Barleywood, Charles Town West Virginia
Among the earliest settlers in what became known as the "Opeckan (Opequon) settlement" of the Northern Neck proprietary of Virginia were a number of Quakers from New Jersey and Pennsylvania "meetings." The Hopewell Friends Meeting was officially established in 1734 as more emigrants petitioned their home meetings to transfer to Hopewell in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Fed by the "Great Waggon Road," leading from Pennsylvania through Maryland and into Virginia, the lower Shenandoah Valley became a melting pot of Quakers, Pennsylvania Germans, and the sons of English plantation owners on the by then-overpopulated eastern lands of Maryland and Virginia.
The settlers of German descent brought with them a heritage of grain culture. Those that ventured westward from the tidewater region into the mountain and valley region maintained their tidewater tobacco roots but quickly adjusted to more general production including wheat rather than tobacco as the primary cash crop. Such a conversion was probably not as radical as it might appear. Tidewater plantation owners grew a variety of grain and fruit crops in addition to tobacco. Early land leases, which often required at least 100 apple trees be planted in addition to the construction of houses, tobacco barns, and fencing, reveal the importance attached to the cultivation of apple and other fruit trees.
Through the 1750s and 1760s, George Washington, with plantations in Fairfax County on the Potomac River and elsewhere, as well as in Frederick County on Bullskin Run, left detailed accounts of his various crops, preferring corn in particular to feed his slave labor force. George and his half-brother Lawrence began purchasing land on Bullskin Run in then Frederick County, Virginia as early as 1750, and were joined by John A. Washington by 1755 (Lawrence died in 1752). Although throughout the year of 1760 Washington recorded deliveries of "Mountain Tobacco" from his Bullskin plantation, by 1766 and 1768, he claimed "that he raised no tobacco at all except at his dower plantations on the York River..."
Following the interruptions of the French and Indian War, westward settlement continued on the farms of the upper Potomac and lower Shenandoah Rivers. By 1772, when Berkeley County was carved from Frederick County, the extensive Washington plantations dominated the county's agriculture. George Washington's Bullskin plantation, centered on the Rock Hall manor house, and John A. Washington's Prospect Hill were soon followed by their brother's estates. Samuel Washington established himself at Harewood around 1770, eventually acquiring 3,800 acres, and Charles Washington built his Happy Retreat in 1780 and soon thereafter established the adjoining town of Charlestown (Charles Town today). The large Washington plantations were eventually subdivided as ensuing generations matured, but the tradition of building and naming an elegant manor house at the center of these smaller estates continued. Samuel Washington's Harewood had as many as six later manor houses including Barleywood, Locust Hill, Megwillie, Sulgrave, Richwood Hall, and Cedar Lawn.
Like many of their Virginia neighbors, the Washington farms were largely dependent on slave labor, but by the late 18th Century had begun to shift more to production of grains than tobacco. In 1785, Washington listed among his crops "barley, clover, corn, carrots, cabbage, flax, millet, oats, orchard grass, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, rye, spelt, turnips, timothy, and wheat." Thomas Jefferson, in his "Notes on the State of Virginia" speculated that climate change and soil depletion were the catalysts for the decline of tobacco in Virginia and Maryland:
Increased demand for wheat in Europe and the West Indies, dramatic fluctuations in tobacco prices, soil depletion from the demands of the tobacco plant (requiring large tracts of land for continuous rotation), difficulties in transportation of the bulky leaf product, as well as the influence of Pennsylvania German farmers all played into the development of grain, primarily wheat, as the cash crop of choice for western settlement farmers. However, throughout the second half of the 13th century, tobacco continued to be central to the Virginia economy, and was grown from the eastern shore to the western mountains.
Wheat and corn, and to a lesser extent rye and oats, were processed into flour and meal, or distilled into whiskey. By the last decade of the 18th Century, the region was active with grist and flour mills along nearly every waterway and stills on most farms. Frederick County, Maryland, located east of Berkeley County, Virginia, was representative of the region with as many as 80 gristmills and 300-400 stills reported. By 1810, Jefferson County, Virginia, a much smaller county carved from Berkeley County in 1801, numbered 31 mills along its waterways according to the map drawn by Charles Varle. These industries show the dominance of grain production through the high number of mills and stills and the degree to which the area had developed marketable finished goods. By 1810, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland led the nation in flour production.
