What Was There Before Seneca Creek State Park?

Mr. Clopper was born in Baltimore in 1786 and was related to the famous painter Mary Cassatt. He had a dry-goods store in Philadelphia, but yearned for the country life. So he purchased about 500 acres of land from Zachariah McCubbin in 1812 and moved to Germantown with his wife, Anne Byrne Clopper. He purchased more land as the farm prospered, renovated the old grist and saw mill on Great Seneca Creek, and built a woolen mill further down the Creek.

He built grand additions to the small house that had come with the land and added many outbuildings. He named the farm Woodlands after the forests that surrounded the home. Being an amateur horticulturalist and especially fascinated by trees, he planted many exotic varieties such as Kentucky Coffee, Osage Orange and Polonia trees. These trees can still be seen in the park today along with many of the shrubs and perennial flowers he planted.

Francis was not Catholic, but his wife, Anne was, so Catholic services were held in their home for the local Catholic community until a church could be built. He donated the land for the church and bricks made on his farm. The church was dedicated in 1836 and named St. Rose of Lima in honor of the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg. The original church burned down in 1883 and the bricks from the old church were used for sidewalks.

In 1853 Francis Clopper along with Francis Dodge, W.W. Corcoran and others, formed the Metropolitan Branch Railroad Company. Clopper was the main instigator of the plan for the line. This railroad was to go from Georgetown to connect with the main line of the B & O Railroad near Buckeystown. Surveys were made, some of the land was purchased, and initial grading was done at the central point in Gaithersburg, but the Civil War interrupted plans and the Company went bankrupt. After the War the B & O Railroad purchased the company and built the railroad along a slightly different path, completing it in 1873.

The Cloppers had four children: Ellen, Mary Augusta, Douglas, and Francis. Mary married William Rich Hutton, a famous engineer whose designs included the Washington Aqueduct, the Cabin John Bridge, the C & O Canal, and the Washington Bridge over the Harlem River and the Hudson River Tunnel in New York City. At Woodlands he created a hydraulic system that brought water from the creek up to a cistern on top of the house, providing running water in the house.

Francis Cassatt Clopper passed away in 1868, just five years before the railroad that he had dreamed of was completed, and the farm was passed to William and Mary Hutton. The Huttons resided at Woodlands and had five children. William passed away in 1901. Their daughter, Ellen Elizabeth Caulfield, inherited the estate.

The Maryland State Park and Planning Commission purchased the farm in 1953 to protect the watershed of Great Seneca Creek and create a public park. The house sat empty for many years and finally succumbed to arson in 1966. It was located where the Park visitor center is today. The Grusendorf Log House was moved to the park in the 1990s to represent an early homestead type of house. Interpretive signs near the visitor center tell the story of the Clopper and Hutton families and farm life of the period. A nearby trail is marked to show where various outbuildings stood and name the special trees along the path. Ruins of the grist and saw mill, Clopper’s Mill, can be seen along Clopper Road. The Woolen Mill is now under the waters of Longdraft Lake.