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About the Park

harial color.jpg (20304 bytes)Jefferson Patterson and Park and Museum, a 560-acre park , is located along 2.5 miles of Patuxent River waterfront and St. Leonard Creek in Calvert County. Mrs. Jefferson Patterson donated the property to the State of Maryland in 1983.  Archaeological surveys of the property have revealed over 70 sites spanning 9,000 years of human history. Research has also revealed this to be the home of Maryland's first Attorney General, Richard Smith, and his descendant, Margaret Mackall Smith, wife of President Zachary Taylor. During the War of 1812, the largest naval battle in Maryland's history took place  here. The Park is now home to a state history and archaeology museum that explores the changing cultures and environment of the Chesapeake Bay region over the past 12,000 years. 

 
The Visitor Center contains museum exhibits, hands-on Discovery Room for children, and the Show Barn Museum Shop. The Farm Exhibit Building houses a regional collection of Southern Maryland farm equipment, including a 20,000-pound steam traction engine. Three trails take visitors through a mixed hardwood forest or to open fields along the Patuxent River where visitors can see archaeologist's interpretation of 17th century life at the site. 

The museum offers a wide variety of public educational programs for children, adults, and families. Special events, which are offered throughout the public season, include the Celtic Festival of Southern Maryland, African-American Family Community Day, Children's Day on the Farm, War of 1812 Reenactment and Tavern Night, and Native American Technology Day. The summer program in Public Archaeology welcomes visitors to join staff archaeologists as they survey and excavate archaeological sites on the property. 

 

The Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory (MAC Lab), located at Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum, is a 38,000 square foot, state-of-the-art archaeological research, conservation, and collections storage facility. Over 4.5 million artifacts from archaeological sites in Maryland are curated at the MAC Lab. The collections are available for research, education, and exhibit purposes to students, scholars, museum curators, and educators. The Research Library in the MAC Lab contains over 10,000 references dealing with such topics as Native American life, archaeology, history, agriculture, historic agriculture, historic architecture, and the identification and conservation of artifacts, the Chesapeake Bay environment, and museum studies.

Guided Tours of the MAC Lab

The staff is happy to offer tours of the MAC Lab by reservation for a small fee. All ages and size groups are welcome. Each tour is tailored to the specific age and time limitations of the participants. For more information or to make a reservation, contact Kathy Concannon at 410-586-8562 or email: kconcannon@mdp.state.md.us

*New* for 2008, the Lab will have Open House days to introduce new visitors to the facility with a special guided tour – no fee and no reservation required!

Open House Dates for 2008

Times are: 10:00 AM, 12 Noon, & 1:00 PM

  March 14
April 28
May 20
June 25
July 25

August 12
September 15
October 30
November 19
December 11


About the Pattersons

Mr. Jefferson Patterson was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1891. He was the son of Frank Jefferson Patterson, a founder of the National Cash Register Company, and Julia Perrine Patterson. In 1932, between Foreign Service assignments in Constantinople and Breslau, Mr. Patterson purchased Point Farm, the Pattersons' name for this property. Researching modern methods of farming, he established a model farm and raised tobacco, soybeans, corn, and a prize-winning herd of Aberdeen cattle. In 1940, Mr. Patterson met and married Mary Marvin Breckinridge in Berlin. Mr. Patterson was a career diplomat with the Foreign Service and became U. S.. Ambassador to Uruguay in 1956.

Mrs. Jefferson Patterson was born Mary Marvin Breckinridge in New York City in 1905. Mrs. Patterson was known as "Marvin" to her family and friends. Her father was John C. Breckinridge of a Kentucky family well known in state and national politics since the Revolutionary era. Her grandfather, John C. Breckinridge, was Vice President under President Buchanan. He later served as a General and then Secretary of War for the Confederacy. Mrs. Patterson's mother, Isabella Goodrich Breckinridge, was the daughter of B. F. Goodrich. Mrs. Patterson began her professional career as a photojournalist and filmmaker. Her first professional film The Forgotten Frontier, made in 1930, tells the story of the Frontier Nursing Service, a nurse- midwifery health service founded by her cousin, Mary Breckinridge, in the mountains of Kentucky. She traveled extensively and published photographs from her world travels in magazines such as National Geographic, Look, Life, and Harper's Bazaar. During World War II she was hired by Edward R. Murrow, and became one of the first women news broadcasters, reporting from seven European countries for CBS.
When Mr. Patterson purchased the property in 1932, he engaged Miss Gertrude Sawyer, one of the first woman architects in the American Institute of Architects, to design a model farm. She oversaw the construction of 26 beautiful farm buildings. The Pattersons used their Point Farm home to relax and entertain between Foreign Service assignments. After Mr. Patterson's death in 1977, Mrs. Patterson continued to live in their Washington, DC and Point Farm homes. In 1983, Mrs. Patterson donated the Point Farm property, 512 acres, to the State of Maryland, under the stewardship of the Maryland Historical Trust. One of America’s most colorful and generous women,Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, died at her home in Washington, D.C. on December 11, 2002 at the age of 97.

Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum Mission Statement

The Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum is a state museum of archaeology and anthropology that preserves, studies, exhibits, and interprets the diversity of cultures and environments of the property, Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay region for the public and professional communities.

Approved by the Maryland Historical Trust Board of Trustees in 2001.

             
 For additional information and volunteer opportunities contact the Park at 410-586-8501 or jppm@mdp.state.md.us