These commodities were shipped to markets in Alexandria, Virginia, Annapolis and Baltimore in Maryland, and to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Shipping from the Shenandoah Valley and the grain-growing regions of west-central Maryland and Pennsylvania was a problem, and hindered the growth and prosperity associated with grain production. But as the century and settlement progressed, although wagon roads, fords and ferries remained the standard, river transport, the traditional form on which transportation in the tidewater counties of both Maryland and Virginia was based, was seen as essential for economic advancement. George Washington, whose western Virginia land would certainly have benefited from such improvements, sought advice and suggestions from colleagues, prominent landholders, and iron furnace operators along the Potomac River. The Revolutionary War severely slowed the transportation improvement progress, but by the 1780s the shift from "Waggon roads" to the Potomac River as a primary artery was in full swing, and the Potomack Navigation Company was officially incorporated in 1785.
The trend toward more wheat production by 18th-century farmers in the Shenandoah Valley was justified by greater profits. The American Revolution drastically reduced the export of Virginia tobacco to its primarily British markets. At the same time, foreign markets for wheat were growing. By the 1790s, land sale advertisements in the region rarely mentioned tobacco, but often included references such as, "a good mill seat," or "particularly adapted to raising heavy grain." The dominance of grain continued in the Shenandoah Valley into the 19th Century, ultimately resulting in its designation during the Civil War as "the Granary of the Confederacy."
In 1864, the Shenandoah Valley was devastated by Union General Philip Sheridan's "Valley Campaign." In October of that year, Sheridan reported to General Grant, "I have destroyed over 2,000 barns filled with wheat; have driven in front of the army over 4,000 head of stock, and have killed and issued to the troops not less than 3,000 sheep." Less than a year later, the Civil War was over, but difficulty recovering the region's grain culture dominance lingered. Throughout the 1860s and into the 1870s the railroads, once the savior of mid-Atlantic farmers, spread across the prime farming regions to the west. Soon these same railroads were bringing grain from the west to the eastern markets and lowering grain prices.
It was this competition that encouraged experimentation with alternative commercial agricultural production. In the west-central counties of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and in the panhandle counties of West Virginia, the combination of the soils, water, and climate were long known to be conducive to orchard growth. Experimentation with commercial orchard production in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties began prior to the Civil War with William S. Miller's farm near Gerrardstown. Apples in particular, but also peaches, pears, plums, cherries, and grapes were planted, their produce shipped by railroad to the burgeoning urban markets.
The orchard industry in West Virginia grew in the 20th Century alongside dairy and other livestock specialty products like beef and poultry. Like all agricultural goods, sales of fruit and animal products were subject to the whims of the market and the interruptions of WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII. Although orchard production throughout the region diminished significantly through the second half of the 20th Century, the eastern panhandle counties of West Virginia continued to rank among the highest producers of apples and peaches in the state. "Today, West Virginia ranks 9th or 10th in apple production and 13th or 14th in peach production in the U.S., with a combined crop value that has averaged almost 15 million dollars over the past 10 years." The state ranked 41st in livestock and livestock products in 2004 with more than 50% of that in "broilers" or 9-12 week old chickens, and cattle (beef), while dairy accounted for only 7.5% of the total.
After World War II with the advent of the post-war booming manufacturing economy and the emerging Cold War, the population began to shift once again. This time with the encouragement of the federal government's new interstate highway system, the defense highways developed in the Eisenhower administration, upwardly mobile and automobile-owning city dwellers left the region's urban environments, particularly Washington D.C. and Baltimore, to create suburban neighborhoods beyond the edges of the cities. Since the late 1940s, suburban development has sprawled outward into and throughout mid-Maryland, northern Virginia, and into the eastern panhandle counties of West Virginia, substantially reducing agriculture and profoundly altering the rural landscape.
Samuel Kercheval, writing in 1833 about the lower Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, described the "Mode of Living of The Primitive Settlers" in the valley, first in their dwelling construction:
Kercheval described the German houses with central chimney and a "large cellar beneath." However, he noted that, "their dwelling houses were seldom raised more than a single story in height."
