Public to Glimpse 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' -- Montgomery County Heritage Days

James Henson, the great-great-great-nephew of Josiah Henson, at the cabin where his ancestor lived while enslaved on a Montgomery County plantation. (By Hamil R. Harris -- The Washington Post)

"Public to Glimpse 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' " from the Montgomery Extra section of the Washington Post:

The historic "Uncle Tom's Cabin" on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda, recently purchased by Montgomery County, will be open to the public for the first time, for limited hours the weekend of June 24-25. The special opening during Montgomery County's Heritage Days event will provide an opportunity to walk through the 13-by-17-foot 18th century cabin that is the former home of slave Josiah Henson, whose autobiography was the model for Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

The Montgomery County Planning Board purchased the $1 million property -- the cabin, the adjacent three-bedroom house and an acre of land -- in January from the estate of Hildegarde Mallet-Prevost, who died in September at 100.

Guides will lead people in groups of 10 through the cabin and rooms on the first floor of the house during Heritage Days, said Peggy Erickson, executive director of the Heritage Tourism Alliance of Montgomery County. Tours will be offered from noon to 4 p.m. on June 24 and June 25.

Three dozen other historic sites, including many that are rarely open to the public, are on the self-guided route of this year's Heritage Days, an annual celebration of the county's history. The rarely seen sites include St. Paul's Community Church in Poolesville, Warren Church and Historic Site in Martinsburg, Davis House in Hyattstown, Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory in Gaithersburg, and the Latvian Museum in Rockville.

Also on the tour is Montgomery's oldest church, St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, built as a chapel for the Carroll family in 1774, and Montgomery's only winery, Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard, which was established on a restored 85-acre farm in Dickerson.

Index Keywords: cultural-heritage-tourism