Snowden Hall — Colonial manor house built by the Snowden family over 200 years ago, now used as temporary 



office quarters. 



^The beginning 



Tills iiujihrn center of I'cxviirch on ii't/dl/fc 

 occupies jxii't (if (I eiiloiiiiil iiiiitKii- of three cen- 

 turies ago. 



In 1658. when Ma). Kichurd Snoirden of 

 Wales emigrated to America, he acquired .'fome 

 KlJlOO acres in the central part of the )iew colony 

 of Maryland. Ilix estate included most of the 

 present Patu.rcnt Wildlife /Research Center. 

 S/ioirden Hall, still standing at the Center's 

 heai/i/uarfers, u:a.'< one of seren manor houses 

 built by the Snowden family. 



J' h rough the years, the bind /ri/.s- cleared and 

 cropped and divided into smiiller holdings, and 

 in, time the soil a-as depleted. In the 1930's 

 much of the land was clas.<<ed as submarc/inal 



farmland and iras taken aver by the Resettle- 

 ment Administration. In 1936 the Bureau of 

 Biological Surrey, predecessor of the Bureau of 

 S/>orf Fisheries and Wildlife, obtained 2,670 

 acres of this forest and farmland along the 

 Patu.rent River, as the site of the first major 

 wildlife research station in the United States. 

 In 19.39, preliminary surveys and essential 

 constitiction were completed, and the Center was 

 dedicated on June JO, in the presence of co-nxer- 

 ration. le(ulers of the United States Congress 

 and representatives of many pyiblic and private 

 conservation organizations, who recognized the 

 signifieanre of this event in American u-ildlife 

 conservation. 