Germanic settlers, emigrants from Pennsylvania and beyond, were common in the lower Shenandoah Valley; many initiated by the speculators Jost Hite and the Van Meter brothers. But many early settlers were English Quakers from Pennsylvania as well. Much of the land purchased by the Van Meters and sold to Hite was claimed by Thomas Lord Fairfax, a five million-acre proprietary grant known as the "Northern Neck." The disputed land was surveyed in 1786 as part of an ongoing lawsuit between Hite and Fairfax, which resulted in a detailed description of the land and improvements in that part of northwestern Virginia. All of the buildings listed in the Lick (Elk) Branch area still claimed by Hite were log or timber-framed construction, many described as "old" or "very old" The most prevalent construction material found in the Jonathan Clark survey was "round log." Dimensions from house to house were similar as well, as was the common roof covering of "clap boards." Stone or brick chimneys are common, although in other areas surveyed the "cat & clay" (wattle and daub) chimney was more often described.
During the century from 1763-1860, this first period architecture was gradually replaced or enlarged into more substantial and permanent forms. Small log houses were improved with siding and additions, or replaced with stone, brick or larger log or timber frame dwellings. The large "Swisser" barns with cantilevered forebays and a ramp or bank at the back, hallmarks of the non-tidewater mid-Atlantic region, replaced small log-crib stables and shelters for livestock and crops.
The people built according to the materials that were available to them, sometimes drawing upon long-established traditions based upon European and British patterns and upon their own interpretations of current styles and construction techniques, adapted to local conditions. Elements of fashionable styles were incorporated into the region's buildings along with traditional features. With the exception of exterior applications of stylistic door treatments and symmetrical fenestration, typically, the more fashionable architectural elements were found on the interior in the form of moldings, mantels, and stairs. Although there are pure stylistic examples, particularly dating from the later 19th century, the vast majority of the region's buildings are vernacular structures.
Farmhouses: Farmhouses from the 18th through the mid-20th Century exhibit great variety, yet all are readily identifiable to the region. Little housing remains from the settlement period. Dwellings that do survive represent the more durable buildings and not the general population of houses. Log was the preferred building material, although probably a disproportionate number of early-period survivors are of stone construction. These very early stone houses use the type of stone found in the nearby landscape, often limestone in the Cumberland Valley/Shenandoah Valley region. Later farmhouse builders introduced brick and lightweight framing systems with various milled sidings or shingles. Brick houses were much less common in the 18th Century than they were in "urbanized" areas like Shepherdstown, Charles Town, or Winchester. When 18th Century brick farmhouses do occur they are distinguished by the presence of water tables, Flemish bond facades and common bond secondary walls with three or four courses of stretcher rows to each header row. Much more common among brick farmhouses are those from the 1820-1900 period. Those constructed before approximately 1850 display Flemish bond facades and thereafter, common bond or all-stretcher facades."
Farmhouse form followed several traditional paths. Among the earliest buildings were Germanic central chimney dwellings with one or two stories and three or four rooms clustered around a massive group of fireplaces. British settlers more frequently constructed one or one-and-a-half-story buildings with a hall and parlor plan, one room deep with inside or exterior end fireplaces. Generally, farmhouses spanned three to five bays, sat on cellars and had side gables. By the second quarter of the 19th-century porches begin to appear with frequency, either across the entire front or recessed in an inset containing two or three bays along the front elevation at the kitchen wall. Another variation is an L-extension to the rear of the main part of the house, almost always with a recessed double porch along one side. This L configuration accommodates a kitchen wing, and these rear wings were consistently referenced in 18th and 19th-century records as "back buildings," even though they were attached to the main part of the dwelling.
Typical floor plans consisted of center passages with one or two rooms on either side, or a two or four-room plan where the main entrance opened directly into a room. A common arrangement attributed to Germanic traditions exhibits two central front doors, side by side, which open directly into two front rooms. Houses were almost universally roofed with wooden shingles, often long and double-lapped, top to bottom and side to side. This shingle type seems to be associated with German traditions. Otherwise, top-lapped thin wooden shingles prevailed with staggered joints and there is evidence that thatch was used, along with "cabin" or clapboard roofs. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries roofs of slate or standing seam metal appear."
The Barleywood farmhouse dates from 1842, at a time when brick construction was in its ascendancy. It follows a frequently encountered version of the passageway and parlor plan with a side hall and double parlors, three bays wide. It had an entrance porch and a service wing extending not to the rear, but to the side. The tenant house is typical of turn of the region's 20th Century farmhouses, with the three-bay central entrance covered by a porch, and two bays above, metal roof, and back building.
