Linden Farm

Before 1840, Montgomery County farms grew tobacco and corn as their main crops. In 1845, guano fertilizer made grain a new cash crop that also fed livestock, and the 1873 opening of nearby Dickerson Train Station on the Metropolitan Railroad gave farmers access to a viable market for grain and cattle, helping spark a regional economic boom. To support his expanding operation, owner Laurence A. White and his wife Annie built a Feed and Bank Barn, a Board and Batten Cottage, a Corncrib, and a Carriage House that later became a Tractor Shed. With their seven children, the family raised wheat, corn, milk cows, and sheep from 1883 until 1919. After White retired in 1919, George and Mabel Furzer bought the property, and the business prospered until the Great Depression forced a bankruptcy sale at a Sheriff's Auction. Walter Matthews bought the property for $7,500 in 1932. Reflecting a 1930s entrepreneurial approach to farming and the risks weather posed to cash crops, production shifted entirely to dairy, and loafing sheds were added behind the barn and silo. In 1935, Matthews turned part of the farm into a neighborhood gathering place for picnics, celebrations, and parties. In 1980, Montgomery County bought the property from the Matthews family. While preserving the rustic 19th-century appearance of the property and its buildings, the county first converted part of it into an interim sludge compost facility that closed in 1983 and later into a leaf compost facility. Today, the renovated Montgomery County Yard Trim Compost Facility recycles grass and leaves into compost sold in area stores under the brand names LeefGRO and ComPRO. The original farmhouse near the entrance burned in 1990, and two years later the Gothic Barn was designated on the Montgomery County Plan for Historic Preservation as one of only three gothic-roofed dairy barns in the county. Now leased to the Sugarloaf Citizens Association, the Gothic Barn, the Feed and Bank Barns, Corn Crib, and Board and Batten House have been fully renovated.

Maryland · United States