Chance's Desire
Exhibit at the Museum of Rural LifeA “Middling” Planter’s Residence
If John Stevens expected to ruminate peacefully in the new brick dwelling that he erected about 1790, he was much mistaken. The early deaths of his two sons, active militiamen in the American Revolution, had left John by 1800 to help raise in his home eight ceiling-shaking grandchildren, five aged seven years or less.
As was typical for a middle-class or “middling” planter of the time, John had constructed his dwelling with two rooms on the first floor. Meticulous finishes in the western or “parlor” room included a very large and handsome “chimney breast” with thirteen hand-carved raised panels over the fireplace. The parlor was intended for use as a quiet sitting room and for the formal entertainment of guests. Overhead were decorative floor/ceiline joists carved from local poplar trees.
In terms of architectural form, Chance’s Desire was a classic hall-parlor dwelling in which there were two rooms aligned end to end on the ground floor with a fireplace at each gable end. The “hall” room was used for day-to-day functions. John Stevens augmented his hall with a second, more private ground-floor room, used primarily as a parlor or perhaps as a bedroom subsequent to the invasion of his grandchildren. (A wood-frame kitchen was added only generations later, in 1900.)
Among John’s frequent visitors were his daughter Mary, the eventual inheritor of the 500-acre plantation, and her husband, Abraham Evitts. Despite his biblical name, the hot-blooded Abraham, also a former militiaman, was famous locally for the whipping that he had inflicted in 1779 on one James Willson, probably as a result of Revolutionary politics.
Peace was also a problem for subsequent owners. Dr. P. Ovide Cherbonnier was one of 12 men arrested in Denton by Federal troops in 1862 and incarcerated in Fort McHenry for being a supporter of the Confederacy during the Civil War.
By the end of the “Long Depression” (1819- 1894), the former “middling” plantation was occupied by tenant farmers, including the John Kelley family. When the “Canning Boom” (1895-1919) brought prosperity, they were able to purchase a nearby farm and build a “modern” home.
In 1994, a careful inspection of the abandoned and collapsing dwelling near Andersontown led to the discovery of the entire “parlor” room hidden beneath 20th century wall- board. The owner donated the woodwork to the Society, which subsequently rescued it.
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16 N. Second St., Denton, Maryland
Open Saturdays 10 am to 3 pm
April 1 thru November 30
Museum of Rural Life
Other Museum Exhibits
Taylor-Brown House
Built for merchant-broker Solomon Brown in 1819 and later owned by the Taylors, an African American family. This house was moved twice by mule cart and survived the fire that leveled most of Denton on July 4, 1865, when balls of candlewick and kerosene were flung in celebration at a Civil War reconciliation picnic.
Painter’s Range
One-room dwellings were so common at the end of the 18th century that they housed roughly 85% of the inhabitants of southern Delaware and the lower Shore. They became less popular by the mid 1800s. By the time the log dwelling was built on Painter’s Range about 1828, one-room houses in rural areas were associated with “subsistence farmers”; i.e., a family scratching out a living on fifteen to thirty acres.
Chance’s Desire
Typical home of a “middling planter,” circa 1787, Chance’s Desire was a classic hall-parlor dwelling in which there were two rooms aligned end to end on the ground floor with a fireplace at each gable end. Parlor room with large “chimney breast” with thirteen hand-carved raised panels over the fireplace. Overhead were decorative floor/ceiling joists carved from local poplar trees.
Skillington’s Right
Skillington’s Right was built circa 1795, home of the Fraziers, a wealthy planter family. Once said to be the finest specimen of colonial architecture on the upper Choptank. The area along the Great Choptank River between Skillington’s and Edmondson’s Creeks has long been known as “Frazier’s Neck.” It was first surveyed in 1663 for John Edmondson.
WWI - The Great War
Built for merchant-broker Solomon Brown in 1819 and later owned by the Taylors, an African American family. This house was moved twice by mule cart and survived the fire that leveled most of Denton on July 4, 1865, when balls of candlewick and kerosene were flung in celebration at a Civil War reconciliation picnic.
WWII - Lost Lives
In the Lost Lives exhibit, visitors will recognize the names Corregidor, Cuadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Tripolis Мопtе Cassino, The Bulge, Guam, and others. Together with the Letters Home and Romance, our WWII exhibits give visitors compelling and straight-forward insight into how World War impacted Caroline County families.
Sea Stories
Caroline County captains, sailors, and shipbuilders in the Age of Sail and the Age of Steam.
FDR on the Denton Courthouse Green
FDR’s visit on Labor Day 1938 was more than just a big day for Denton. It was also a carefully planned and orchestrated event in FDR’s battle to secure the New Deal.