Aix La Chapelle! This place is truly incredible.
In 1809, Dr. William Brewer (1777-1861) purchased 156 acres from Joseph Newton Chiswell (builder of Chiswell’s Inheritance). Dr. Brewer had married Joseph’s daughter, Mary, in 1800. Shortly after the purchase, Dr. Brewer began work on his federal style, red brick home. There are indications that completion of the home was slightly delayed as a result of the War of 1812. This seems to align with records which show that Dr. Brewer served as a surgeon under Lt. Col. John Lithicum for part of the war.
A successful doctor, Dr. Brewer built and maintained a small doctor’s office next to his home. At the time of his death in 1861, Dr. Brewer’s estate was worth more than $23,000, a significant amount for the period. Following his death, the property was passed to his son and grandson, where it remained in the Brewer family until 1937. Interestingly, the Brewer family did maintain a family cemetery on the property. But in 1917 the remains were reinterred at Monocacy Cemetery.
The slave quarters/summer kitchen was removed by the Shober family in their tremendous renovation of the property when they purchased it from the Brewer estate in 1937. In the height of the great depression, they purportedly spent over $50,000, removing the kitchen wing and replacing it with the two matching wings of the property The Shober’s lived and farmed the property only a short time (until the early 40’s) before moving on to Cherry Grove, another historic property in Montgomery County.
The estate became a dairy farm and had dairy or beef cattle on the property from the 1940’s until the 1970’s. Interestingly, the property was not owner occupied from sometime in the 1950’s when a group of developers bought it for speculative purposes until the current family owners purchased the home three years ago.
