Sandy
Spring region, Montgomery County, Maryland Owned by Thomas Moore,
1794-1822
Information:
Longwood, as it appeared in
1990. M-NCPPC Historic Preservation office, Montgomery County Planning
Department
"Longwood"
was the estate of Thomas
Moore and his wife, Mary Brooke Moore.1
Mary's
father, Roger Brooke IV, owned several thousand acres throughout
Montgomery County during his lifetime. In 1794, four years after Roger
Brooke IV's death and three years after Thomas and Mary's wedding, Mary
inherited a 280 acre tract of land that was part of "Addition to Brooke
Grove," one of her father's many properties.2
Thomas constructed a modest log
cabin for his family on the land they inherited, which he named
"Retreat." By 1817, Moore had
become quite successful as a civil engineer and as the owner of a tannery
on the western edge of Brookeville. He used his wealth to
build a mansion around Retreat's original structure. His
nephew Thomas
McCormick,
a trained house carpenter and future-Methodist
minister, provided much of the labor for the house.3
McCormick re-named
the house "Longwood," potentially a reference to Napoleon
Bonaparte's home on the island of St. Helena or to a nearby black
mahogany tree which was said to have been imported from the same
island.4
Moore
lived at Longwood until
his death in 1822.5
In 1830, Moore's widow sold the house to its builder, Thomas McCormick.6 McCormick
owned Longwood until 1844 when he sold it to Sophia R. Hammond.7
Kyle Bacon, DAR
Research Fellow, 2012; Megan O'Hern, 2014.
Longwood, as it appeared in
1990. M-NCPPC Historic Preservation office, Montgomery County Planning
Department 