During, the seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries, most Prince
Georgeans lived in small frame houses
like this one. They had. at the most,
two or three rooms. and the chimneys
were made of wattle and daub. In her
book Tobacco Colony (1982), historian
Gloria Main calls them "throwaway
houses," for they were hastily (and
inexpensively) built of green wood
and then readily abandoned when it
was time to move on to new fields
elsewhere on the plantation. Visitors to
early Maryland often complained of
the number and unsightliness of
abandoned houses. None of these
carly structures survives in Prince
George's County today, although one
like them has been built at Patuxent
River Park near Croom. This replica is
at Saint Mary's City. Brick chimneys,
incidentally, did not replace the wattle-and-daub
ones until the eighteenth
century, except on finer homes.
Courtesy of Saint Mary's City
Commission.
From Prince George's County: A Pictorial History by Alan Virta.
Used with permission of The Donning Company/Publishers.
Prince George's County: 