Hi there! It is the day before my 35th birthday and I am starting a blog for a very big upcoming endeavor... turning 35. Kidding! We are in the beginning planning stage of renovating an almost 4000 square foot farm house. I decided that I wanted to capture the journey from it's historical relevance to it's future story as our home so that you may follow along.
History of Fox Farm: For those of you who enjoy some Baltimore history --
Taken from https://www.jemicyschool.org/page/about-us/history: "In 1972, Jemicy founders Joyce Bilgrave and David Malin created a camp to serve the needs of children experiencing difficulty in the traditional classroom due to dyslexia and other language-based learning differences. Although primarily established to provide daily tutoring in reading, using the Orton-Gillingham approach, students rode horseback and enjoyed wood shop, archery, tennis, and swimming. The students loved camp and, after eight intensive weeks of tutoring, were able to “hit the ground running” at the start of school. Parents of campers, experiencing their children’s success, encouraged its founders to open a school. The School at Jemicy Farm, as it was initially called, opened its doors on September 12, 1973 with 51 students and 16 faculty members. Renamed “Jemicy” in 1975 after a move to its current location on Celadon Road, the school merged with Valley Academy in 2003, creating the first school in the Baltimore area to accommodate 1 st – 12 th grade students with language-based learning differences."
So what does this actually mean?
Fox Farm belongs to my father-in-law Harry and it was his father, Harry Senior, who lived on the property until he passed in December 2014. As described above, the farm used to be a camp and hosted a swimming pool, tennis court and classrooms. The land has several properties including a pool house and a barn. While the tennis court is no more, there is a flat area of land where it used to sit. In 2015, our family (Harry Junior) began to renovate the property and update the pool and pool house. It is said that Michael Phelps, Baltimore native and multi-Olympic gold medal winner, used to swim in the pool at Fox Farm when he was younger because his father rented a house on the property. While most of the properties at the farm are in some state of disrepair, Harry Junior has single handedly breathed new life back into it and has created a haven, home and get-away for the family. The main property, the farm house, was originally a log-cabin built in the 1800's with several additions to it. My husband, Matt, and I hope to renovate the property and create a beautiful home for our family and two sons, James and Michael.
Future of Fox Farm
We are in the process of getting pricing/bids and learning more about renovating the historic farm house, dating back to the 1800's. Once we determine the next steps I will be able to update the blog to share more about our plans and progress. Yay!
