Waters House History Center

12535 Milestone Manor Lane

Germantown, MD 20876

301-515-2887

Galleries, office and Museum Shop open Wednesday and Saturday, 10-4

or by appointment

For a list of current exhibits and programs at the Waters House History Center please click here.

Directions to the Waters House from 1-270:

Take the Father Hurley Blvd. Exit (16A) toward Route 355 and Damascus. Turn left at the first stop light onto Observation Drive. At the blinking yellow light turn right onto Royal Crown Drive. Go around the circle to Milestone Manor Lane and the house will be ahead on the left.

Directions to the Waters House from Route 355:

Turn west on Ridge Road toward I-270. Turn right at the first stop light onto Observation Drive and follow the directions above.

 

History of the Waters House

The Waters House at Pleasant Fields is the oldest house in Germantown. It was built in three parts, the oldest dating to the mid-1790s. Basil Waters (1761-1844), who built the small brick section of the house and named the farm Pleasant Fields, had inherited 200 acres of land (in the area now known as Germantown) from his father, William Waters, of Brookeville, Maryland. Basil’s brothers, Zacariah, and William were also given land and established farms and homes nearby. A fourth brother, Ignatius, inherited the family home, Belmont, in Brookeville. Although many descendants of the Waters brothers still live in this area, only Basil’s house, Pleasant Fields, still stands.

In 1799 Basil Waters married Anne Pottinger Magruder, daughter of Revolutionary War hero Zadok Magruder. Basil and Anne had six children. Upon Basil’s death, the plantation (now about 656 acres) was inherited by Basil’s youngest son, Zacariah (1809-1871).

Zacariah Waters married his cousin, Eliza Waters (daughter of Basil’s brother, Ignatius). They had one son Bazil (c.1847-1870). Sometime before 1858, Zacariah added the brick and frame, two-story addition that is now the center section of the house. Zacariah’s son, Bazil, died shortly before him and the house and farm were left to Eliza.

Eliza Waters sold Pleasant Fields to her brother, Dr. William Alexander Waters (1828-1907) in 1882. Dr. Waters built the third section of the house to accommodate his growing family in the 1890s. This large, three-story frame addition includes a magnificent spiral staircase in the center hallway that extends to the roof. Porches and ornamental details in the Victorian Italianate style, such as carved brackets and scrolls, were added to unify the exterior.

Dr. Water’s son, Charles Clark Waters (1866-1934), was a horseman who raised and bred standardbred horses at Pleasant Fields. His most famous stud horse was a record-setting trotter named Kinster. The Pleasant Fields Stock Farm was well known in racing circles at the turn-of-the-century. Before 1920, Charles and his son, William, shifted their business from horses to automobiles and opened a Buick dealership in Gaithersburg. The business faltered in the late 1920s near the start of the Great Depression. In 1932, the Waters’s house and 988 acres were sold at public auction to pay the family’s debts.

A small family burial plot now on Hawk’s Nest Lane is the final resting place of Basil and Anne Waters, their children, Susannah, Robert, Zachariah, and Mary, as well as Zacariah’s wife, Eliza, and son, Bazil. Dr. William Waters is also buried there.