Property History
In 1771, Samuel Washington, brother of then Col. George Washington, purchased a tract of 542 acres from Isaiah Pemberton (Fred. Co. Deed Book 14, p. 80). Pemberton, son of George Pemberton and a member of the Hopewell Friends Meeting, had acquired the tract by a grant from Thomas Lord Fairfax in 1750. The land adjoined his father's tract of 473 acres, also a 1750 Fairfax grant (N.N. Grant Book G, p. 445). When George Pemberton died in 1757, he passed his tract "whereon I now live" to his son George Pemberton. Samuel Washington purchased this second tract from George and Judith Pemberton on the same day in 1771. Washington added these two tracts to his already substantial holdings inherited from his brother Lawrence, part of Robert Worthington's 3,000-acre Quarry Bank grant of 1734, where he settled in his house called Harewood.
Washington family lore, as passed on by present-day (2001 interview) descendant John A. Washington, relates the story of Samuel Washington and the Harewood plantation:
In all, the extended Washington family constructed eleven named manor houses in what would become Jefferson County (in 1801), including General George Washington's Rock Hall on his Bullskin Run plantation, John A. Washington's Prospect Hill, Charles Washington's Happy Retreat at Charles Town, and Bushrod C. Washington's Claymont Court.
George Steptoe Washington, son of Samuel Washington, inherited the extensive Harewood plantation. In 1809, George S. Washington died at an early age and in his will devised to his sons Samuel, George, and William Temple Washington the Harewood property, "to be divided between them." But it was not until February 1828 when the partition "by mutual consent" was made, by which time all three men were married and likely already living on their respective tracts. In three consecutive deeds the division was made: to Samuel Walter Washington and his wife Louisa, 598 acres including the Harewood mansion; to George and Gabriella Washington, 586 acres; and to William Temple Washington and his wife Margaret, 586 acres. The tract given to William T. Washington was largely located on the former George Pemberton grant land. William T. called his plantation Megwillie, a combination of his wife's and his own names, and around 1830 he built his manor house there. By 1834, the buildings on Megwillie were valued by the Jefferson County tax assessor at $2,600.
It was following the death of George Washington, son of George Steptoe Washington and brother of William T. Washington, that another division of the former Harewood property occurred in 1832. The division plat showed Gabriella A. Washington, widow of George Washington on a 139-acre dower tract that included their mansion house. Lucy P. Todd, the remarried widow of George Steptoe Washington, was given her dower of 165 acres. William T. Washington added a 165-acre parcel adjoining the western edge of his Megwillie tract and adjoining his mother (Lucy P. Todd) on her northern border.
William T. Washington's new western parcel of 165 acres, plus an adjoining woodlot of 12 acres, was situated on part of the Isaiah Pemberton grant land (see above). Two years later, in an 1834 settlement of Lucy Todd's estate, William T. added an 80-acre parcel that extended his western tract southward and included a right-of-way to the "Turnpike" (Middleway-Charles Town Road/Route 51). Along with an additional 13-acre woodlot on the northwest corner of the whole tract, the new W.T. Washington parcel, soon to be known as Barleywood, totaled approximately 270 acres. In 1841, Washington sold this western parcel as 250 acres to his daughter Millicent's new husband, Robert G. McPherson. McPherson married Millicent F. Washington on December 10th, 1840 in Charlestown, Virginia (Charles Town, West Virginia).
McPherson's purchase of land from his father-in-law in November 1841, nearly a year after his marriage, and the purchase price of $4,000 for 250 acres, indicates that there may have been a house already in place on the property. But whatever was there, it was likely not the brick manor house known as Barleywood. Tax assessment records for the year 1843, listed the 250 acres under owner Robert G. McPherson with a building value of $2,500, a total land with buildings value of $11,250, and a notation "$1,250 added for New House." This final notation indicating that the "New House" accounts for only half of the building value implies that some other building or buildings (earlier house and/or barns?) also valued at $1,250 was already in place, although not previously identified.
