When you ask Beverly and Ray Compton why they bought their cavernous, 100-year-old farmhouse just north of Frederick in 1980, Beverly has a disarming answer: “We bought it to live and be happy in.” And indeed it seems this warm couple is happy here, though the road to inhabiting the house was paved with hard work interspersed with joyful architectural surprises. While restoring the Italianate and Gothic Revival structure, the Comptons found details that seemed too good to be true:
engraved designs in the glass of the front door, random-width hardwood floors, faux-marble mantels, antique William Morris wallpaper, and a wet-plaster fresco on the ceiling of the old billiard room—now a first-floor guest room. Some of these design points had been damaged over the years, but after a thor-ough cleaning, they stand as witnesses to another time and lifestyle. Ray is the son ofa Chadd’s Ford, Pennsylvania, an-tiques dealer, and perhaps his penchant for restoration is in his blood; in 1990 he received an award from the Historical Society of Frederick for the work he’s done here. Beverly haunts local auctions and flea markets, and during the week she commutes to a federal job in Rockville.
The brick house is built in textbook-per-fect telescoping style, with porches stretching across the front and along two stories on the side. The backyard gives way to farmland; the 20th century rarely intrudes at Spring Bank, despite its proximity to Highway 15. Choose your room upon arrival; the converted billiard parlor and the Sleigh Bedroom on the second floor are favorites, both sparely decorated with East lake-style antiques. In keeping with the 19th-century ethos the baths have not been extensively modernized—no whirlpool tubs or French magnifying mirrors here.
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