If you’ve ever taken a drive out on Club Hollow Rd., somewhat close to Edward’s Ferry, you’ve likely come across the chain link fence running along the side of the road and marking the border of NIH’s Animal Center. The facility has been there for as long I can remember, and I’ve never thought much about it. But the other day a history buddy of mine sent me pictures from an old farmstead and noted that the farm had been on the land where the NIH facility now stands. Which got me thinking, what is the history of that property?
First, when was the NIH facility even built? A quick google search revealed that NIH purchased the property in 1960. According to public documents, prior to 1960 the property was used as a dairy farm. Additionally, a second farmstead from the 1800s (or earlier) may have existed on the northern portion of the property as well a possible graveyard for enslaved peoples and a sawmill. However, NIH has noted that this oral speculation has not been substantiated by archeological surveys and historical research.
When NIH began construction on the facility after acquisition in 1960, some of the structures from the dairy farm were demolished (most significantly, the farmhouse), but some remain – to include the dairy barn.
I spent some time going back on old maps in an effort to determine who built the farmhouse in the pictures. The Hopkins Atlas Map from 1879 shows a Jesse Hyatt as the only individual owning structures within the current boundaries of the NIH facility, so it’s possible the farmhouse was built by him sometime in the 1870s (there are no apparent structures in the area on the 1865 Martenet and Bond Map).
However, I think it’s more likely that Jesse would have been associated with the aforementioned second farmstead and that the home we have pictures of was built in the later part of the 1800s or even the early 1900s. I’m basing this guess on the architecture of the home, and the fact that Jesse came from the prominent Hyatt Family (where nearby Hyattstown takes its name), and the home appears too modest for someone of immense wealth.
