Begin your tour at the STOP sign at the junction of Wetheredsville Road and Forest Park Avenue (the entrance to the village nearer Windsor Mill Road and Kernan Hospital).
The red house on your right, 5131 Wetheredsville, dates from c.1850. The Springhouse is the small building to the right of the main house. Billy Ware, who fought on the Union side in the Civil War, lived here. At Gettysburg, he carried a 32-star flag made by the ladies of Ashland Chapel (see below). He was captured and spent some time in prison. On his return to Dickeyville, he held Decoration Day reunions for Civil War veterans on the lawns of his home.
Walk down Wetheredsville, past #5123 (c.1860) and #5115 (1955) on your right. The tall, four-story stone house on your left (#5122) is one of the oldest in the village. It was built c.1810. Amos Humphries, a founder of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.), lived here.
Next door, #5116, is the Presbyterian minister's house which dates from c.1890. Dickey Memorial Presbyterian Church (1885) and the Church Hall are next on the left. The Presbyterian community in the village was formed by William J. Dickey in the 1870s. The congregation worshipped in the I.O.O.F Hall, 2412 Pickwick Road (see below), until their church was built.
5111 Wetheredsville, directly opposite, was built c.1840 for the manager of the Ashland Mill. The mill superintendent, George T. Loomis, bought the property in the early 1850s, and the Loomis- Hutton family lived here for 100 years. In the 1950s, the property, with its extensive grounds and outbuildings, was sold to developer Charles Stokes. He is responsible for building the properties on Sekots Lane (Stokes spelt backwards).
Stand at the corner of Wetheredsville and Pickwick and look to your right. You can see the original stone Springhouse (part of the second house on the left) at 2309 Pickwick. It dates from 1853. If you walk up Pickwick, the fourth house on the left, #2305 (c.1900), was a carriage house. Both were part of the Loomis-Hutton property. The other houses further up Pickwick to Sekots date from the late 1950s.
The next house, on the right, 5107 Wetheredsville Road, is another of the oldest dwellings in the village. (Notice that the oldest houses in the village are nearly all built of stone). #5107 was built, c.1810, by Elias Reed, a local farmer and owner of Wakefield Plantation (now Windsor Forest Apartments), for one of his children. Frank Page, the village lamplighter, lived here in the 1800s. The red brick house next door, #5103, was built in 1953.
Next on the right, at 5101 Wetheredsville, was the Mechanics Institute. Built in 1890, it served as a meeting hall, a concert hall for vaudeville and minstrel shows, and Madame Jolly's Waxworks, a show based on Madame Tussauds Waxworks in London. Later, the Mechanics Institute became a Church Hall for the Presbyterians. It is now a private residence.
Across the road, on your left, is Ashland Chapel, built on land given by the mill-owning Wethered family in 1849 as a house of worship for mill workers. The chapel, with its plain interior and lack of a slave gallery, became the Methodist Church. It has been beautifully restored as a private residence.
Opposite the church is Tucker Lane. (You may take a short detour up and down Tucker Lane if you have time). A number of homes on the left of Tucker were built in the 1800s. The oldest, 2317 Tucker, dates from 1825. The majority of those on the right hand side of Tucker were built in the 1950s and early 60s. Mr Tucker, who gave his name to the street, lived at #2300 (c.1881), right at the top.
5029 Wetheredsville (c.1850), on the right, was built by Patrick Doyle. The cow for the village dairy was kept here, and there was a glove factory in an outbuilding in the yard. Next door, #5027, was built by Ruth Pritchard in 1940, in the style of Washington's home at Mount Vernon. To your left, you can see the old Methodist church steeple near the main entrance to Ashland Chapel. Chapel.
The long, rubblestone, double-fronted house on your right, at 5023 Wetheredsville (c.1835), is another of the oldest houses. It was the old apothecary (chemist's) shop. At the turn of the century, it became a candy store. The homes at each end, #5025 and #5019, were added by the store keeper and his wife, c.1850, for their two sons as they married.
Opposite, on the left, 5016 Wetheredsville was built in 1840 for Charles Wethered, one of the three Wethered brothers who owned mills in the village, which they named Wetheredsville. The architect responsible for many of the restorations in the village, Harold A. Stilwell, lived here from the 1930s.
Next door, 5012 Wetheredsville (1840), was a free Dispensary for the mill workers. Here, the local G.P., Dr. Monmonier, handled everything from typhoid cases to tooth-pulling.
On the right, opposite the lane, 5017 Wetheredsville, was built by Ruth Pritchard in 1943, while the house next door, #5009, dates from c.1890.
