Harewood, 17600 Meeting House Road, Sandy Spring, Montgomery County, MD

Significance: Erected in 1793-1794, Harewood is the historic homestead of the influential Stabler family and is among a handful of extant dwellings built by the early founding families of the Friends community of Sandy Spring. Harewood is located in the very heart of the community; it is adjacent to the meeting house that formed the center of both spiritual and social life, and the spring, an important source of water that was also the derivation for the town's name. The original section of the house was erected in the vernacular hall-and-parlor plan that was prevalent at the time. Harewood's design reflects other local building traditions including log/timber frame construction and the plain-style detailing indicative of the Quaker tenets. The house received dining room and kitchen additions in 1821, expanding it to meet the rising social expectations of the era and those of subsequent generations of Stablers. Changes and additions were also made in the early twentieth century, and yet it is a remarkable survivor of early period dwellings in this region, retaining its basic configuration and much of its original fabric including doors, hardware, mantels, and molding profiles. In 1925, Harewood was sold to Washington, D.C. lawyer Dean Acheson and his wife Alice who used it as their summer and weekend retreat. While in residence at Harewood, Acheson served between 1949 and 1953 as Secretary of State under President Truman, whom he occasionally entertained at Harewood. Acheson played a key role in defining foreign policy during the Cold War era, including involvement in the development of the post-World War II Marshall Plan and in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Survey number: HABS MD-601

Building/structure dates: 1794 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1821 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: ca. 1902 Subsequent Work

Building/structure dates: ca. 1940 Subsequent Work

houses plantation houses sandy spring md harewood house house road sandy montgomery county maryland quakers log buildings farmhouses stone foundations firebacks agriculture domestic life l plan buildings dean acheson renee bieretz john o brostrup historic american buildings survey catherine c lavoie arthur stabler deborah stabler edward stabler photo ultra high resolution high resolution secretary of state social life library of congress

1940

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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