The McPherson's "New House" indicated in the 1843 tax assessment was undoubtedly the brick manor house called Barleywood, apparently constructed during the previous year. In that year, 1842, their first child, Maria Washington McPherson was born. On the 1850 U.S. Population Census, Robert G. McPherson, Jr. was a 31 year old "Farmer" and Millicent was 26; their property was valued at $13,000. The McPherson children included daughter Maria aged eight, William aged four, and Ida just one year old. Also in the household were two girls, Hannah E. and Ann C. Maddox, aged 17 and 15 respectively, and a free black named Sarah Thompson, aged 24, likely a domestic servant. Robert McPherson also owned slaves, listed separately on the Slave Schedule of the 1850 census. There were ten slaves on the Barleywood farm in 1850, four of them adult males probably occupied in agriculture, and three adult females (one of them aged 16), with three girls under the age of five.
Relative to the other Washington family farms around them, the Millicent (Washington) and Robert McPherson appeared to be only modestly wealthy (see attached 1852 S. Howell Brown map). Jane C. Washington, widow of John A. Washington (II), owned over 1,500 acres centered on the Blakeley manor house, valued on the 1850 census at $87,000. Jane Washington listed 32 slaves on the 1850 slave census. Bushrod C. Washington, on his 700-acre Claymont plantation valued at $40,000, listed 25 slaves in his household. Neighbor Braxton Davenport listed 31 slaves on his property valued at $100,000. Millicent's father William T. Washington, at age 49, was still living on the Megwillie farm with his wife Margaret (43) and their five remaining children - the youngest age five. William T. also listed 15 slaves; his land (609 acres) was valued at $30,000.
In 1853, Robert and Millicent McPherson sold the 250-acre Barleywood farm to Humphrey Keyes, a local Charlestown merchant, for $12,203. Keyes also purchased the adjoining Washington farm known as Megwillie in 1855 from the aging William T. Washington who had recently defaulted on a loan from Keyes. At least part of the Megwillie house had burned in 1845, reducing is assessment value that year from $1,800 to just $200.
By the 1855 tax assessment, Humphrey Keyes was in possession of over 1,000 acres, including a sawmill and his two recently purchased farms, Megwillie and Barleywood. In 1860, Keyes' real estate value listed on the census record was over $65,000, compared to $10,000 in 1850. Humphrey Keyes lived in Charlestown, according to census records, so it appears that Barleywood was likely his country estate, and was shown as Keyes' most valuable country property on his tax assessments. The Keyes occupation of the Barleywood manor house is probably represented by the second layer of fancy wallpaper in the parlor. Tenants likely worked the farm, perhaps living on the adjoining Megwillie property.
Humphrey Keyes wrote his will in 1860 dividing his estate among his four children, to be held in trust by his wife. Keyes additionally devised to his brother John Keyes "an annuity of $150 … during his life," and a $5,000 lump sum payment to his nephew William Kearsley, "after the death of his Aunt Jane H. Keyes." In 1865, Humphrey Keyes added a codicil to his will, in which he revoked the devises to his brother and nephew, noting " … my Estate being so much reduced by losses during the war …" But in 1869, Keyes added another codicil to the will reinstating his devise to his brother John, "In consequence of the infirmities of my Brother …" Humphrey Keyes lived another six years, until 1875, time enough perhaps to recover some of his war losses.
The American Civil War in Jefferson County and particularly in the Charlestown (later Charles Town) area was an ever-present danger. Located along the Potomac River, the border between North and South, the county saw constant movement of troops throughout the war years both Union and Confederate. Jefferson County began the war in Virginia, a Confederate state, but ended the war in West Virginia, a Union state created in 1863. But Jefferson County citizens were mostly not willing participants in the creation of the new Union state and had petitioned, along with Berkeley and Morgan Counties, to be allowed to remain part of Confederate Virginia. Charlestown, the county seat and the site of the John Brown trial, was a frequent target often occupied by Union troops.
The farms along the roads leading to and from Charlestown witnessed numerous troop movements and a number of engagements. In September 1863 a Confederate detail of 50 men on a mission to obtain horses from the north side of the Potomac River, found a Union regiment in Charlestown blocking their route to the river. Recalled Confederate Colonel Harry Gilmor: "I camped in the woods on William Washington's place [Keyes' Megwillie] and, being determined not to go back without some game, sent scouts to watch the road leading out of Charles Town." They followed a group of Union cavalry to Summit Point where they captured 29 horses after a fierce engagement. Then in August 1864, just prior to the start of Union General Sheridan's destructive Shenandoah Valley campaign, the war engulfed the farms around Harewood and Keyes' Barleywood and Megwillie properties. "The Engagement Between Early and Sheridan at Packett's Farm," here as told by the Jefferson County Chapter of the United Confederate Veterans in a commemorative booklet published in 1911, took place on August 21st, 1864:
Whether the other houses standing in the way of the battle suffered damage is unknown. However, the farms of Jefferson County suffered losses in agricultural production as well as loss of land value after the war. On the 1860 Jefferson County tax assessment, Humphrey Keyes' 930-acre Barleywood farm (centered on the Barleywood manor since the Megwillie manor house had burned) had a total value of $41,850, including the $3,050 building value. In 1872, the total value was listed as $38,688." Additionally, Keyes' reduced estate value, as noted in his 1865 codicil, was likely due to the loss of his slaves, considered property (chattel) by slave owners and counted in the value of the estate. Keyes owned nine slaves in 1850 as enumerated on the slave schedule of the census for that year.