A stop for the trolley which ran from Lorraine Cemetery to Walbrook Junction, was at the edge of the meadow, opposite #5017. Look carefully in the road and you will see some of the original trolley tracks. The trolley ran down the driveway at the side of the house directly in front of you, 5010 Wetheredsville, before joining the main Wetheredsville Road again beyond the mill. #5010 was built in 1910 for the Cherry Cough Syrup Co. It became a tavern, then a garage, before renovation in 1951 as a two-story dwelling.
5008 Wetheredsville dates from c.1865. Next door, on the left, #5002, the stone building was the original village school. It was built c.1830 of rubblestone from the old, now deserted stone quarry further down Wetheredsville. Two frame wings were added c.1860 to accommodate Dickeyville's growing population and to provide space for older pupils. The schoolmaster was Clinton Spurrier who taught all grades. These wings are separate residences today. The homes opposite the schoolhouse, #5001 thru # 5007, were built in the 1950s on the site of some earlier cottages.
Continue along Wetheredsville. #4901 (1865), the last house in the village was built for mill superintendent John Melville. The small building to the left of the main house is the Springhouse. On the hill behind the house is the site of the mansion belonging to Martin Tschudi who built a grist mill further down the stream in 1762. The graves of his wife, Mary Magdalene Tschudi, and his daughter, Mary Barbara, may still be found on the hillside. Opposite #4901 is the Ballymena Mill, formerly Ashland Mill, a woolen mill built c.1830 by the Wethered brothers, John, George, and Charles. During the Civil War, the Wethereds, who were pacifists, made both "government blue" and confederate gray cloth. Reputedly, Union soldiers, stationed in Franklintown, caught a mule-drawn mill wagon, loaded with gray cloth, slipping down the road, and placed an embargo on the sale of Wethered goods. The Wethereds sold the mill in 1871 to William J. Dickey, who paid $82,000 for 300 acres, three mills, and all the houses owned by the Wethereds, including a fine mansion, now demolished. The Dickeys later renamed the mills after their ancestral home in Ballymena, N. Ireland. Under Dickey, the village prospered, and on his death in 1896, the name of the village was changed from Wetheredsville to Dickeyville. In 1909, his family sold out to the Glasgow Mills. From then on the village went into decline until it was sold at auction to a developer in 1934 for $42,000. This marked the beginning of the restoration which we enjoy today. The mill buildings have been beautifully restored and they house craft workshops and small businesses.
Return along Wetheredsville (past the remains of a small water bottling plant on your left) and take a right on the unmarked footpath immediately past 5010 Wetheredsville. You are now on Cottondale Lane. The gardens on the left belong to the houses which front Pickwick Road. The former storage warehouse for mill woolens at 2423 Pickwick, built in the General Grant style in 1872, was restored as a studio by noted Baltimore muralist R. McGill Mackall in 1932. He built a complete two-story house inside so that he could live here as well as work. The house has been occupied ever since by artists. The present owner, sculptor Barry Johnston, made major improvements in the studio area. Sometimes his bronze sculptures are on display in the yard.
Across the meadow, on the right, is the dam. It replaces the wooden structure which was washed away by Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Upstream, on the left bank of the Gwynn's Falls, is the site of the former Franklin Paper Mill (c.1800), which burned down in 1934. Until the restoration of the village in the 1930s, there were cottages, outhouses and warehouses over this entire green area.
Follow Cottondale Lane to Pickwick Road. Immediately, on your right, #2435, was built as a mill office in 1840. It also housed the village jail where offenders arrested by Dickeyville's one-man police force, Jack Pace, could be locked up in a wondowless room on the first floor. In 1899,Teddy Roosevelt spoke from the wooden front steps (the main entrance to the building, now demolished). When the village was being restored in the mid-1930s, the developers worked out of this building.
Opposite, on your left, 2432 Pickwick (1832), built in Early Republic style, may have been moved to the present site from Franklintown by W. E. Freeman.
Continue to the right up Pickwick Road, past the duplex on your left, #2434 and #2436. These were formerly millhand cottages built in 1832 and converted into stables for the Dickeys whose mansion (now destroyed) sat high on the hill where the present Pickwick and Forest Park Avenue meet. The remaining homes from Pickwick to Forest Park Avenue date from the late 1930s.
