fletchertown (71a-022) · fletchertown (71a-022) fletchertown is a late-nineteenth-century rural...

Fletchertown (71A-022) Fletchertown is a late-nineteenth-century rural African-American community in northeastern Prince George’s County. The community is located south of Huntington and northwest of Bowie. The historic community of Fletchertown is centered around Old Fletchertown Road. In the late nineteenth century, Gabriel Fletcher, an African-American farmer, began purchasing land to establish a farm for his family near Bowie. In 1892, Fletcher purchased lot number 6 from the estate of George W. Wood. Fletcher purchased the 13.5-acre lot for $150.1 The following year at a public auction, Fletcher purchased lot seven for $500, which contained 6.32 acres.2 Gabriel Fletcher was born circa 1857 in Maryland. The 1880 Census lists Fletcher as a single 23-year-old mulatto living with his mother and siblings in Queen Anne, Prince George’s County. His occupation is listed as laborer.3 By 1900, the census notes Fletcher living in Bowie with his wife of 14 years, Virginia, and their five children. He is listed as owning his home and his occupation is listed as farmer. After Gabriel and his wife purchased their land near Bowie, members of the extended Fletcher family, including Gabriel’s mother and brother, moved to the area. The majority of their neighbors either farmed or worked for the railroad.4 By 1910, the census notes that the small community was known as “Fletchertown.”5 Because of Fletchertown’s proximity to Bowie, the small village never became self-sufficient and remained a rural residential area. Residents traveled to the railroad village of Bowie for necessities, social activities, and church.6 Before the 1920s, African-American children in Fletchertown traveled to Bowie to attend school at Horsepen Hill. As the population of Fletchertown increased, the community petitioned to have a school constructed in the area. In 1921, the Prince George’s County Board of Education recommended constructing one school to serve the residents of both Fletchertown and Ducketsville, another small African-American village on the outskirts of Bowie. Both communities protested and the Board of Education eventually relented, allowing each village to have its own school. The Fletchertown Elementary School was funded by bonds and the Rosenwald Fund. The one-room schoolhouse finally opened in 1922 and served up to 50 children at a time through grade seven.7 In 1952, the Board of Education sold the schoolhouse for $1200 and it was subsequently converted into a private residence.8 The schoolhouse is no longer extant. In the mid-twentieth century, Fletchertown remained a small rural village, however residents began selling off portions of their property and new houses were constructed in the community. Development has continued in the late twentieth century with the late-1990s subdivision of Nazario Woods (located on the south side of Old Fletchertown Road), the 1990s subdivision of Northridge (located northwest and west of Fletchertown), and the platting of “Pheasant Ridge” in 2006 by Capitol Development Design, Inc. (located on the north side of Old Fletchertown Road).9

1 Prince George’s County Land Records, Circuit Court, JWB 18:517. 2 Prince George’s County Land Records, Circuit Court, JWB 33:433. 3 1880 U.S. Federal Census, Maryland, Prince George’s County, Queen Anne, District 127, p. 153, line 28, Gabriel Fletcher. 4 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Maryland, Prince George’s County, Bowie, District 106, sheet 5, line 86, Gabriel Fletcher. 5 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Maryland, Prince George’s County, Bowie, District 76, sheet 11. 6 Susan G. Pearl, African-American Heritage Survey, 1996 (Upper Marlboro: M-NCPPC, 1996), 53. 7 Susan G. Pearl, “Fletchertown “Colored” School (PG: 71A-22),” Maryland Historical Trust State Historic Sites Inventory Form (May 1983), 8:1; Prince George’s County Historical and Cultural Trust, “Julius Rosenwald Schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland,” http://www.pgchct.org/rosenwald.html. 8 “Old School Houses Are Sold at Auction,” The Washington Post, 10 September 1952. 9 Prince George’s County Land Records, Circuit Court, Plat Book NLP 153:34; Prince George’s County Land Records, Circuit Court, Plat Book NLP 149:53-86; Prince George’s County Land Records, Circuit Court, Plat Book REP 213:28.