Despite these apparent losses, the 1870 census listed Humphrey Keyes in Charles Town at age 77, a "Retired Merchant," with an estate valued at $89,000. Living in the household were his wife Jane married daughter Susan, her "Clergyman" husband Charles Ambler with their three young children, unmarried daughter [Sarah] Margaretta, and nephew William Kearsley. Keyes died in 1875 and was followed in 1879 by his wife Jane. At the time of his death, only two of Humphrey Keyes' children survived him, Sarah Margaretta and Susan, both of whom would then have inherited the Barleywood property.
Although Susan Ambler and her sister Sarah Margaret Keyes retained the Barleywood/Megwillie properties throughout their lives, passing it on to Susan's children, it does not appear that they ever occupied the manor house. It seems likely that the farms shown as "Barleywood" and "Macwillie," both under the name "Humphrey Keyes' Heirs," (see attached) were occupied by tenant farmers throughout this period (1875-1952). A tenant house was constructed on Barleywood ca.1900 probably to accommodate additional leaseholders or laborers. Historic USGS maps (1916 and 1940, see attached) show that the two farms were not converted to orchard production, unlike many of the nearby farms. Apparently still producing grains for market as well as for livestock feed into the mid-20th century, it was during this period that the large granary was constructed on the Barleywood farm.
When Susan Keyes Ambler died in 1925, the remaining property passed to her surviving children Letitia C., Humphrey K., Charles E., and Lucy J. Ambler. In 1952, Letitia having passed away, H.K. (Humphrey), Charles, and Lucy Ambler sold a 37-acre parcel of Barleywood farm to Ernest O. Ware (see attached plat). However, the parcel did not include the right-of-way (now called Ambler Lane), which the Amblers retained along with the remainder of Barleywood and Megwillie. In September 1956, Lucy Ambler being then the sole survivor, sold part of "Meg-Willey" to Roy and Melvin Magaha (JC DB 214, p. 157 and 168), and two months later she sold 422 acres, probably parts of Barleywood and Megwillie but known as "Barleywood Farm," to Ernest Ware along with a contract for timber rights on a 58-acre woodlot on Barleywood for $24,000.
It is not clear what the Wares used Barleywood farm for other than timber. Roy Magaha, owner of part of the adjoining Megwillie farm, reportedly lived in the Barleywood house into the 1960s, but by 1973 the Barleywood manor house and its associated farm buildings were abandoned and already in decay.
Today (2006), the bulk of the Barleywood farm acreage is subdivided into lots for residential development. In 2005, Ernest and Edna Ware sold Lot 24, 25 1/2 acres with the house, outbuildings and barn sites, along with a 33-acre "Residue Area" to Eric and Stacy Lindberg. The 58-acre remnant of Barleywood farm now serves as pasture for the Lindberg's livestock; the buildings are slated for rehabilitation and restoration.
Site Description
Barleywood occupies a ridge of high ground running approximately north to south, about two miles west of Charles Town in Jefferson County, West Virginia. Ambler Road heads due north from WV State Route 51, extending approximately a mile to a point where a lane leads off to the west, approximately one-half mile to the Barleywood manor house. The lane passes through woods and open fields to reach a fairly level area where the house is situated. When Barleywood was parceled off from Harewood in 1841 the land continued to be farmed, and today the remaining 58 acres is used for pasture and crops, and also contains woodland. The open land contributes to the scene and character of the property, providing integrity of setting, location and association. The surrounding properties, also once part of Samuel Washington's Harewood plantation, are currently undergoing residential development.
