East New Market

Property Reports

13 Main Street

Carmine-Webster House (1877)

S. Carmine House 2005

Deeds and tax records for the this property from 1859 through 1876 indicate this was a vacant lot.  This vacant lot sold for $250 in 1876.  In 1879, Shadrach Carmine sold the house and lot at this location for $1150.  The footprint of this house appears on the 1877 map.  Shadrach Carmine is listed as an architect, builder, and carpenter in various records.  He built this house around 1877.

A sign in front of the house reads "Webster House circa 1860".  Frank & Olberta Webster and their children owned the house from 1895 to 1955.  The Webster's did not own the house when it was built around 1877.

From the Maryland Historical Trust State Historic Sites Inventory Form

The Webster house stands on the east side of South Main Street in the center of East New Market, Dorchester County, Maryland. The two-story, three-bay side hall/parlor house faces west with the principal gable oriented on a north/south axis.

Built around 1860, the two-story frame house is supported by a minimal brick foundation and sheathed with aluminum siding. The steeply pitched gable roof is covered with asphalt shingles. Attached to the back of the house is a two-story, two-room plan service wing that is extended farther east by a single- story one-room plan section.

The west (main) facade is an asymmetrical three-bay elevation with a side entrance and flanking two-over-four sash windows.  The heavily molded four-panel front door is framed by three-light sidelights and topped by a five-light transom.  The glass is etched. Stretching across the first floor is a Victorian porch with decorative corner brackets.  The second floor is lighted by three two-over-two sash windows.  The cornice is boxed.

The south gable end is pierced by two-over-two sash windows flanked by louvered shutters, and the attic is illuminated by a pair of four-pane lights to either side of an interior end brick stack. The eaves are slightly extended.

Aside from the small four-pane attic windows, the north gable end of the front block is a plain wall of aluminum siding. The east side of the front block is largely covered by the two-story service wing. On the north wall of the wing, a two-story, three-side bay window protrudes with two-over-two or single- pane sash windows. A brick chimney rises through the center of the service wing. The south side is covered on the first floor by a partially enclosed shed-roofed addition. Six-over-six sash windows light the second floor. The service wing is extended farther east by a single-story one-room plan addition.

The interior of the front block has been modified with the removal of the hall partition to make one large front room. The stair, rising against the north wall, is distinguished by a turned newel post with a center octagonal, tapered shaft, turned balusters, and a oval-profile handrail. The stringer has a beaded corner. Opening into the stair closet below is a four-panel door. A mid nineteenth-century style mantel of simple pilasters, a plain frieze, and a thick shelf is fixed against the south wall.

The dining room directly behind the parlor is fitted with a similar mantel and four-panel doors. The rest of the interior was unseen.

Significance - The Webster house stands on the east side of South Main street in the core of the East New Market historic district. The two-story, side hall/parlor frame house is a standard architectural form for the Civil War era, and mid nineteenth-century finishes remain essentially intact within the house. Period exterior features include the Victorian porch, the long two-over-four first floor sash windows, and the sidelighted front entrance. Similar to many other houses from the same period, a two-story, two-room plan service wing extends to the rear.