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Wincopia Farms

Houses completed in 1771Houses in Howard County, MarylandHoward County, Maryland landmarks

Wincopia Farms is a historic farm located at North Laurel, Howard County, Maryland, United States. Wincopia farms was one of three large farms in the area. Overlook Farm and Fairlands remain well preserved, but the 124 acre Wincopia Farms was purchased for development. The Hearn family operated it until 2010. While some sources claim the Hearn family owned the farm for over 200 years, the title history shows the family purchased the farm in 1880. They raised poinsettias with customers that included the White House and Kennedy Center. On September 8, 1992, a man and a teenager attempted a series of failed carjackings starting at the southbound I-95 rest stop on Wincopin property leased by the Hearn Family through the Bolling Brook subdivisions. The men carjacked the vehicle of Dr. Pam Basu and her 22-month-old daughter at a stop at Horsham and Knights Bridge Road. Basu attempted to retrieve her daughter, and was dragged to death along Gorman Road, with the carjackers leaving her body entangled at the fenced entrance to Wincopia Farms. As a direct result of the violent incident, the Federal Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992 (FACTA) was created, the first federal carjacking law. The 1992 act, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 2119, took effect on October 25, 1992.Around 2002, the Hearn family took out a $4.5 million loan from Gourley and Gourley LLC, a private lending group, secured by the 124 acre property. The Gourley and Gourley loan was provided to the Hearn family to refinance existing financial institution debt already on the property that was in default and awaiting foreclosure. By the Great Recession in the United States in 2007, and after multiple loan extensions (each one increasing the loan amount to add an interest carry reserve to the loan), the Gourley and Gourly debt increased to $10 million. Despite efforts by the Gourley group to encourage the Hearn family to sell the property to a developer, payoff the $10 million loan, and keep the family wealthy, the Hearn family instead insisted on maintaining a struggling nursery. After a long, drawn out bankruptcy by the Hearn group, Gourley and Gourley LLC foreclosed on the property and evicted the Hearn family from the property. Gourley and Gourley then went on to develop the property, obtain preliminary plat approval for 220 home sites, and sell the property for $41 million. Howard County designated the main access, Gorman Road, a scenic road but offered the developer exemptions to reduce setbacks, widen the road, add a tunnel, and cut down the 300-year-old trees that bordered the road.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Wincopia Farms (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Wincopia Farms
Wincopia Farms Way,

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N 39.146666666667 ° E -76.847222222222 °
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Wincopia Farms Way
20723
Maryland, United States
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Commodore Joshua Barney House
Commodore Joshua Barney House

The Commodore Joshua Barney House is a historic home located at Savage, Howard County, Maryland, United States. It was originally situated on a 700-acre tract in modern Savage Maryland named Harry's Lot, at a time when the closest town was Elk Ridge. Both "Haary's Lot" and "Huntington Quarter" were inherited by Charles Greenberry Ridgely, sixth son of Colonel Henry Ridgley and Elizabeth Warfield Ridgley. After the death of Charles Greenberry Ridgely, Thomas Coale purchased portions of the land containing the structure. His daughter would become the famous Commodore Joshua Barney's second wife, bringing the figure from business in Baltimore. In 1809, Nathaniel F. Williams (1782-1864) married Caroline Barney, daughter of Joshua Barney, who in turn expanded an existing mill site on the property to create the Savage Mill.It has three sections: the original 2+1⁄2-story brick house built by Charles Greenberry Ridgley Sr. about 1760, a 2-story frame addition built in 1941, and a one-story frame addition to the west, built in 1946. The interior of the house was altered during the 1940s when it was used as a boys' school, and about 1960 when it was converted into apartments. Its significance is tied to Commodore Joshua Barney, who was a hero of the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and who lived in the house until leaving the industrial operations to family just prior to his death in 1818 from wartime wounds en route to another property owned in Kentucky. Barney rose to prominence for action during the war while living in this house including involvement in commissioning the star spangled banner. The house is situated near the Ridgley family cemetery. It was operated as a bed and breakfast inn starting in 2000, until being placed on the market for $1.2 million in 2012. The house never sold, and had been vacant and neglected until 2017. The house is currently an occupied private residence. The seven remaining undeveloped acres surrounding the structure place it at risk of incompatible development and has been placed on the 2014 and 2015 top 10 most endangered properties list by Preservation Howard County.The Commodore Joshua Barney House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Savage Mill Historic District
Savage Mill Historic District

