OUR GALLERY
Gallery Address: 15900 York Rd, Sparks, MD 21152
( Above ) Our gallery, the 1841 Gorsuch Barn. ( Below ) Gorsuch Barn as photographed by important photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston, circa 1936. Library of Congress.
Built in 1841 by Edward Gorsuch, a wealthy landowner in Verona, Maryland (now Sparks), Gorsuch Barn features an architecturally-important exterior of "brick louvres set in native stone," one that has been called the best example in the State of Maryland. These brick vents are configured in a striking red "sheaf of wheat" pattern within their gray stone walls. By the second quarter of the 20th century, the barn had more or less fallen into disrepair, and it was in this state that Frances Benjamin Johnston--the important early female photographer--took photographs of it in or about 1936. (This set of images is now housed at the Library of Congress and available here.) In the 1950's, the barn was converted into retail space and it was in this state that we acquired it in the summer of 2010.
We were fairly certain upon purchasing the barn that the vast majority of the original interior structure had been gutted during its mid-century renovation; but we were surprised, and extremely happy, to learn that beneath the modern drywall, basically all of the original 1840's beams were present! It took a good three months to remove what had been added over the preceding decades, but in the end we were able to preserve an architectural treasure. Those who visit what is now our auction gallery are consistently struck by the original wooden beams, the look of the bricks set inside the interior stone walls, the random-width floors, and the striking rough-cut pine ceiling that we had experts install across the length of the barn. Following our restoration, the barn was featured in the high-profile Maryland Public Television documentary, Historic Barns of Maryland, and our very own Luke Zipp appears in that film.