 |
Market Master's House, Bladensburg, Maryland
Library of Congress |
The first known
description of the Market Master’s House, in Bladensburg, Maryland, was
recorded in the 1798 Federal Direct Tax Assessment. The assessment describes
the Market Master’s House, which was then in Benjamin Lowndes’ possession, as a
“single story stone dwelling 24 by 20 [feet].” The stone house had five
windows. Additionally, the property was improved by a 20 by 16-foot stable. The
Federal Direct Tax also reveals that a second portion of Lot 38 was improved
with an unoccupied “single story framed dwelling house 27 by 17 [feet]” and an
8-foot-square framed kitchen. The Federal Direct Tax, which noted owners as
well as occupants of the properties being assessed, indicated that the Market
Master’s House was not occupied by Benjamin Lowndes, or any other member of the
Lowndes family. Rather, as stated in the tax assessment, Benjamin Lowndes lived
in a three-story brick dwelling on Lot 60 and Henry Jones occupied the
Market Master’s House. No
Henry Jones was identified in either the 1790 or 1800 Federal
Censuses, thus nothing is currently known about this
early occupant of the Market
Master’s House.
Although the Federal Direct Tax
recorded the Market Master’s House as a dwelling,
other evidence suggests that it
may have been used as a store for the Lowndes Company.
In 1800, a notice appeared in the
George-Town and Washington Advertiser that “A number
of inhabitants of Prince George’s
County intend applying to the next General Assembly
of Maryland, for a law,
authorizing the laying out of a road from Bladensburg across
the Eastern Branch opposite Mr.
Lowndes’ store [emphasis added] and to run … the
nearest and best way to the City
of Washington.”
Although the notice does not provide
any more information about the
location of the Lowndes store, an 1802 controversy over
Benjamin Lowndes’ dereliction of
duty as Postmaster of the Town of Bladensburg suggests
that the store was located in the
stone building.
According to a letter published
in the Washington Federalist, on two occasions Benjamin
Lowndes left his store, which
also served as the Post Office, prior to the arrival of the
mail. The Post Master was
required to remain at his station even if the mail arrived late,
as it was on these instances.
Lowndes went home, apparently intending to return when
the mail arrived. Even though
Lowndes had left the store in the care of an unnamed associate,
he was dismissed for failing to
receive and examine the mail in a timely manner. In an open letter to the
Postmaster General dated February 25, 1802, Lowndes appealed
to return to his position:
The post-office at Bladensburg is worth no man’s
acceptance, but after seventeen years servitude (the attention requisite can be
called nothing else) I consider myself as intitled [sic] to it as any person. I
have acted, I believe without censure, and I know I have done my duty
faithfully.
An editorial in the Washington
Federalist defended Lowndes’ actions, noting that his home was close enough
to his store:
For the exchange of mails, one quarter of an hour is
allowed, but it can be
proved that in the instances alluded to, the mail
carriers did not stay five
minutes. It is not true that Mr. Lownde’s [sic]
dwelling house, even with
all the meanders is half a mile from his store, the
more direct way does
not exceed 630 yards…
The author’s identification of
the store as being located between a third and a half of a
mile from Lowndes’ house supports
the contention that the store/post office was indeed
the Market Master’s House
(Benjamin Lowndes’ house on Lot 60 was located on the parcel
directly to the southeast of
Bostwick). After Lowndes was dismissed, the Washington Federalist reported
that the Post Office moved into another store somewhere on Market Street.
from: Maryland State Highway
Administration
Project
Planning Division
Environmental
Evaluation Section
October
2009
1798 Federal
Direct Tax, New Scotland, Oxen & Bladensburg, Maryland State
Archives, Archives of
