroll County in the nineteenth century. The surviving domestic/agricultural complex reflects the status of a successful tannery operator, who also derived a portion of his income from farming. The early 20th century milk house and concomitant alterations to the barn represent modern developments in dairy practice during that period. The Period of Significance, ca. 1790-ca. 1930, begins with the presumed construction date of the house and ends at a date by which the contributing elements had attained their historic form and appearance.
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