Photo credit:
Christopher Weeks, 10/2000
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Berkley Crossroads Historic District
Inventory No.:
HA-1212
Date Listed:
7/17/2003
Location:
Berkeley Road & Castleton Road (MD 623), Darlington vic., Harford County
Category:
District
Period/Date of Construction:
c. 1752-c. 1925
Resources:
38 (37 contributing, 0 non-contributing)
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Description:
The Berkley Crossroads Historic District is a small rural crossroads community dating from the late 18th century through the early 20th century. The entire area is agricultural in nature, and is comprised mostly of two- and three-story residences. The earliest structures, dating from the late 18th and early 19th century are of log construction, in whole or in part. The Rigbie House and the McNutt House are existing examples of the construction of that period, one owned by one of the wealthiest men in the colony (Rigbie House) and the other a one-room log cabin. Several of the African-American early and mid-19th century houses still stand, including the earliest, the original Peca/Paca site. The 19th and early 20th century houses are clapboard with a predominance of slate roofs mined from the nearby Peach Bottom slate quarries. The late-19th century houses gave gentle nods to the Victorian period with high-pitched roofs and discreet scrolling and "gingerbread." Many of the large houses in Berkley were used as summer homes for Quakers from Philadelphia and Baltimore. The tenants stayed year round to maintain and work the farms. In the centuries before the construction of the Conowingo Dam in 1924 and the resultant broadening of the Susquehanna River (creating Conowingo Lake), Berkley would have been viewed as a community elevated high above the banks of the river, serving as the last major crossroads before crossing the Susquehanna by ford, boat, ferry, or bridge. Pre-dam access via Bekrley Road (old U.S. Route 1), which connected with the Pennsylvania Railroad at the Conowingo Station on the east bank of the river, resulted in the growth of activity and commerce at the Berkley Crossroads, including the Berkley Driving Park, a popular race track constructed by State Senator Charles A. Andrew; Oliver Thomas's blacksmith and wagon building shop, and later, a Ford dealership and gas station. A general store remained open until the 1960s, and the Berkley Post Office located in the General Store closed in 1923. There was also a feed and grain store, and close to the river were found the Towpath Tea House, a tanbark factory, a flint mill, a paper mill, and other industries. A free African-American community with land ownership can be traced to the late 18th and early 19th century with continued residence until today with the Hosanna AME Church continuing to thrive as it did in the mid 19th century and the Hosanna School standing as a testimonial museum to the education of Berkley's African-American citizens until the mid 1940s.
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Significance:
The Berkley Crossroads is significant as a representative example of a type of crossroads community that characterized rural Maryland from the 18th century through the early 20th. It is one of the few remaining rural crossroads in Harford County. It derives additional significance from the breadth and depth of its documented social and economic history--as an important 19th century Free Black community, and for its association with the development of transportation and commerce throughout the region.
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District Resources
(38) (37 contributing, 0 non-contributing)
From associated listing in National Register nomination form. C = Contributing, NC = non-contributing, blank = not evaluated.
| Berkley Road | C | HA-1030 -- Thomas House |
| 3639 Berkley Road | C | HA-1029 -- Berkley Store |
| 3704 Berkley Road | C | |
| 3705 Berkley Road | C | |
| 3707 Berkley Road | C | |
| 3708 Berkley Road | C | |
| 3709 Berkley Road | C | |
| 3711 Berkley Road | C | |
| 3714 Berkley Road | C | HA-1031 -- John Mackleveny House |
| 3722 Berkley Road | C | |
| 3726 Berkley Road | C | |
| 3730 Berkley Road | C | |
| 3734 Berkley Road | C | |
| Berkley Road and Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-1028 -- Howard-McNutt Log House |
| 2317 Castleton Road | C | HA-208 -- Red Gate |
| 2317 Castleton Road | C | Barn/Carriage House |
| 2328 Castleton Road | C | |
| 2330 Castleton Road | C | |
| 2332 Castleton Road | C | |
| 2334 Castleton Road | C | |
| 2336 Castleton Road | C | |
| 2338 Castleton Road | C | |
| 2339 Castleton Road | C | |
| 2400 Castleton Road | C | Barn |
| 2408 Castleton Road | C | |
| 2409 Castleton Road | C | |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-209 -- Cooley House |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-175 -- Swallowfield |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-361 -- Swallowfield Springhouse |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-359 -- Swallowfield Ice House |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-360 -- Swallowfield Barn |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-362 -- Swallowfield Smokehouse |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-4 -- Rigbie House |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-211 -- Hosanna Church |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | Hosanna Church Cemetery |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-1044 -- John Clark Tenant House |
| 2424 Castleton Road (MD 623) | C | HA-210 -- Berkley School (Hosanna School) |
| Castleton Road (MD 623) | | HA-1043 -- Berkley Chapel (Curtis Byrd House) |
