Brookeville is now home to Maryland’s newest state park — 1,000 acres dedicated to telling the story of emancipation through the lens of a Black family that bought the land after purchasing their freedom before the Civil War.
Freedman’s State Park at 23222 Georgia Ave. spans land that was part of the Patuxent River State Park and was previously owned and farmed for decades by Enoch George Howard, his wife Harriet Howard and their descendants.
On Friday, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources dedicated the new state park during a ceremony attended by representatives of Gov. Wes Moore (D), more than a dozen descendants of the Howard family and local stakeholders involved in researching and preserving the land’s history.
“Today we stand on ground that holds beauty, history and responsibility,” Maryland Park Service Director Angela Crenshaw said during the dedication ceremony.
“Freedman’s State Park will be a place for reflection, education and connection,” she added. “A place where visitors can understand the deep ties between land and liberty, a place where Marylanders can see how the work of freedom continued long after emancipation, and a place where the legacy of the Howard family is protected — not as a footnote.”
Friday’s park dedication was bigger than “adding another park to a map,” Crenshaw said. It was also about stewardship of the Howard family’s story and influence, which extended beyond Montgomery County.
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Reenactment actors (standing right) — next to Maryland Park Service Director Angela Crenshaw — attended the dedication ceremony as Enoch George Howard and Harriet Howard. Photo credit: Elia Griffin -
Dozens of people toured the grounds of the more than 1,000-acre Freedman’s State Park. Many of the visitors were descendants of the Howard family, who owned and farmed the land for decades. Photo credit: Elia Griffin -
Ruins of the Locust Villa, the plantation home where Enoch George Howard and Harriet Howard lived after buying their family’s freedom and purchasing the property where they were formerly enslaved. Photo credit: Elia Griffin -
Gravestones of Enoch George Howard and Harriet Howard remain at the property and have been preserved. Photo credit: Elia Griffin
The family’s story began in 1814 with Enoch George Howard, who was born into slavery. Howard had been enslaved by the Gaither family, for whom the City of Gaithersburg is named. According to the Department of Natural Resources, Howard was 37 when he purchased his freedom in 1851. Several years later, he purchased freedom for his wife and their four children.
In 1862, during the Civil War, Howard bought the plantation home and 289 acres where Harriet and his children had been enslaved for $3,000, according to a Department of Natural Resources press release. The land contained the original 1790s plantation home called Locust Villa, where the family lived for decades.
Howard came to own approximately 600 acres. The land is in northeastern Montgomery County near Brookeville, Olney, Laytonsville and Sandy Spring, communities that were the center of abolitionist activity influenced by the area’s Quakers, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
The Howards’ productive farm, the family also became leaders in the area’s Black community, donating some of their land to construct Howard Chapel, a church for the area’s Black community with a historic cemetery that remains to this day, and a school for Black students.
The new park includes the Howard Family Cemetery, the ruins of Locust Villa plantation home, and a restored stone home that had been built by Howard’s son, Greenbury Howard, according to the natural resources department. Portions of the park are open to visitors for hiking.
The “Greenbury Howard House” is where later generations of the Howard family lived as they farmed the land until the mid-20th century. The state Park Service is overseeing restoration of the house and plans to add whitewash to the stone home, Park Ranger Shea Niemann told Bethesda Today on Friday.
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Vast swaths of farmland, which are actively being leased to a farmer, is part of the Freedman’s State Park and surround the park’s historical sites. Photo credit: Elia Griffin -
The Greenbury Howard House at Freedman’s State Park was constructed around 1870. Photo credit: Elia Griffin
Eventually, the new park will offer displays that tell the Howard family’s story and explore the history of slavery and emancipation in Maryland. There will also be hiking and biking trails around the wooded areas and farmland surrounding the historical sites and public tours led by the Park Service in the future.
The park was developed in partnership with Preservation Maryland, the Sandy Spring Museum, the Sandy Spring Slave Museum, the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, the Baltimore Afro-American and Afro Charities and the Maryland Historical Trust.
Officials noted Friday that the Maryland General Assembly’s 2022 passage of the Great Maryland Outdoors Act, which bolstered funding and increased staffing for parks across the state, also helped to establish the plans for Freedman’s State Park.
“We were given the opportunity to act, not just to preserve land, but to preserve history,” Crenshaw said Friday.
Protecting a family’s history
Roughly 20 direct descendants of the Howard family attended Friday’s dedication ceremony. During the event, descendants walked the land, peeked into the restored Greenbury House, and prayed together at their ancestors’ burial grounds.
Savannah Wood, executive director of Afro Charities and a descendant of the Howard family, told Bethesda Today that she hopes the parkland’s history and historic sites are protected.
“Anytime you make a public site that interprets Black history, there’s always people who are going to try to deface it in some way,” Wood said. “I hope people really understand the point of this place and the history that’s preserved here.”
Afro Charities is a nonprofit organization that manages the archival collection of the Baltimore Afro-American Newspaper, also called the AFRO. Wood’s great, great grandparents, Martha Howard Murphy and John Howard Murphy Sr., purchased the newspaper in 1897, according to Baltimore Heritage Inc., and helped to grow the publication, which became a leading voice for civil rights and voting rights in the nation.
According to the natural resources department, Martha Howard Murphy, the daughter of Enoch George Howard, sold her share of the land her father left for her and used the proceeds to buy the newspaper for $200. The publication continues to publish local, national and international news today, with a focus on Black stories, voices and unity.
Another Howard family descendant, Houston Murphy, told Bethesda Today on Friday that the parkland holds many memories.
Murphy, who told Bethesda Today he was in his early 70s, said he spent a lot of time on the farm while growing up and stayed in the Greenbury House for two summers. One summer, Murphy said, he was chased by a hog on a hill near the house but was “saved” by his childhood dog. Murphy said his dog diverted the hog’s attention, giving him an opportunity to escape.
“There’s a piece of my skin that was left up there as I was scrambling through the barbed wire [fence],” Murphy said, pointing to a nearby hill.
Murphy said he hoped park visitors learn just how much influence the Howard family had on the lives of Marylanders.
“Without us, they wouldn’t be. We were the breadbasket that kept many people alive during the Depression,” Murphy said, adding that the farm grew crops such as corn, squash and melons.
The land’s walnut trees were also harvested and the nuts were sold across the state, landing on the tables of many Baltimoreans, Murphy noted.
The land has “significance to all people of Maryland descent,” he said.
