Maryland Historical Trust Inventory No.

15-73

Maryland Inventory of
Historic Properties Form

1. Name of Property (indicate preferred name)

historic Basil Warfield Farm

other Raymond Warfield Farm

2. Location
street and number Multiple—see continuation sheet not for publication

city, town Gaithersburg vicinity

county Montgomery

3. Owner of Property (give names and mailing addresses of all owners)

name Dorothy E Warfield et al

street and number 8251 Damascus Road telephone
city, town Gaithersburg state MD zip code 20882

4. Location of Legal Description

courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. Montgomery County liber 35935 folio 680
city, town Rockville tax map tax parcel P300 tax ID number 01-10395

5. Primary Location of Additional Data

Contributing Resource in National Register District
Contributing Resource in Local Historic District
Determined Eligible for the National Register/Maryland Register
Determined Ineligible for the National Register/Maryland Register
Recorded by HABS/HAER
Historic Structure Report or Research Report at MHT
Other:

6. Classification
Category Ownership Current Function Resource Count
district public agriculture landscape Contributing Noncontributing
building(s) private commerce/trade recreation/culture buildings
structure both defense religion sites
site domestic social structures
object education transportation objects
funerary work in progress Total
government unknown
health care vacant/not in use Number of Contributing Resources
industry other: previously listed in the Inventory
7. Description Inventory No. 15-73

Condition
excellent deteriorated
good ruins
fair altered

Prepare both a one paragraph summary and a comprehensive description of the resource and its various elements as it
exists today.

The Warfield Farm is a 90‐acre property located on the north side of Damascus Road.  The farm property extends 
from Long Corner Road on the east to an area west of Mullinix Mill Road. The property includes the main farmstead 
(8251), accessed from a long driveway off Damascus Road, and a tenant house, located east on Damascus Road at 
8201.  A tributary of Scotts Branch runs between the farmstead and the tenant house.   
 
Set on a knoll overlooking Damascus Road, the farmstead commands a fine vantage point. The house, sheltered in a 
grove of mature trees, is a fine example of a Gothic inspired center cross gable house with full width porch.  Due 
east of the house is a timberframe bank barn built in 1916. The main driveway leads to the wagon ramp on the 
south side of the barn.  The structure is covered with vertical board siding and a metal roof.  Each gable end of the 
roof ridge is punctuated by an ornate sheet metal ventilator. A shed roof corn crib with vertical siding extends from 
the northwest gable end.  The bottom stable level had box stalls to accommodate horses.  They were later replaced 
with stanchions to house milking cows.  After the dairy barn was constructed this lower level was used for storage. 
One story loafing sheds extend behind the bank barn. 
 
South of the bank barn is a concrete block dairy barn constructed in two stages.  Built in 1930 was the northern 
section of the dairy barn and the milk house.  The original barn was seven bays by three bays with a gambrel roof.  
The barn and milk house are built of tan‐gray panel‐faced concrete blocks with contrasting white blocks used as 
quoins around window and door openings and at the building corners. The milk house has a gable roof accented on 
each end with a small metal ventilator. A brick chimney pierces the west slope of the roof near the south gable end.  
In 1951, the dairy barn was extended with a five bay extension on the south end.  This addition uses compatible 
panel‐faced blocks and white accent blocks, giving the barn a unified appearance.  The older northern section of the 
barn has 12‐light wood sash windows that tilt inward. The 1951 section has 2/2 metal sash.  The bottom sash is 
fixed and top upper sash is hinged to tilt inward. Two tall, gabled dormers on the north slope of the roof provide 
access to the hayloft.   
 
Two silos stand near the north end of the dairy barn. The westernmost one is a terra cotta silo with a sheet metal 
dome roof.    To the east is a rusticated concrete block silo with internal reinforcing.  The latter has a dual‐slope 
sheet metal roof surmounted by a small spire.     

East of the dwelling house, and across the driveway from the dairy barn, are two small concrete block buildings 
dating from the 1920s.  Built before the dairy barn, these structures were used for a dairy and a storage building 
when the bank barn houses milking cows.  The southernmost building is built of rockfaced block.  The northern 
building is of smooth‐faced concrete block with darker brown blocks used among gray ones.  Nearby stood a 
windmill marked by a concrete pad that covers a well head.  

