Historical Significance:
Melwood Parke House has been visited by many prominent figures over the years, namely Ignatius Digges, Thomas Sim Lee (Twice governor of MD and married to Mary Digges Lee) and George and Martha Washington. Melwood Parke Manor is a multi-period early colonial Maryland Manor house. Many different people have owned the land it was built on over its 360-year recorded history, beginning in 1649 with the property indentured to two ship captains in exchange for bringing colonists from Britain to the recent creation of the Melwood Parke Foundation. Melwood Parke has had a significant role in the development of southern Maryland culture and in the understanding of life in early America.
Historic Marker:
- Marker Date: 1932
- Marker Text: Melwood Parke Patented 1672, the home of Ignatius Digges whose daughter, Mary, married Thomas Sim Lee, twice Governor of Maryland. Lee died here, 1819. General George Washington visited here four times and Martha Washington once. In the War of 1812 British officers stopped here briefly.