Name/Title
LaGrange in LaPlata MarylandEntry/Object ID
1956.001.0103Description
3 1/2" x 6" black and white photograph and two negatives of the front elevation of LaGrange in LaPlata, Maryland, built by Dr. James Craik. The main building was a white clapboard two story with a gable roof and two outside end chimneys on each end of the house on each side of the roof peak. It had an English basement with three visible windows. To the left was a one story connector with a gable roof to a two story addition, also with a gable roof. The addition was not elevated in the same way as the main house and its ceilings were not as high. Further to the left was a low outbuilding with a gable roof. The main house was five bays wide. On the second floor, there was a triangular pediment on the edge of the roof above the centered narrow nine over nine light double-hung window. There were two large nine over nine light double-hung windows with shutters on each side of the center window. On the first floor, in the center, there was a rectangular shed roof over the entryway. The entry space may have projected from the wall of the house; I can't tell from the image. The door has a fan arch over it and is flanked on each side by one narrow four over four light double-hung window, also with fan arches on top. The porch floor projected from the door and had four steps down to the pavement from each narrow end. There was a hand-high railing on the long side of the porch and down each stairway. The visible portion of the basement had two square single light windows on the right of the porch and one on the left. There was another frame area, but it did not look like a window. Below the porch floor were two arches built into the brick. On the left chimney there was a pent that appeared to have a very narrow window facing the front. Behind the house and down the hill was another outbuilding with a gable roof. The connecting building and the addition were brick. There were two six over nine double-hung windows on the long side of the connector. There was no door. In the final attached building there was a single outside end chimney at the far left of the gable roof peak. On the second floor there were two six over nine light double-hung windows. On the first floor, there was a narrow doorway on the right, one step above the ground, and a six over nine double-hung window on the left. There was a neat pile of something obscuring part of the small free-standing building. There were large trees behind the small building and a considerable expanse of lawn or field between the photographer and the house. The two negatives are just very slightly different from each other.
Text on verso: Photo taken by George Morgan Knight, Jr. P.O. Box 216, Leonardtown, MD. In lower right corner "6"
Text on the accompanying envelope: "Here is an exclusive picture of La Grange in La Plata, one of the old colomial homes of One of Geo. Washington's Physivians in the Revolutionary War."
Text of accompanying story, "This is La Grange built about 1765 by Dr. James Craik, one of George Washington's closest friends and appointed by him surgeon General of the Revolutionary War Army. Dr. Craik lived at La Plata until 1783 when upon Washington's Request made most urgently he took up his residence in Alexandria,, Va. it is one of the other homes now open for Maryland's 12th annual garden tour for Charles county. Ir is owned and has been restored today by Mr. and Mrs. James Wills of La Plata, Md."Collection
Papers of George Morgan Knight, Jr.Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Craik, James, Wills, James W.