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The Humphrey Humphreys house, documented by an inscribed board to 1856, stands prominently along Broad Street in the center of Salisbury. Designed in the Greek Revival style popular during the mid-nineteenth century, the three-story, center hall, double-pile frame dwelling boasts well-preserved exterior and interior surfaces that indicate few alterations have been made to the house over the course of 150 years. The five-bay south elevation is symmetrically arranged with a center entrance and flanking six-over-six sash windows. The windows and front door are accented with molded cornices. The double-leaf front door is distinguished further by sidelights and a multi-pane transom. Surviving on each sidelight is a corresponding louvered shutter. Stretching across the first floor is an original Greek Revival porch featuring square paneled posts that support a flat roof trimmed with a mid-nineteenth- century neoclassical entablature. Highlighting the corners of the house are paneled pilasters that rise to the top of the second story, where the siding shifts from plain weatherboards to flush board sheathing. Characteristic of a small collection of mid-nineteenth-century Greek Revival dwellings in Salisbury is the low third floor, which is pierced by small rectangular windows. The top of the wall is finished with a bold cornice that repeats the style of the porch cornice. The house is the earliest known expression of this Greek Revival form on the lower Eastern Shore.

Inside, the Humphreys house retains all of its mid-nineteenth-century woodwork, including Greek Revival mantels, bold ogee backband surrounds, and plaster ceiling medallions in the first floor hall and parlors. Surviving on several doors are original locks stamped, "Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company." The front parlor fireplaces are fitted with iron stove inserts that probably date from the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century. The southeast parlor stove, labeled the "Windsor," was made by the S.B. Sexton Stove and Manufacturing Company of Baltimore, while the stove in the southwest parlor is identified as the "Golden Sun," was assembled by J. Spear and Company of Philadelphia.

The double-pile house extends to the rear with a two-story dining room and kitchen wing that dates from the same period as the main block. The kitchen, with its vertical board wall and large cooking fireplace, is particularly noteworthy. Fixed in the northeast corner is a winder stair. Now incorporated as a part of the rear wing is a formerly detached domestic outbuilding, and behind the house is a mid-nineteenth century smokehouse.

Humphrey Humphreys (1799 - 1882), one of Salisbury's leading capitalists and business leaders during the third quarter of the nineteenth century, financed construction of this house in 1856. He resided her with his wife, Elizabeth Parsons (1816 - 1878) and their children, Theodore, Eugene Randolph (died at a young age), Lafayette, and Eugene W. Humphreys. Humphrey Humphreys is listed in the 1850 U.S. census for Somerset County as a lumber merchant. Two years later, he purchased what was known as the "Bailey Mills" with his brother Cathell Humphreys. In April 1852 he acquired this prominent city lot from Robert H. and Maria Ellegood for $1,000. The property, on the east side of "Dividing Street," was situated in Worchester County. Within four years of this purchase, Humphreys financed construction of this well-appointed Greek Revival residence, presumably with lumber and some decorative elements dressed at his nearby mill. (The date of construction is documented by a scratched inscription found on the back of a board on the porch.)

By the time of the 1860 U.S. census, Humphrey Humphreys was listed as a "miller" with real estate valued at $29,000 and personal property established at $14,000. Listed in the 1877 Lake, Griffing, and Stevenson atlas is a description of his multi-faceted business:

H. HUMPHREYS, Manufacturer of, and Wholesale and Retail Dealer in Dressed Flooring, surfaced Boards, House-framing, Box-boards, Oak Lumber suitable for Vessel Material, Gum, Walnut, Oak, and Cherry Hubs, Balusters, Newel Posts, Fence Pickets, Post Caps, Flower Vases, Broom Handles, Spinning Wheels, Pumps. Turning of all Kinds and Styles of Wood and Iron a Specialty. Wool carded from July 1st to October 31st. Also Manufacturer of Flour, Meal, and Feed Stuff. Wicomico Falls Mills, No. 2, Mill Street, Salisbury, Md.

In addition to his part interest in the mills at the Wicomico River falls, Humphreys was a principal partner in the long-term Salisbury business known as Humphreys & Tilghman, which operated along the Wicomico River at the Main Street bridge. The partnership of Humphrey Humphreys, his brother Cathell, and William B. Tilghman was established in 1863. The firm imported essential products such as agricultural fertilizer, including South American guano, as well as yellow pine lumber and coal.

Following Humphrey Humphreys' death in 1882, his large estate was divided between his sons and grandchildren. Dr. Eugene Humphreys resided in the Greek Revival house and operated a medical practice in the front parlor. Following the devastating 1886 town fire, Dr. Humphreys was asked to open his large residence for traveling businessmen. A shore article written two years following the fire reported:'

Dr. Humphreys, whose large residence narrowly escaped our great fire a year and a half ago, was shortly after that event persuaded to open his house for the purpose of supplying the necessary accommodations to travelling businessmen, our two hotels having been burned. His public spirited enterprise was greatly appreciated by our merchants and "Park Hall," became the headquarters of much of the best commercial travelers. Finding the business unremunerative, however, in the absence of a bar, which in a house of this kind was entirely out of the question, he decided to discontinue his efforts. His doors were closed to the public on Wednesday last, and the house is being renovated and refurbished preparatory to private occupancy as formerly.

A long-time fixture at the front gate of the Humphreys house were several cannons, which in Humphrey Humphreys' 1882 will were bequeathed to this three sons, Lafayette, Eugene, and Randloph. One cannon survives and is now located on the front lawn of the Wicomico County Courthouse. It was given to the city by Mary Elizabeth Humphreys, who retained ownership of the Broad Street house until late 1960s. She sold the property to John W.T. Webb and K. King Burnett, who sensitively adapted the house as law offices.

Taken from "At the Crossroads: The Architectural History of Wicomico County, Maryland"
by Paul Baker Touart.
Reprinted with his permission.