The Conservancy of Broad Creek

The Conservancy of Broad Creek works to preserve the history and ecology of Fort Washington.

Articles and Updates

  • Update on the Broad Creek Woods (2024-2025)

    Update on the Broad Creek Woods (2024-2025)

    After the successful removal of invasive bamboo, we began the reforestation of the “liberated” area in 2024. We planted some 1,000 tree seedlings.

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  • The Broad Creek Woods

    The Broad Creek Woods

    On December 13, 2013, Milton Peterson, developer of National Harbor, donated 72 acres of land along Livingston Road to the The Conservancy of Broad Creek. Mr. Peterson said he was happy to give the land to the historic district’s Conservancy because he believed in the organization’s goals of preserving the land. “This group is absolutely

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  • Harmony Hall Manor

    Harmony Hall Manor

    Harmony Hall is a Georgian-style country house built c. 1760, probably by a wealthy merchant named Enoch Magruder. In 1662, the current Harmony Hall property was patented as “Battersea,” and was the site of one of the earliest settlements in the region. According to local legend, the house was renamed Harmony Hall during the 1790s,

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  • St. John’s Episcopal Church

    St. John’s Episcopal Church

    King George’s Parish (originally called Piscataway Parish) was established in 1692 as one of the thirty original Church of England parishes in Maryland. The first St. John’s church was built in 1695 on a tract known as Little Hall. The parish came to be known as the “mother church” of many others established in the

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  • Want Water

    Want Water

    By the late 1600s, the Addison family was an influential Maryland family. In 1706, Addison’s son Thomas patented a tract of land on the northwest boundary of Battersea, which he called Want Water. Want Water, or Lyles House, was constructed (c. 1706). In 1736, John Addison, the eldest son of Thomas Addison, sold the 35-acre

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