A Stately Fixer-Upper: Alums Renovate Farmhouse Owned by State of Maryland

Like generations of children, Kara Pleasants ’08, M.Ed. ’09 grew up reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. Pleasants loved them so much that, as a 7-year-old, she wrote to then-President Bill Clinton, suggesting that the country might be better off if it collectively embraced a “Little House on the Prairie”-style life, with Americans growing vegetables, churning butter and building their own houses.

Today, Pleasants is living out part of that dream. She and her husband, David ’09, are renovating a neglected 19th-century farmhouse located on 11 acres in Susquehanna State Park in Harford County, Md. But they won’t own it: In exchange for their work, the state will grant a lifetime, rent-free lease to the couple, who plan to live there with their two young children and two dogs.

The Pleasantses are taking part in the Maryland Resident Curatorship Program, offered since 1982 by the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). It “was really born out of necessity,” says Peter Morrill, curator program manager. “We got to a point where the state owned way more historic properties than we had use for or means to take care of.”

“Without this program, a lot of these properties would just dilapidate,” says David.

Applicants to the program can earn the right to lifetime tenancy in a historic property—often in poor condition—if, with guidance from the DNR, they restore, maintain and occasionally share it with the public. The program includes 48 properties; Morrill says that people who apply often fall into one (or more) of three categories: “outdoorsy park types,” “old-building nerds who really like old structures” and people who see it as a form of public service.

The Pleasantses are all three. The couple had been looking to buy a house with farmland, generally an expensive proposition. The property—which the Pleasantses call “the Stump farmhouse” after its original owners—“popped up in one of our searches,” says David.

In 2015, after submitting a proposal detailing how, over the course of five to seven years, they’d rehabilitate the property by investing $180,000 in capital and “sweat equity,” the Pleasantses began the daunting task of working on the farmhouse, parts of which date to 1790.

The couple is more qualified than many to take on the substantial work: David, who grew up in rural Montana, has both a background in construction work and a degree in history; Kara, the daughter of missionaries, spent much of her childhood in Siberia. They share a love for the outdoors—and a DIY attitude.

That’s a good thing. Approaching the Stump farmhouse, down a gravel road off one of the paved roads in Susquehanna State Park, is its own adventure (“There is a culvert over a small creek to cross over—it’s in rough shape, but we go over it with our Honda Accord just fine,” Kara warned before a visit).

The farmhouse needs, among other things, new plumbing, electrical and heating systems; new bathrooms; lead abatement; and a new roof, which David has started laying in slate. “As you start opening things up, you find something new,” says Kara.

For much of the 20th century, a family called the Gardners owned the farmhouse after purchasing it from the Stumps’ descendants. A member of the Gardner family lived in the small, oldest part of the structure until 2012, but the rest of the house has been largely unoccupied since about the 1970s.

The Pleasantses expect to take the full seven years allotted them to renovate the farmhouse and its outbuildings, including a barn, a shed, a smokehouse, hog huts and a springhouse, a small structure built over a natural spring that holds the mechanisms delivering running water to the house.

David works full-time on the farmhouse mostly solo, with occasional help from Kara’s father, a mason, while Kara teaches online professional writing courses for the University of Maryland. David’s already gutted the oldest part of the house, but “it’s a slow process,” he says. “Maybe there’s a wall I want to remove—I can’t just do that. The idea is to keep as much historical integrity as possible,” though Morrill does note that some updates—like modern kitchens and bathrooms—are allowed.

Progress on the house was also put on the back burner when the couple’s now-9-month-old daughter was born three months early. Until the house is habitable, the family of four is living in a house they purchased just a few miles away.

For the Pleasantses, the time, sweat and money are a worthwhile investment in a piece of Maryland history. “That’s why he’s putting slate on the new roof,” says Kara. “We’re hoping it’ll last another 100 years.”