| Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape) | |
  Map of the United States  Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm (Maryland) Show map of Maryland | |
| Location | Prince George's County, Maryland, USA |
| Nearest city | Oxon Hill, Maryland |
| Coordinates | 38°48′17″N 77°00′43″W / 38.8046°N 77.01182°W / 38.8046; -77.01182 |
| Established | 1959 |
| Governing body | National Park Service |
Oxon Cove Park | |
Oxon Hill Farm, December 2010
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| Location | Government Farm Rd., Oxon Hill, Maryland |
| Area | 289 acres (117 ha) |
| Architectural style | Italianate, et al. |
| NRHP reference No. | 03000869[1] |
| Added to NRHP | September 02, 2003 |
Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Cove Farm is a national historic district that includes a living farm museum operated by the National Park Service, and located at Oxon Hill, Prince George's County, Maryland. It is part of National Capital Parks-East. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.[1]
The park provides an excellent resource for environmental studies, wildlife observing, fishing, and other recreational activities made possible by easy access to the Potomac River. Fourteen buildings and two structures are located in the historic district and associated with the property's sequential development as a plantation, an institutional agricultural complex, and a farm museum.
Oxon Cove Park was formed in 1967 when the land was transferred to the National Park Service for educational purposes, before that it moved through several owners.
Before European settlers arrived, the Piscataway Indian people were farming land along the Potomac River in the area. From the late 17th Century to the early 19th Century, the farm was owned by John Addison and his descendants who grew tobacco, oats and corn on the land using enslaved people to do so. Part of the estate was known as Oxon Hill Manor at the time. In the early 19th Century, Dr. Samuel DeButts, a native of Ireland bought part of the Addison property and renamed it Mount Welby in honor of his wife's family and he held onto the land until 1843. During the rest of the 19th Century the land changed hands many times until the federal government bought it, and an adjoining 100 acres, in 1891 as a farm to provide food for patients at nearby St. Elizabeths Hospital. Farming ended in the 1950s and the land was then transferred to the NPS in 1967. For some time it was known as the Oxon Hill Children's Farm.[2]
In the 1990s the Park service built a 3.9 mile paved trail around the park and connected to DC via a bridge across Oxon Creek built in the 1980s.[3]
The Oxon Hill Farm includes the Mount Welby home, Farm Museum, barns, a stable, feed building, livestock buildings and a visitor activity barn. Farm animals include cows, horses and chickens. Visitors can view the animals up close daily and learn about the workings of a farm. The Farm Museum building displays historical farm equipment dating from the late 19th century.
The district also includes a hexagonal frame outbuilding; c. 1830 brick root cellar; c. 1973 frame hog house; c. 1890 frame horse and pony barn; c. 1991 frame chicken house; c. 1970 steel-frame implement shed; c. 1980 frame visitor barn; c. 1970 steel-frame windmill; c. 1940 frame hay barn; c. 1890 frame feed building; c. 1830 brick stable; c. 1970 frame tool shed; c. 1980 frame "sorghum sirip" shed; and a c. 1980 frame dairy barn, and c. 1940 tile silo. From the 1890s to 1950s, under the ownership of St. Elizabeth's Hospital, the site was used as a therapeutic treatment center for the mentally ill known as Godding Croft. The Oxon Cove Farm historic district is located on the crest of a ridge overlooking the Potomac River, north of I-95 and very close to National Harbor.[4]
The principal dwelling, known as "Mount Welby," is a c. 1807-1811 two-story three-bay brick structure laid in Flemish bond with Italianate detailing and sheltered by a shed roof, and visible to motorists crossing the interstate Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The house was built by Irish immigrant Dr. Samuel DeButts. It was entrusted to the National Park Service in 1959 in order to protect its resources from increased development.[5] From 1891 to 1950, the property was used as a therapeutic farm by St. Elizabeths Hospital, and was known as Godding Croft.
The house is operated as a historic house museum, with exhibits about period life in the early 19th century for the owners and slaves on the plantation. Other exhibits focus on the home's role at Godding Croft.
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