Farmhouse

Like a forlorn sentinel from Howard County's past, the decrepit former roller-skating rink and dance school facing U.S. 29 from Columbia Road in Ellicott City witnessed the disappearance of farms and fields. Now, it, along with the 1899 farmhouse next door, will soon be gone, replaced next year with 13 large homes selling for about $900,000 each. Older county residents remember carefree days in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, roller skating and eating homemade pies and sandwiches there in later years.

Along the winding, country roads of Upper Falls, in northeastern Baltimore County, whitewashed fences enclose fields of summer crops. Red barns, roadside vegetable stands, country churches and stamp-sized cemeteries are all a part of a rural landscape that belies the proximity of Interstate 95. On many visits to his uncle's farm in Upper Falls, Jay Wachter and his wife, Filomena, longed to be part of that landscape. For a long time they eyed a dilapidated Gothic Revival farmhouse, circa 1860, that sat on 3 1/2 acres atop a hill.

Charles C. Weiss, a retired Martin Marietta Corp. employee who enjoyed country living, died of a stroke Sunday at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. He was 85. Mr. Weiss was born in Baltimore and raised in Harewood Park, near the Bird River. He was a graduate of Polytechnic Institute and during World War II served in the Coast Guard at Curtis Bay. After the war, he became a quality control inspector at the old Glenn Martin Co. aircraft plant in Middle River, and retired from successor company Martin Marietta in 1982.

Saying that Kingsville wouldn't be Kingsville without the Langenfelder farm, community leaders are again rallying to save the white stucco house atop a hill overlooking Belair Road. More than a decade after they prevented a developer from building houses in front of the farmhouse, Kingsville residents are now asking that it be designated a historic landmark. And the property's owner is going along with the idea. The label would prevent anyone from tearing down the three-story house and a nearby stone carriage house built by a Baltimore businessman about 1913.

When Ed and Susan Nelson bought their first home in 1991, her mother cried. "I don't want my daughter living here," Ed Nelson recalled his mother-in-law saying tearfully as she looked over their just-purchased home in northern Harford County. She saw an old farmhouse swathed in a hodgepodge of canary-yellow aluminum siding and black faux-brick tarpaper. The three-story home's foundation slumped in the rear and its roof leaked. Inside, rickety floors sagged, unsecured drywall flapped over several walls and the floor was uneven.

Plush and pristine Deep-cleaning the carpeting is time-consuming, messy and often costly. But with the new Hoover Agility SteamVac ($199-$229), cleaning the carpeting may well become less of a labor. The new Agility deep cleaner, with its maneuverable and flexible extractor, promises to offer a professional-quality deep-carpet cleaning. The Agility has removable side-by-side tanks, a tool caddy, powered hand tool and scrubbing brushes. It also includes features such as the Clean Surge system, which dispenses an extra boost of cleaning solution at the push of a button, and Heated Cleaning, which heats the cleaning solution and carpeting.

The two-story dwelling in eastern Baltimore County looks like any number of aging Maryland farmhouses, but its past makes it far more significant than most buildings of its size and condition. According to historians, the vacant structure on Bauer's Farm Road was built in the late 1700s and is one of only four waterfront farmhouses in eastern Baltimore County known to have been constructed before 1825. In addition, historians say, it's the only dwelling in the Patapsco Neck area of Baltimore County that remains from the period when British troops marched through as part of their invasion of Baltimore during the War of 1812.

When Richard and Melissa Wies first painted the exterior of their restored farmhouse in cherry red and rain-slicker yellow, neighbors jokingly referred to it as the "ketchup and mustard house." With two recent additions now painted in a vibrant blue and green, the Jarrettsville couple have brought a decidedly playful spirit to their home. "Every once and a while, I'll look out and see someone standing in the driveway, looking at the house," says Richard Wies Jr., 34. "Sometimes they ask if they can take pictures."

The remains of a 46-year-old Severn man were found yesterday after a house fire caused by careless smoking, an Anne Arundel County fire official said. John Walter Stinchcomb died in the fire that broke out about 10 p.m. Saturday at his farmhouse in the 7600 block of Plumbers Pasture Lane. No one else was home at the time, said Capt. Lee Cornwell of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.