Devin Kimmel, AIA, ASLA, of Kimmel Studio Architects, has been awarded the 2023 John Russell Pope Award in Historic Preservation for the innovative restoration of Cloverfields. The four-year multi-million dollar project restored the illustrious eastern shore estate to its 18th-century grandeur.
About the award, Kimmel said, “Receiving the John Russell Pope Award means so much. Cloverfields is about the past but also the present and future. The project was a beautiful interplay of colonial and contemporary design and methods, giving us a rich sense of the timeless that transfers to our work today, whether it is a mixed residential and commercial development, a custom home, or a new museum.”
When originally built in 1705, Cloverfields was one of the largest homes on Maryland’s eastern shore. It is now one of Maryland’s oldest intact buildings and a rare example of its colonial architecture. It includes the oldest surviving staircase south of the Mason-Dixon Line and a classically-inspired cornice, an incredibly rare feature for the time.
William Hemsley, son of the original owner, Philemon Hemsley, was a prominent statesman who participated in the Continental Congress and the Maryland Convention that ratified the US Constitution in 1788. Before the American Civil War, 85 enslaved persons and additional indentured servants worked the fields of the 1,500-acre farm and the house, 27 outbuildings, an icehouse, and a mill.
The Cloverfields Preservation Foundation decided to restore the historic estate in 2017, assembling a team of expert architects, archaeologists, historians, landscape architects, dendrochronologists, botanists, craftsmen, and others. As lead architect and landscape architect, Mr. Kimmel developed the project’s master plan, design, and working drawings, balancing faithfulness to the original character of the home and gardens while also integrating contemporary materials, construction methods, and sustainability measures.
Kimmel’s team also used ground-penetrating radar, archaeological discoveries, and period writings to discover and re-establish the remarkable but forgotten formal gardens of Cloverfields. Its plantings, including nearly 700 boxwoods, over 6,000 perennials, and 85,000 bulbs, are a spirited interpretation of the garden when the estate was at its finest in 1784. In recognition of this work, Kimmel received the Maryland Association of Landscape Architects Merit Award in General Design.
Restoration of the home and gardens began in 2018 and was completed in 2022. Restoration of the out-buildings is ongoing. Located in Queen Anne’s County, the restored home and gardens now operate as a private museum for exhibitions, research, and educational programming.
