Hot property: Historic 19th-century Benson House in Baltimore County hits the market
Address/location: 16308 Falls Road, Sparks Glencoe
Listing price: $795,000
Year built: Around 1850
Last sold/ price: For $330,000 on Feb. 1, 2021
Real estate agent: Todd Morrill of Morrill & Company
Property size: Three bedrooms and four bathrooms on 4.1 acres of land
Unique features: This well-built German farmhouse, variously known as the ”Benson House,” the “Barry House” and “Fox Run,” is on the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties. The home belonged to the family that built Benson’s Mill (located just across Falls Road and half a mile away) in 1805.
The 2004 architectural survey file reads:
“The cellar is the guarantee of antiquity because the joists supporting the first floor are half logs with an occasional flake of bark still attached. These are the largest logs this site surveyor has even seen in county houses: probably made from logs one foot in diameter with many knots left in place with all sorts of gouged-out indentations and adze marks.”
The new owners have modernized the interior; there are three new bathrooms and a second-floor laundry room and the kitchen now boasts a 36-inch range, a central island and breakfast nook. Meanwhile, such period charms as the extra-wide crown molding, covered, wraparound porch, solid wood floors and ceiling fans remain.
There’s even a babbling brook on the property that winds past mature trees and alongside manicured lawns.
A previous owner of this home was Morris A. Mechanic, developer of the former theater at Baltimore and Charles streets that bore his name.
