It was supposed to be a patch-and-paint job that would take three weeks in 2003. Instead, it was a major restoration that took seven months.
But when the plaster dust cleared, what emerged was a gracious, century-old farmhouse in Harwood, now nominated for a spot on the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural significance and place in regional history.
In 1892, what was then called Richland was commissioned by Robert and Mary Cheston, a couple born into the landed antebellum gentry of southern Anne Arundel County. It was designed by architect William Churchill Noland, considered by many to be second only in significance to Thomas Jefferson as a Virginia architect.
And 110 years later, long after electricity and plumbing were added, newly married Maureen and Doug Heimbuch set about fixing up the place, renamed Thanksgiving Farm by the previous owner. They paid about 50 times more for restoration work than the Chestons paid for construction.
The Maryland Historical Trust will consider this spring whether to forward the nomination to the federal agency.
"You didn't see many houses like this being in South County. It was a difficult time for tobacco farmers," said Sherri M. Marsh, the Anne Arundel County architectural historian who evaluated the property and wrote the National Register application.
"It was a very stylish house."
These days, its antique, random-width pine floors glow a deep honey color. A fireplace beckons from where one of many plywood bookcases was torn off a wall. A rebuilt porch wraps around three-quarters of the first floor, overlooking a hobby vineyard, rolling fields and woods.
Windows have been restored, wood stripped to show the grain as well as embedded rectangular nailheads and horsehair plaster has been patched. The pervasive but peeling dull green paint is gone in favor of cream-colored walls - the original motivation.
"If we had realized what we were getting into before we started, I don't know if we would have done it," said Maureen Heimbuch. "I've always loved old houses."
The original owners, Robert Murray Cheston and his wife, the former Mary Dorsey Murray, were descended from the Colonial-era gentleman-farmer class of the Chesapeake Bay, influential and educated families that often intermarried.
