Adaline Wheatley House

This image has been added to all of the PRINTS galleries.

The Spocott Windmill and Village is located six miles outside of Cambridge, MD. In the beautiful Dorchester County countryside. It is a living museum taking a look back at life on this corner of the Eastern Shore, from the colonial years up to World War II. If you are interested, you can check out its official website at: https://www.spocottwindmill.org. The Spocott Windmill and Village is open all year long and most of the buildings are accessible to the public. The windmill itself is a working replica that the museum only operates twice a year for demonstration purposes. Several buildings that served the estate and the surrounding community have been recreated or preserved and moved to the Spocott Windmill and Village site. This includes the Muse LeCompte Doctor’s Office, the Lloyd’s Country Store, the one room Castle Haven Schoolhouse, the Spocott estate blacksmith’s building, and the Adaline Wheatley House. The Adaline Wheatley House was built between 1775 and 1825 and moved to different locations on the estate over the centuries. After the American Civil War it became the home to Adaline and former Spocott slave Columbus Wheatley. Adaline and Columbus spent the rest of their lives in that house and raised seven children. Their descendants continually lived in the house up into the 1950’s.

My greatest source of happiness with this image comes from Dottie. I was standing inside the Adaline Wheatley House and capturing images of the downstairs interior. I was thinking about rendering these images into a black and white format to get a moody period piece. What caught my attention the most was a rocking chair being illuminated by the sunshine coming through the window. Light and shadows are the best recipe for black and white photography. The final image here is cropped from a much larger view and I decided that it was better to not render it into a black and white format. Before I settled on the final version, I showed these images to Dottie.

I had indeed captured a moody period piece, but was surprised at what mood it evoked. There was a preexisting outbuilding located on the property that Dottie’s parents built their house on, in Trappe, MD. It was the weathered remains of the original tenant house that belonged on the colonial era estate that she remembers being known as, “Rosehill Farm”. She loved the building and made it into, “The Clubhouse”. Dottie pointed out the similarities between the two buildings, down to the same staircase leading to the same doorway up to the second floor. For Dottie, this image brings back fond memories from her childhood. And this shocked me, because I was hoping for and somewhat frightened that the empty rocking chair would evoke too much of a somber and somewhat sad emotional response. Her response was definitely not what I was expecting, in a wonderful way. So, I dedicate this image to Dottie and her memories. And thank you for letting me share this, too. Enjoy!