The Barleywood complex includes a brick Greek Revival style influenced main house dating from 1842, ac.1900 granary with attached shed, a concrete covered c.1842 brick cistern, a frame pump house and a c.1842 log hip-roofed smokehouse. These buildings line the edge of the driveway on the east side of the rear main house yard. Additionally, a frame tenant house and garage ruin dating from c.1900 stands along the entrance lane, on its south side, off Ambler Road. On the west side of the main house yard is a concrete remnant said to have been the site of and incorporating former slave quarters, and to the north is a stone foundation of a Pennsylvania-type bank barn also with an attached shed.
Barleywood House, 1842:
The 1842 brick house stands on fairly level high ground and faces south toward Route 51 and
the Harewood manor house about a mile distant. It is a two-story, three-bay Greek Revival style
influenced house following a side hall and double parlor plan. A one-room deep service wing of lower
height, but still two stories is attached to the east gable end. The house rests on limestone foundations
that barely appear above ground level. The bricks are laid in Flemish bond at the front elevation and in
common bond with a 5:1 stretcher to header row ratio at the other elevations. The east service wing
uses common bonding at all elevations. Characteristics of the brick masonry include flat arches of
upright bricks above the openings, a brick corbelled cornice at the front and rear elevations of both the
main section and the east wing. An unusual feature is remaining putlog holes around the entire
building at a continuous level across the second story. At each end, the brick walls extend into two
inside end chimneys separated by a parapet. The upper stacks of several of the chimneys have been
rebuilt.
Barleywood has been vacant and unmaintained since the 1960s. Deterioration and vandalism over the years resulted in loss of exterior porch systems, but traces remain. There were one-story front and rear porches. The most recent front porch extended across the facade, but it may have replaced an earlier entrance porch. In addition, there was a back porch that sheltered the back door as well as the cellar entrance into the kitchen.
The main part of the house is three bays wide across the front, and the attached east service wing has two bays across its front elevation. Windows are currently covered with plywood to protect the remaining pieces of window sash. A photograph of the house taken in 1973 shows six over six light sash in place. The sash were held within narrow mitered frames with rounded exterior surfaces. Hinge pintles set into the frames indicate that there were once shutters at all windows, except those at the attic level.
The first story east end window in the main section is a jib door/window with a hinged dado that opened out into the corner formed by the east wall and the south wall of the service wing. The main entrance is located in the east bay of the south or front elevation of the main section. The entrance, like the windows is covered with plywood for protection, but the door and entrance framing and woodwork remain intact behind it. The door differs from the windows in that it has a wide wood lintel with decorated "bullseye" corner blocks. The opening includes the door with a broad transom and sidelights. The transom had four panes and the sidelights three panes arranged vertically. The original four panel door is in place. The rear entrance likewise opens into the stair hall. Entering at the back, under the stair landing, it has no space for a transom, and is not embellished with a decorative lintel like the front door.
The roofing material is standing seam sheet metal, currently in deteriorated condition.
The front door opens into a formal stair and entrance hall. Due to the abandonment of the house since the 1960s, and resulting vandalism, some features such as the stair rail and balusters, locks and plasterwork have been removed or have fallen away. Otherwise, the doors, window trim, baseboards and some early, if not original wallpaper is intact. The entrance hall extends from front to back of the house. The staircase rises along the east wall. Also on the east wall is the jib door and a door beneath the stair landing which opens into the east wing. On the west wall of the hallway are two doors, each one opening into a parlor. The doors and window are trimmed similarly with unmolded, pedimented architraves with decorated bullseye corner blocks. Part of the stair's newel post remains, a large, turned piece. The handrail is gone, but a piece survives in the attic to serve as a pattern. The balusters were square, two per step. In the ceiling is the ghost mark of a plaster medallion with a hook in the center for hanging a light fixture. Early wallpaper fragments cling to the wall.
To the west of the stair hall are two rooms, double parlors. They are appointed similarly and separated by a wall with a wide opening with large four-panel doors, which can open to make the rooms function nearly as one. The southwest room has two front-facing windows, each with a paneled dado beneath the window sill. The central panel in the dado has curved cut corners, a carryover from the federal stylistic period. There are three layers of paper remaining on the wall, the lower two of which appear to date from before 1870. There is a fireplace in the west wall, but the mantelpiece is missing.
