Harmony Hall

 NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, interesting place, historical building

Harmony Hall, a 62-acre estate situated on Broad Creek along the Potomac River in Prince George's County, Maryland, was purchased in 1966 by the Federal Government for the construction of a new highway. The parkway was never built, but the property proved to have a remarkably rich history.

An exciting historical investigation revealed a natural and historical treasure trove of a long lost past. Harmony Hall displays great natural beauty, abundant wildlife, diverse vegetation and a scenic view of the Potomac River. It includes historic structures. These characteristics provide insights into the nature and extent of human habitation along the Potomac River.

Little is known about the earliest European inhabitants who built the first house and the one standing today that took its place. The earliest record of property ownership is confused by the lack of good documentation. Nonetheless the builder of the present manor house is believed to have been Enoch Magruder in the 1760's. Magruder owned extensive lands and he was a supporter of the American separation from Great Britain.

Along with the manor house there also exists the ruins of an older structure referred to as Want Water or the Lyles House. This was built closer to the water's edge. A canal, which still exists, was build in front of the house. At the end of the canal there once stood a tobacco warehouse and several other buildings that became the official weighting station and taxation point for all tobacco shipped to England. The canal may be the earliest manmade canal built in the colonies.

The property came more fully into the hands of the National Park Service in 1977 upon the death of the last legal owner. Harmony Hall was then leased in competitive bidding to the Battersea Corporation and remained so until the Corporation left the property in 1999. Since that time the NPS has gone through an extensive evaluation to determine its future use.

For much of its early existence Harmony Hall served as a plantation where tobacco was the main crop cultivated with slave labor. This part of the country had its own peculiar tobacco history. Enslaved people consisted of more than half of the population. 1. With soil depletion and the departure of planters seeking fresh soil further west, the slave population was concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. With the flux in tobacco prices, plantations in Prince George's County were going out of business and the enslaved were either being sold south or set free. Harmony followed this pattern and converted to other kinds of crops such as wheat.

The end of slavery meant the end of the plantation and the beginning of the small family farm. Often the property was sold or leased to an individual who did not cultivate the land themselves. Robert Stein, the arctic explorer and accomplished linguist, purchased the property in 1892. Members of his extended family followed Stein from his native Silesia in Eastern Europe and settled in the area thereby establishing the community of Silesia as it is known today. Since Stein traveled to the Arctic circle with Commander Robert Perry in 1897 and stayed to study the Eskimo languages, he spent little time at Harmony Hall.

Charles Collins purchased the property as a residence in 1929 repairing the Manor House, adding new structures and digging an English ha-ha in the 1930's. Collins had his legal practice on the property. He also is considered to be a significant political strategist and is reputed to be the intellectual father of the Dixiecrat Party (southern Democrats who favored the perpetuation of segregationist policies wherever they existed.) His papers are archived at the University of Maryland. It was Ms Collins who sold Harmony Hall to the National Park Service.

As funds become available NPS would hope to restore the manor house and open it to the public. Natural and historical educational programs are planned for future use of grounds also.

1. Steven Sarson, "Landlessness and Tenancy in Early National Prince George's County, Maryland," William and Mary Quarterly, 2rd series., 57:3 (July 2000), 571-580.