---

Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings

	ELLERSLIE Maryland
Location: Charles County, on Howard Drive, which runs south from Md. 6, Port Tobacco.

Ellerslie was the birthplace of Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer in 1723 and his home for the first four decades of his life. In 1720 his father had acquired the plantation, then known as Coates Retirement. In 1934 fire destroyed the house in which the signer was born. The existing residence on the property was built around 1740 by his older brother, Daniel Jenifer, who had inherited the estate in 1728, but Daniel of St. Thomas undoubtedly visited it and may have resided in it.

Daniel apparently constructed a two-bay cottage, which contained four rooms, two on each floor. About five decades later, he attached a two-story, three-bay section to the south of the earlier structure. This created the present rectangular, five-bay facade.

The carefully restored framehouse is in excellent condition. A pair of hipped exterior brick chimneys flank each end of the residence, whose gable roof is covered with metal. Shutters and a one-bay, gable-roofed porch, supported by slender columns, enrich the facade. A small, one-story wing, built on the main axis, adjoins the house on the north. A similar structure once stood at the south end, but it was removed long ago.

On the first floor, the kitchen and dining room are north of the center hall. Two large parlors, connected by double doors, are to the south. Four bedrooms occupy the second floor.

After his death at Annapolis in 1790, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer was buried at Ellerslie. A private residence today, it is not open to the public.