The Hampstead Barn, Maryland

THE HAMPSTEAD BARN, MARYLAND

Chestnut / 1871 – 2016

The Story of Hampstead. We’re not positive of this barn’s primary use, but we’ve been told it was a tobacco barn for at least part of its long life. Hampstead is a small Maryland town of around 6,000 people, its small town character still firmly in place.

We were amazed to find that this barn was also filled with American Chestnut, which is nearly extinct. American Chestnut was prized during colonial times for its strength, rot resistance and rapid growth. At the turn of the century, a blight swept through the nation’s trees and decimated the population in what has been called “the greatest ecological disaster to strike the world’s forests.” We feel fortunate to have found and preserved this rare, beautiful wood.