ing , and equestrian activities of the Seneca Valley Pony Club and Potomac Hunt .
The public drama Montevideo witnessed over 190 years was paralleled by stories rich in mystery and tragedy in its founding family , the Peters of Georgetown .
Builder John Parke Custis Peter was a well-born young man , a
Montevideo got its name from its view of Sugarloaf Mountain . great-grandson of Martha Custis
For decades after the war , Washington and graduate of Yale . In Montevideo sat vacant or was his 20s he served a term in Maryland rented by a series of tenants .
House of Delegates ( 1826-1828 ). He Never modernized with plumbing , was close to his famous uncle , Maj . electricity or central heating , it George Peter , a hero of the Battle was a neglected architectural gem of Bladensburg in the War of 1812 awaiting restoration in 1958 by new and a member of Congress from owners , the Kiplinger family , who Montgomery County . It was at his still live there today . uncle ’ s home , Montanverde ( on today ’ s Berryville Road east of Seneca
In the mid-20th century , Montevideo and the Seneca Historic Creek ), that John at 30 married his District lay in the path of numerous highway plans — promoted by liamsburg , Virginia , Elizabeth Jane
18-year-old second cousin from Wil-
Virginia — to build an Outer Beltway Henderson . John and Jane Peter had and new bridge across the Potomac , to link the Dulles tech cor- died in infancy , and another in ado-
nine children at Montevideo ; one
ridor with I-270 . But for the visionary 1980s campaign to preserve the Peter , as a major county landlescence from a riding accident .
rural lands of western Montgomery owner and businessman , former County as open space , today called state assemblyman and member of the Ag Reserve , Montevideo might a famous family , was chosen by his today be surrounded by suburban peers for various civic posts . He was development on two-acre lots , like elected to head the Darnestown nearby Potomac and Darnestown . board of education in 1839 . He was Instead , its 400 acres will remain also chosen to head the new Montgomery County Agricultural Society , open forever , protected by easements and used for farming , graz- formed in 1846 to promote modern
farming methods and revive the struggling farm economy .
But the ensuing two years , 1847 and ‘ 48 , would be momentous in the Peter family , for good and ill . In March of 1847 the noted New York architect James Renwick , architect for the new Smithsonian Institution building on the Mall , selected Peter ’ s Seneca red sandstone for his Tuscan Revival design . The stone supply contract had a value of possibly $ 80,000 — a vast sum in that era . The following year , 1848 , opened in tragedy for the Peter family . In January , Peter was infected with tetanus from a rusty nail in his thumb . He suffered the painful death called “ lockjaw ,” succumbing on Jan . 19 at the age of 48 , leaving his wife and seven children . At his death , he owned 2,200 acres in Seneca and 24 enslaved men , women and children . Soon after , his grieving widow was consoled by the Rev . Charles H . Nourse , the founding pastor of the Poolesville Presbyterian Church , who two years earlier , as a young widower with a small son , had lived at Montevideo while tutoring the Peter children . His consoling was so successful that he married the widow Peter just 13 months later , moved into Montevideo with his five-year-old boy , and sired two more children with the former Mrs . Peter .
The late Mr . Peter ‘ s mother , Georgetown dowager Martha Custis Peter of Tudor Place ( granddaughter and namesake of America ’ s first First Lady ), was reportedly outraged that her daughter-in-law remarried so soon , vowing “ never to lay eyes
38 plenty I spring sowing 2023