Old Houses Under $50K History Tuesday – The Nelson Homestead Telescope House

History Tuesday at Old Houses Under $50K is for informational purposes only – NOT for sale. We feature properties that cost less than $50K sometime in their history. Today, we focus on the Nelson Homestead,  a telescope house in Crisfield, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

OHU50K NOTES

Family History

The Nelson Homestead, also known as the Elisha Riggin House, was built around 1836 by Crisfield shipbuilder Elisha Riggin. The Riggin family was one of the early families of Maryland, immigrating from Ireland to the Chesapeake Colonies in the mid 17th century, and settling along the Pocomoke Sound. Elisha evidently amassed quite a fortune in shipbuilding, as he purchased 145.5 acres, part of it swampland, in 1839 on which he built this house.

In 1842, Elisha transferred the property to Eliza Roach for the sum of $775.  The next year, Eliza sold the property at a sheriff’s sale to William Nelson (1880-1881) and his wife Ellen Mister Riggin (1811-1884) , a relative of Elisha Riggin. They lived there until William’s deaths in 1881, upon which time their son, Edward L. Nelson, inherited the place.

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Edward had a rather tragic death when he was struck by a truck as he was crossing the road near his telescope house.  Per The Crisfield Times, Edward was like a squirrel, changing directions in the middle of the road when he was struck. Rather startling, the same truck was involved in killing the father of the driver of the truck, Mr. Bosman, just three weeks previously.

No alterations were made to the home until Edward’s only heir, Margaret E. Horsey, inserted a new stair in the middle section. After she died, trustees sold the house in 1966 with 5.52 acres out of the hands of Nelson family heirs.

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A subsequent owner, Jennifer Ferguson Smith of the band Naked Blue was working on restoring the building and utilizing it as an artist retreat, music education and heritage tourism site, but she later sold the home.

Architectural History

Per Wikipedia:

“The three-part wood frame structure rests on a brick pier foundation and is covered by a series of gable roofs. The main part of the house is a three bay structure with a central door. It is attached to a two bay two story structure with central door and a lower roofline, with a two-bay one-story kitchen wing attached. A large brick chimney rises from the east end of the main block and a smaller stack protrudes through the east end of the kitchen wing. About 95% of the original interior woodwork is intact along with some early paint schemes. The finely crafted house is sheathed in cypress and cedar weatherboards and features late Federal style mantels, doors, chair rails and cupboards. The main room of the house has raised panel wainscoting and over-mantel paneling that survives with an early layer of tiger-maple graining. Also on the property is a small frame outbuilding with a gable roof and a family cemetery.

Several other “telescope” style houses remain on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland, but this house stands out as one of the least altered examples with highly unusual woodwork. Unlike most telescope style houses on the Eastern Shore all three blocks of this one appear to have been built at the same time. Due to construction features, mature cut nails, and some Greek Revival influence in part of the woodwork, it is thought the house was built as late as 1836 with paneling traditions and Federal mantel designs that were common in earlier decades. The Elisha Riggin House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. In 2014 it was included in the top 10 most important endangered historic properties by Preservation Maryland / Endangered Maryland.”

Per Wood and Stone Retreat:

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