The adjacent northwest room has two north-facing windows, with dadoes and trim matching those of the front parlor. A fireplace stands in the north wall flanked by cupboards behind four-panel doors. All doors and windows have pedimented architraves and decorated corner blocks. The dado panels have curved corner cuts like those described in the front parlor. The fireplace mantel is missing, but like the front parlor, its outline remains on the wall.
Behind the staircase, a doorway opens into the east wing, into a room over the cellar kitchen. The room has two south-facing windows and one in the north wall. This room is trimmed much more simply than the other first-floor spaces. There are no paneled dadoes beneath the windows and the architraves are flat-topped, not pedimented. There are corner blocks, but they are plain, not embellished with bullseyes. This room also retains the only surviving mantelpiece in the house. It is detached from the fireplace and leans against a wall. The mantel is Greek Revival style in character and has flat pilasters supporting a mantel shelf.
Flooring throughout the first floor is tongue and groove pine of fairly uniform width, blind nailed.
The second floor is laid out similarly to the first, except for a small approximately 8' X 12' room at the front of the second-floor hallway. In this room is a small square opening into the east-end wall chimney. Also in this room, detached and leaning against the wall is a four-panel door with its original tiger maple grain painted finish. The original ceiling painted finish also remains in the room with painted brush strokes running at right angles to create a pattern resembling linen. Throughout the second floor, the baseboard and trim remain in place, but the fireplace mantels are gone. Architraves are straight topped and corner blocks do not have decorative carving.
The staircase continues open to the attic. The attic is finished with a rough coat of plaster, which appears to be an original feature. At some later point, hooks were set into the attic ceiling for hanging herbs or other items.
The cellar is likewise divided into three main rooms, with the kitchen being in the east wing. There is a large brick fireplace there and an entrance to the rear exterior of the house. There is a second cellar entrance into the northwest room.
Although deteriorated and damaged by years of abandonment and vandalism, the Barleywood house retains a significant amount of its original materials and characteristics, including original paint finishes and early wallpaper. The plan is fully intact and there were few alterations in its history like the installation of later kitchens or bathrooms. All baseboards, floors, doors, window and door trim remain, and one mantelpiece and well enough of the stair rail to enable reconstruction of it.
Behind the house are a series of domestic and agricultural support buildings:
Cistern, c.1842
Located conveniently to the kitchen is a subterranean brick-lined cistern. Currently it has a
concrete slab top, but the brick interior construction with two chambers separated by a brick wall
suggests that this structure is older than twentieth century era.
Pump House, c.1900
Behind and to the northeast of the house is a small frame pump house with a shed roof. It is
sheathed with vertical board siding.
Smokehouse, c.1842
North of the pump house, along the farm lane is a square log smokehouse with a hipped roof
covered with standing seam sheet metal. The smokehouse is in deteriorated condition.
Grain Barn/Granary, c.1900
An unusual building is this frame grain barn or granary. It is a lightweight balloon-framed
building with horizontal siding. The gable ends face east and west and the entrances are in the gable
walls. The interior is divided into stall-like areas or grain bins. The gabled roof is covered with
channel drain sheet metal. A gable roofed shed for equipment storage is attached to the north side of
the grain barn.
Barn Ruin, c.1840s
In a field northeast of the house is the ruin of a Pennsylvania-type bank barn with an attached
gable roofed shed extension to the south. The barn has caved in upon itself and only its stone lower
level wall and the ramp at the back remain intact.
Unidentified Concrete Ruin, c.1920
Behind the main house and to its northwest is a ruin consisting of a poured concrete corner. No
information has surfaced to indicate what this building or structure might have been, but stories
attached to the Barleywood property say that the slave quarter was in that area. A quarter would not, of
course, have been constructed of concrete.
Tenant House, c.1900
Located on the south side of the farm entrance lane, near its junction with Ambler Road, is a
frame tenant house and ruin of a concrete block garage. The house appears to date from approximately
1900 and is a two-story, three-bay building of lightweight frame construction. It is covered with plain-lapped
siding and rests on stone foundations. A one-story shed extension is attached to the back wall
and probably served as a kitchen or pantry. Windows have six over six light sash and the front
entrance is in the central bay. There is no second-story opening in the corresponding central bay. The
roofing material is standing seam sheet metal. There is a shed-roofed entrance porch, but it along with
the entire entrance bay has been damaged by a fire. Doors, interior and exterior have four panels. The
house is in deteriorated condition and damaged by fire.