Fletchertown (71A-022) 2

There are currently no designated Historic Sites or Historic Resources in Fletchertown.

Windshield Survey A windshield survey of Fletchertown was conducted in November 2007. The survey area consists of approximately 32 primary resources. The community contains a variety of buildings constructed between circa 1890 and the present. Approximately three buildings in Fletchertown were constructed prior to 1930. These include a late-nineteenth-century I-house, a circa 1924 Foursquare (Noble Strother House), and a vernacular dwelling constructed circa 1910. The overwhelming majority of resources in the area were constructed between 1990 and the present. Styles represented in Fletchertown include the Colonial Revival and illustrations of the Modern Movement. Building forms present in the community include the I-house, Foursquare, bungalow, ranch houses, and minimal traditional houses. Houses in the subdivision of Nazario Woods on the south side of Old Fletchertown Road are two-story, five-bay, side-gabled dwellings with a central projecting front-gabled bay. The facades of the houses are covered with a brick veneer, while the side and rear elevations are clad with vinyl siding. All of the houses have an attached garage on a side elevation. Fletchertown is exclusively residential and is composed of single-family dwellings. The topography of the neighborhood is hilly and houses are set on irregular lots of varying sizes. Private roads off of Old Fletchertown Road provide access to houses located between Old Fletchertown Road and the Northridge subdivision to the west.

Historic District Evaluation Fletchertown represents several Prince George’s County Heritage Themes including African-American history and residential architectural styles. Despite the community’s historic significance, Fletchertown is not eligible for listing as either a local historic district, or as a National Register Historic District. Further, the community is not eligible under the National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form for African-American Historic Resources in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The extant historic dwellings in Fletchertown do not meet the requirements for listing as an African-American settlement. These requirements include the community having a surviving communal or institutional building (a church, social hall, school, or municipal building), at least 30% of the houses present during the period of significance of the district must survive, and the pattern of streets and size of original lots must be present. Fletchertown lacks the architectural integrity necessary to convey its historic significance as a late-nineteenth-century rural African-American community. Fletchertown retains only three buildings that date from the late nineteenth or early twentieth centuries and it is unclear if any of these buildings have a historic association with Gabriel Fletcher. Both the Fletchertown School (13106 Old Fletchertown Road) and the Nettie Brown House (13011 Old Fletchertown Road) have been demolished since Susan Pearl’s survey of African-American resources in 1996. Further, the recent resubdivision of property in the community has changed the size of the original lots. The majority of dwellings in Fletchertown date from 1950 to 2000 and the increasing suburban growth in and around Fletchertown has impacted the historic setting of the community. As a whole, Fletchertown does not retain integrity of design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, or association. Prepared by EHT Traceries, Inc. January 2008


Fletchertown, 2005 Aerial

= 2007 survey area

Fletchertown, Martenet, 1861

= 2007 survey area


Fletchertown, Hopkins, 1878

= 2007 survey area


= 2007 survey area



= 2007 survey area


Looking southwest, 13101-13033 Old Fletchertown Road (EHT Traceries, 2007)


Looking southeast, 13117-13121 Old Fletchertown Road (EHT Traceries, 2007)


Looking northwest, 7702 Pheasant Ridge Court (formerly 13104 Old Fletchertown Road) (EHT

Traceries, 2007)


Looking north, 7602 Pheasant Ridge Court (formerly 13106 Old Fletchertown Road) (EHT

Traceries, 2007)


Looking northwest, 13016-12914-12916-12918 Old Fletchertown Road (EHT Traceries, 2007)


Looking north, 12908 Old Fletchertown Road (EHT Traceries, 2007)


Looking northeast, 12500 Fletchertown Road, Noble Strother House (EHT Traceries, 2007)


Looking north, 12710 Fletchertown Road (EHT Traceries, 2007)


Looking northwest, 7510 High Bridge Road (EHT Traceries, 2007)

fletchertown (71a-022) · fletchertown (71a-022) fletchertown is a late-nineteenth-century rural...

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