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Community Corner

Germantown Then and Now: Woodbourne House

The Woodbourne story goes way beyond the house -- it's stitched in a quilt.

Woodbourne is a historic house in Germantown that may not be familiar to everyone because it is kind of off the beaten path. It is located at 21000 Blunt Road, near Brink Road. Historically, it would have been a part of Goshen, but today the Germantown Planning area reaches east to Brink Road.

Richard Thomas, a Quaker from Sandy Spring, owned the land that the house was built on in the late 1700s. The original log structure, which now forms part of the house, may have been built at that time by a tenant farmer. In those days, land was named rather than numbered, and this particular tract was called “Thomas’ Hog Pasture.” It was purchased by Harry Woodward Dorsey in 1817, and it was he who added to the original house, making it into the handsome colonial style brick and frame building we see today.

Harry Dorsey’s daughter, Harriet, married Samuel Blunt in 1818. Apparently Harry did not take to his son-in-law because he specifically stated in his will that Samuel would never inherit any of the Dorsey property. So when Harriet died, her son William took over the estate, including 30 slaves. He was a prosperous farmer and a member of the Montgomery County Agricultural Society, an organization with great influence considering 90 percent of the county’s population lived on farms. He was also elected to the County Commission (now the County Council).

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William Blunt not only owned Woodbourne, but also a large tract of land in central Germantown where the B & O Railroad came through. That is why we have a Blunt Road on the east side of Germantown, and a Blunt Avenue in the center. William died around 1900, leaving all his property to his wife, Elizabeth.
Woodbourne is on the County Master Plan for Historic Preservation, but the Woodbourne story goes way beyond the house itself and involves the women of the family.

The Woodbourne Quilt is a masterpiece of craftsmanship and design. The Montgomery County Historical Society published a book about the quilt in 1985: "Heirloom Quilting Designs from theWoodbourne Quilt." It is also featured in "A Maryland Album: Quiltmaking Traditions, 1634-1934," by Gloria Seaman Allen and Nancy Gibson Tuckhorn.

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One of the things that makes the quilt famous is that it is accompanied by a collection of original illustrations that were used to create the patterns stitched into the quilt. These patterns cannot be seen in pictures of the quilt for they are all stitched into the white parts using white thread, but they are quite remarkable when the actual quilt is seen. The red and black mariners compass quilted pieces, a very difficult pattern, are sewn onto a white cloth. The tiny stitches of quilting in the white cloth depict birds with long tails, hunters with guns, running dogs and plants. Whole scenes are created for the background.

The quilt is signed so we know that it was made in the 1850s by Susan Maria Waters Dorsey and Harriet Woodward Dorsey Blunt. Susan was married to Harriet’s half-brother, Henry Woodward Dorsey, who was also Susan’s brother-in-law, having been previously married to her younger sister who died. The quilt and patterns drawn on paper were donated to the Montgomery County Historical Society.

Another quilt, made by Harriet’s niece, Mary McCubbin Waters Waters, uses some of the same originalpatterns that are in the Woodbourne Quilt even though it is a star quilt design rather than a mariners compass. This indicates how the women collaborated and worked on their quilts and shared theircreative patterns.

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