79-63-14
John Henry Quander House 3708 Old Crain Highway Historic site; built c. 1870
The Quander House is a rare example of a post-Civil War freedman’s dwelling. Although many of these modest dwellings must have been built by the newly freed people during the early years of Reconstruction, few have survived. The Quander House is a small, two-story side-gabled dwelling of wood frame construction. The gable roof is covered with metal painted green, and the eaves are highlighted by scalloped vergeboards. The main block originally consisted of two small parlors on the first story and two small bedrooms above, lighted by windows in the gable ends; a one-story kitchen wing, with shed roof and brick chimney, was later built onto the rear of the main block. The building fronts on the south side of the old road which led to the Mount Pleasant Ferry and is adjoined by an extensively planted garden. John Henry Quander had been a member of the large enslaved workforce of Mordecai Plummer, one of the county’s most extensive slaveholders; Plummer’s plantation, Poplar Ridge, was located near the Patuxent River about two miles north of Upper Marlboro. In 1870, John Henry Quander and his wife, Henrietta Tilghman, were still living with their seven children in the area of Poplar Ridge, but within a few years they had moved their family south to the outskirts of Upper Marlboro. In October of 1875, Quander The Quander House, looking southwest along Mount Pleasant Road with the garden to the left.
UPPER MARLBORO African-American Historic and Cultural Resources
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