The Savage Mill Historic District is a national historic district located at Savage, Howard County, Maryland. The district comprises the industrial complex of Savage Mill and the village of workers' housing to the north of the complex. The site of Savage Mill on the rapids of the Little Patuxent River had been used for mill operations since the early 18th century. The district was part of a land grant named Ridgeley's Forest, surveyed in 1685 by Colonel Henry Ridgley. In 1750, Alexander Warfield built a mill along the river which was eclipsed by a larger construction chartered in 1812 by the Williams Brothers. By 1825, the mill employed 200 people including women and children, and 120 power looms for the production of cotton duck. The complex included several additions: a grist mill, an iron foundry, and a machine shop. The company was sold to William H. Baldwin, Jr. in 1847, who owned a Baltimore dry goods firm. In the early 20th century, the company became Baldwin, Leslie and Company, and the mill was expanded. A decade later the Baldwin family erected a stone community hall for the town and constructed a large group of tenant houses. From 1923 to 1941 the Carroll Baldwin Memorial Community Hall served as a movie theatre. For a brief period, the Maryland State Police set up a barracks in 1927-1929 leased from the Savage Manufacturing Company before relocating to Waterloo. By 1941 the company employed 325 people, and during World War II, produced 400,000 pounds of cotton duck a month. In 1948 the mill closed, and in the 1950s it spent a brief period being used to manufacture Christmas ornaments before closing permanently and converted for commercial use.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Eshkol Academy

Eshkol Academy was an all-boys Orthodox Jewish day school in Columbia, Maryland, that existed from fall 2002 to 2004. Its name comes from Ish Shekol Bo Hebrew for "well-rounded man" and Eshkol Hebrew for cluster of grapes. In 2002 Eshkol Academy opened at a Christian community center facility in Montgomery County; in 2003 it moved to an office park in Columbia, Maryland. Its enrollment of about 100 included both local students and students from Boston, Baltimore, Montreal, and other cities. The school was founded by Jack Abramoff and funded through his Capital Athletic Foundation. He sent two of his three sons to the school. In all, about $5 million of Capital Athletic Foundation's money was directed to the Eshkol Academy operations. For the year 2002 the dean was Rabbi David Lapin, brother of Toward Tradition's Rabbi Daniel Lapin. According to emails revealed during the US Senate hearings into the Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal, David Lapin was paid through Abramoff's Capital Athletic Foundation. Tax records show that Lapin received a total of $60,529 in 2002. The Eshkol Academy closed in 2004 after questions were raised in the press about Abramoff's financial dealings with Indian tribes. The filings of the Capital Athletic Foundation show that Eshkol Academy received a large portion of its contributions: at least $50,000 in 2001, $1,857,704 in 2002, and $2,366,512 in 2003. In addition, CAF purchased for the school's use a van ($26,060), thermal imager ($18,057), and Torah ($17,000). Eshkol purchases included two Zamboni HDs, for a planned but never purchased hockey rink for the school. Furthermore Abramoff established the organization Beis Avrohom Chaim as, according to the 2003 CAF tax return, "a religious organization" that "provides religious services for the congregation and housing for the Eshkol Academy student athletes." In fact, a number of students were housed there. It received $251,242 in 2003 from CAF and purchased a house near to Abramoff's Silver Spring residence to house students from outside the area. It was occupied by students and the school's athletic director/dorm counselor. Beis Avrohom Chaim was incorporated in June 2003 under Maryland law as a religious corporation. The trustees were Jack Abramoff and his wife; Shana Tesler, a former "Team Abramoff" Greenberg Traurig employee; and her husband Samuel Hook. In 2004, thirteen former Eshkol employees sued the Academy, demanding nearly $150,000 in back salary. The teachers' complaint claims that the Capital Athletic Foundation "was used to launder funds from the tribes to Eshkol."