Northeast of the dwelling house is an ell‐shaped shed‐roof hen house dating from the 1920s. On its western corner 
is attached a terra cotta block privy.  Other buildings include a Quonset hut (north of the dwelling house) and 
several wood or concrete block sheds. A log barn that had been located near the house was the oldest structure on 
the farmstead.  It was moved to a back field on the farm by 1987. 

East on Damascus Road is a dual entrance tenant house, located at 8201 Damascus Road.  The two story, side gable 
structure has a center chimney.  The house has a symmetrical front façade and full width porch.  The four bay first 
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No.15-73

Historic Properties Form

Name Warfield Farm

Continuation Sheet

Number 7 Page 1

level has entrance doors in the inner two bays.  Outer bays contain 2/2 sash windows.  On the second level are 
three symmetrically arranged windows with 1/1 replacement sash. 
 
A non‐contributing contemporary dwelling house, 8131 Damascus Road, stands behind the tenant house. 
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No.15-73

Historic Properties Form

Name Warfield Farm

Continuation Sheet

Number 7 Page 2

 
 
Basil Warfield Farm,  Looking north 
Dwelling house, left; dairy barn at right. 
12‐2007
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No.15-73

Historic Properties Form

Name Warfield Farm

Continuation Sheet

Number 7 Page 3

 
 
Basil Warfield Farm, Looking west 
Bank barn, right; dairy barn, left; dwelling house, left background. 
12‐2007 
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No.15-73

Historic Properties Form

Name Warfield Farm

Continuation Sheet

Number 7 Page 4

 
 

 
 
Dairy Barn 
Looking east 
Andrea Rebeck, 1987 photograph 
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No.15-73

Historic Properties Form

Name Warfield Farm

Continuation Sheet

Number 7 Page 5

 
Poultry house with attached terra cotta privy 
1987 photograph, Andrea Rebeck 
 
 
 
 
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No.15-73

Historic Properties Form

Name Warfield Farm

Continuation Sheet

Number 7 Page 6

  
 
Concrete block dairy buildings, 1920s 
1987 photograph, Andrea Rebeck
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No.15-73

Historic Properties Form

Name Warfield Farm

Continuation Sheet

Number 7 Page 7

 
Basil Warfield Tenant House, 8201 Damascus Road, 12‐2007 photographs 
 

 
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No.15-73

Historic Properties Form

Name Warfield Farm

Continuation Sheet

Number 7 Page 8

LOAFING 
SHEDS 

BANK BARN 
DWELLING 
HOUSE 

SILOS 
CONCRETE 
DAIRIES 

DAIRY BARN/ 
MILK HSE 
8. Significance Inventory No. 15-73

Period Areas of Significance Check and justify below

1600-1699 x agriculture economics health/medicine performing arts
1700-1799 archeology education industry philosophy
X 1800-1899 x architecture engineering invention politics/government
X 1900-1999 art entertainment/ landscape architecture religion
2000- commerce recreation law science
communications ethnic heritage literature social history
community planning exploration/ maritime history transportation
conservation settlement military other:

Specific dates 1893 Architect/Builder

Construction dates 1893, 1930, 1951

Evaluation for:

National Register Maryland Register not evaluated

Prepare a one-paragraph summary statement of significance addressing applicable criteria, followed by a narrative discussion of the
history of the resource and its context. (For compliance projects, complete evaluation on a DOE Form – see manual.)

The Warfield Farm includes an outstanding collection of residential and agricultural buildings that form one of the 
most complete farmsteads in the region with a high level of integrity. Set on a knoll overlooking Damascus Road, 
the farmstead commands a fine vantage point. The house, sheltered in a grove of mature trees, is a fine example of 
a Gothic inspired center cross gable house with full width porch.  Prominently located east of the house is a 
gambrel roof dairy barn (1930) with milk house.  Two silos are significant features that are uncommon in the area:  
a terra cotta silo with dome roof and a concrete block silo.  Farm buildings dating from the 1920s include two small 
concrete block buildings‐‐a dairy building and a storage building—and an ell‐shaped poultry house with attached 
terra cotta block privy.   
 
