Preservation of The Sands House

Born in the Sands House in 1910, the late Margery Moss Dowsett was a descendant of John Sands, who bought the house in 1771.

In 1987, she embarked on a major renovation of the Sands House to reclaim it from more than 200 years of wear and tear.  As work got under way, its contents were removed, sorted, puzzled over, and, if possible, restored.  Upon the work’s completion, everything was returned to the house except hundreds of letters and documents, which were placed for safekeeping at the Maryland State Archives.

With a grant from the Maryland Historical Trust, the Sands House Foundation obtained a much needed survey of the condition of the house.  Architectural conservators John G. Lee and Ellen Hagsten went over the building inch-by-inch looking at its exterior, interior crawl spaces, foundation, attic, chimney, and roof.  They found a number of places where deterioration was significant.

Their survey was complete by the fall of 2000 and work began to raise sufficient funds to address the problems of rapidly deteriorating siding, other exterior woodwork, and inadequate guttering.  The work was completed in 2002.  The front windows were stripped, repaired, and painted in 2006, and, in 2007, the plaster was patched and walls painted in the parlor, which is open for public tours.
  
The rest of the windows, the chimney, roof, and interior plaster work are next on the list of restoration projects in the ongoing effort to maintain the house as a viable resource for study and teaching future generations the lessons to be learned from buildings such as the Sands House.

The Sands House Foundation, Inc.
130 Prince George Street
Annapolis, MD 21401

e-mail: Comments@sandshouse.org
© 2006

Margery Moss Dowsett, 2001

Repairs Underway on Front  of House

Repairs Underway on Rear of House