At Forest Park Avenue, be careful crossing the road. There are treasures to be seen, most notably on your left at 2500 Pickwick, which carries a date of 1790. Thought to have been an Indian trading post, it may be older. Known as "The Old Stone Row," the shallow building was converted into six separate housing units by the mid-1800s. During restoration, four of the units were torn down. Apart from #2500, the houses on the left are of recent construction.
All the houses on the right, with the exception of #2525 (1939) and #2553 (1939), date from the 1870s. Old Timers met at "The Root," a fallen tree beside #2501 (1870). The Magistrate's house was in the front room of #2515 (1875). Of interest is #2541 (c.1875), known as the "Wagon Wheel House" because of the wagon wheel embedded in the rear wall. The original house is to the left. In the center was a patio joining the house and the carriage house on the right. The patio and the carriage house were incorporated into the main home during restoration. As with other Dickeyville stream-side houses, the top story of this stone-and-frame home is at street level.
Return across Forest Park Avenue. (You may wish to take a short detour to the left, over the bridge, formerly a 100-foot covered bridge, to look at 5007 W. Forest Park Avenue, on your right. Although it dates from 1790, this Early Republic style home may have been brought here from Franklintown in 1832. In the late 19th century, the village barbershop was on the porch. The two houses on your left, #5008 and #5010, date from 1941).
Return to the junction of Pickwick and Cottondale Lane. On the right, the four homes, #2430 thru #2418, date from c.1875 and represent the typical square box shape Dickeyville mill workers home of the late 19th century. From the numbering, it is apparent that all were formerly duplexes. #2430 was the developer's show house during the mid- 1930s. On the left, 2433 Pickwick (c.1875) was the home of Malcolm Moos, an advisor to President Eisenhower. There was a direct telephone link to the White House. The overflow from the jail was reputedly housed next door at #2427 (c.1875), a typical Dickeyville house now restored in the style of an English cottage. Before restoration, another house stood between it and #2423, the Mill Warehouse.
On the right, #2412 was built in 1853 for one of the first I.O.O.F. lodges in the U.S. There was a tin shop in the basement. Later, it became a general store, with a Post Office and gas station. The one-story extension to the right was the pharmacy.
#2417 and #2415, on the left, were built c. 1875. The four-story rubblestone homes, #2407 and #2411, date from c.1860. Silas Townsend, who wrote the "Dickey Bird Song," which heralded the changing of the village's name from Wetheredsville to Dickeyville, lived at #2415.
The four-story rubblestone homes, #2411 and #2407, date from c.1860. They were formerly two-family millhand houses. The gas lamp at #2407 is a replica of a gas lamp at Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Next door, #2405 (1860), was the company store owned by William J. Dickey. On the second floor was a hall where Dickey employed a woman from the YWCA to organize activities for the workers' families. The shopfront was demolished during restoration.
Stop at the junction of Wetheredsville and Pickwick. To the left you see two homes built c.1840s: #5106, which is in the Greek Revival style, and #5104. The brick duplex at #5100 dates from 1854. In the 1890s, the owners made and sold yeast. Opposite through the trees you can see the Doric columns of the former main entrance to Ashland Chapel.
On the right, 2400 Pickwick dates from c.1875, while the Victorian Gothic "Gingerbread House" at #2332 (c.1832) is said to have been the Officers' Quarters at Fort McHenry. It is said that the steep roof was so designed that incendiary balls fired by the British would roll off, causing minimum damage. The house was moved to Horn's Park in Franklintown before being brought here.
#2330 and #2326 were built c.1875, while #2322 dates from c.1835. It was the home of a Dickeyville storekeeper. When the trolley car was in operation, it ran within inches of the gable wall. On your right, in the yard of Ashland Chapel, is an old Baltimore trolley stop.
You are now back on Wetheredsville Road, near where you started your tour. If you walk to the junction of Wetheredsville and Forest Park Avenue, the house in front of you, 2218 Hillhouse Road, built c.1860, is the gate lodge to the Wethered-Dickey Mansion, which stood high on the hill to the right of the gate lodge. The stone mansion, which later became a gambling hall, was in poor repair and was demolished in the 1940s. Beyond the gate lodge are three houses, 2304 Hillhouse Road (1895), 2401 Hillhouse (c.1840), and 2403 Hillhouse (1941).
For a brief history of Dickeyville, see Historic
Dickeyville, Maryland
This Walking Tour of Historic Dickeyville has been compiled by Sam and Joan McCready, with the assistance of Millie Tyssowski and Luther Sieck. It is based on the research of Virginia Sandlass and the excellent anecdotal history of Dickeyville by Anne Childress.
For more information, contact Sam and Joan McCready at
mccready@umbc.edu