The Josiah Henson Park is a 1.43 acre historic park home to a small portion of the original Riley plantation where Reverend Josiah Henson lived and worked as a slave from 1795 to 1830. Henson's 1849 autobiography is said to have inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Maryland’s Montgomery County Department of Parks engaged Ziger|Snead Architects to transform the former plantation site and historic home to serve as a public and historical park and house museum with interpretive exhibits. A new respectful and deferential visitor center provides a starting point for the visitor experience with a media- rich orientation room. The original tidewater plantation house dated the early 1800’s, along with the attached log kitchen, is restored with modern interventions that rectify past changes and accommodate interpretative exhibits.
Challenges include: buffering views and noise from the major thoroughfare; navigating steep site topography; delivering a controlled museum environment within the historic house; coordinating site design with mature and historically significant trees and ongoing archaeological exploration; numerous unforeseen conditions during construction; and orchestrating the visitor experience for school groups on a small site.
Overcoming these challenges, the transformed park is a powerful example of stewardship of cultural resources associated with enslavement and the enslaved experience.
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