This farmstead was established by Basil T. Warfield (1859‐1931).  Warfield acquired 96 acres of land from the 
Etchison estate in 1893.  The property was part of the Etchison Farm on which the Etchison log house was built  
(Resource #14‐3).  Basil T. Warfield was the son of Hamilton G. Warfield (born 1817).  Basil married Alice F. 
Mullinix in 1886.  The Warfields likely built the house soon after they acquired the property in 1893.  They also 
built a bank barn, later destroyed by fire.  Undeterred, Basil and Alice Warfield built a new bank barn in 1916.1   
 
Basil and Alice Warfield had four children, born between 1890 and 1898. The family had dairy cows by the 1920s.  
They built two structures near the house for their dairy operation.  In 1930, the family built a dairy barn and milk 
house in keeping with modern sanitary practices.  Basil died in 1931.  His oldest child Raymond inherited the 
property. 2  
 
Raymond Warfield operated a thriving dairy operation on the family farmstead.  He built the first dairy barn in 
1930.  Raymond had married Bessie L Allnutt (1886‐1931) with whom he had two children:  Basil T, born 1917, 
and Clyde, born 1925. His wife Bessie died in 1931, the same year as his father.  Raymond later married Dorothy E 
Watkins (1900‐1970).  They had three children together: Dorothy E, Raymond L and Ellis K.  Their youngest was 
born in 1942.3   

1Deed 38:194.  William Hurley, Warfield Family History, pp87‐88.    
2Basil Warfield will PEW 20:143.  Deed 588:271 (1935). 
3
Raymond’s brother Mehrle Basil Warfield built a nearly identical dairy barn in 1930 on his farm at 7301 Damascus Road. 
Resource 15‐27.    
Maryland Historical Trust
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Historic Properties Form

Name
Continuation Sheet

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The dairy farm prospered and the Warfields expanded the dairy barn in 1951.  Raymond’s mother Alice died in 
1955.  Dorothy E. Warfield died in 1970, and Raymond L Warfield died in 1979.  The farmstead was conveyed to  
Raymond’s children Dorothy E, Clyde G., and Raymond L, in 1980. 4   
 

4 Deed 5527:464. 
9. Major Bibliographical References Inventory No. 15-73

See continuation sheet.

10. Geographical Data

Acreage of surveyed property
Acreage of historical setting
Quadrangle name Quadrangle scale:

Verbal boundary description and justification

11. Form Prepared by

name/title Catherine Crawford, Clare Lise Kelly
organization M-NCPPC date 11-2009
street & number telephone
city or town state

The Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties was officially created by an Act of the Maryland Legislature
to be found in the Annotated Code of Maryland, Article 41, Section 181 KA,
1974 supplement.

The survey and inventory are being prepared for information and record purposes only
and do not constitute any infringement of individual property rights.

return to: Maryland Historical Trust

Maryland Department of Planning
100 Community Place
Crownsville, MD 21032-2023
410-514-7600
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No.

Historic Properties Form

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Continuation Sheet

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
Crawford, Catherine.  Raymond Warfield Farm, 15‐73, MHT State Historic Sites Inventory Form, 8‐1987. 
 
Crawford, Catherine.  Mehrle Warfield Farm, 15‐72, MHT State Historic Sites Inventory Form, 8‐1987. 
 
Hurley, William, Warfield Family History, pp87‐88.    
 
Montgomery County Land Records Deed 38:194.   
Maryland Historical Trust
Maryland Inventory of Inventory No. 15-73

Historic Properties Form

Name Basil Warfield Farm

Continuation Sheet

Number 2 Page 1

Location

Premise addresses located on Tax ID 01-10395:

8251 Damascus Road - Main Dwelling and Farmstead

8201 Damascus Road – Tenant House, dual entrance structure

8131 Damascus Road – Non-Contributing dwelling located behind tenant house