Building Description Bowieville - Robert Bowie House, Leeland Maryland

Bowieville has a large, rectangular, two-story main block, five bays wide (four, at rear) and three bays deep, with a low hipped roof. To the east side is a lower two-story, two-bay-by-three-bay, gable-roofed kitchen wing. The facade has a central entry pavilion with a gable front. To either side of the pavilion are two large windows. The rear has a large, bowed porch supported by Doric columns. There are only four bays across the rear, the middle two with wooden paneled, jib-doors that open out for access to the porch from the rear parlors.

Floor plans

First floor:
To the center front of the main block is an entry hall with a doorway to either side and two ahead on the rear wall. The west side doorway opens up into a library with a fireplace at the west exterior wall. The east side doorway opens onto the enclosed stairhall. East of this is a doorway connecting the main house with the wing. The doorway to the west side of the north rear wall opens into the large northwest parlor and the doorway to the west opens into the northeast parlor. These two parlors are adjoined by a large doorway with pocket doors and an elliptical fanlight. Both rooms have fireplaces to the center of the exterior walls. Each of these rooms also includes one of the windows with wood-panel, jib doors which open onto the rear porch.

In the northeast room on the east wall, north of the fireplace is a doorway into the wing, which enters into the current kitchen. To its east wall, in the northeast corner, is a door into a stairway. The stair leads to an outside entry, at the landing, and then turns and continues down to the cellar. Returning to the kitchen, there is a doorway in the southeast corner into a pantry area. Through this is the front room of the wing, the dining room, connecting on the west side with a hallway. On the north side of the hall is the back stairway. On the west side is a bathroom and a short hall to an outside entry.

Second floor:
The second floor follows the same plan with bedrooms over the first-floor rooms. At the top of the stair is an enclosed hall with a doorway to either side. The doorway to the east leads into the bedrooms over the service wing (kitchen, dining and pantry) and the doorway to the west leads into a square hall as at the first-floor entry. Off of this hall, which is lit by a tripartite window, are three bedrooms. There are two large bedrooms over the twin parlors and one smaller bedroom over the library to the front. In the service wing are two smaller bedrooms and a bath and linen storage area (built-in drawers).

Third floor:
The stair rises all the way to the third story where there is a room to either side of the stairway, towards the rear of the house. There is also a trap door onto the roof where there is a flat, balustraded widow's walk.

Cellar:
From the cellar stair, there is a long hall along the rear wall. There is a doorway to the immediate south into what was probably the original, and/or summer, kitchen with a large cooking fireplace. There are a couple of closets and a workroom to the west of it. At the end of the cellar hall is a double doorway into a large utility room where the furnace is located, with another utility room off of it.