County Developer Discovers Slave Cabin

By Meghan Oliver

Sentinel Staff Writer

A slave cabin dating back to the 1800s was found on a plot of land in Upper Marlboro planned for development by Haverford Homes. The 20-by-16 foot Molly Berry Cabin will be refurbished and used as a community center on three acres of land within a 20 home luxury settlement.

Called "a true discovery" by David Turner, chairman of the Prince George's County Historic Preservation Commission, the structure is "the only known slave cabin of the rural type in the county."

Turner explained that the discovery of this cabin may lead county residents to wonder where other slave cabins exist in the area. Unfortunately, while Mother Nature played a role in their natural deterioration, housing developers are likely to have torn down many such historical structures to build new developments.

"There are going to be a lot of mad residents in this county when they wonder where their heritage is," Turner said.

Found by surveyors beneath thick overgrowth, owner Sevag Balian of Haverford Homes brought in an archaeologist from Greenhorne and O'Mara, Inc., an architectural history contractor, to inspect the cabin. Turner said such a move by a developer was a "radically different and aggressive approach."

In February, it was decided by the Historic Preservation Commission that the cabin be rebuilt, using as much of the original building's materials as possible.

Turner pointed out that many of the residents likely to inhabit the homes planned for the area are African-Americans. The Molly Berry Cabin sits adjacent to a former tobacco plantation—its fields once worked by slaves.

"The people buying these million dollar, beautiful homes will not view Molly Berry Cabin as an eyesore in their midst," he said. "Most of these buyers are African-American and will view this as hard evidence of their heritage in Prince George's County.

© Berlyn, Incorporated. All rights reserved.