House & Garden 
ISAAC BARNES HOUSE AT KING S CREEK 
A TYPICAL DWELLING OF THE EASTERN SHORE 
in its wav a very re¬ 
markable river ; for 
its dark waters, from 
which the Indians 
called it “ Black 
water,” lined for miles 
with cypress swamps, 
are both deep and 
swift, so that the 
stream could easily 
carry a vessel of much 
greater draft than that 
which plies between 
Snow Hill and Balti¬ 
more. 
The Pocomoke is 
in some fashion the 
backdoor of the Dela¬ 
ware, Maryland, and 
Virginia Peninsula, 
and the introduction 
to a land rich in 
family tradition, and 
dotted with fine old 
ancestral homesteads. 
The voyage up the 
Pocomoke reveals some of these ; and the 
little county-seat of Snow Hill at the end 
of the voyage has several more to show, 
while the whole Peninsula, from Cape 
Charles to Wilmington is worth repeated 
visits to those who love what is quaint and 
individual in domestic architecture. 
One of the most interesting of these old 
homesteads lies in full view of the voyager 
on the Pocomoke at a point a little more than 
half way to Snow Hill. This is “ Beverly,” 
the ancient home of 
the Denis family, an 
enormous old yellow 
house with its back to 
the river and a broad 
lawn sloping to the 
water’s edge. All 
about lie thousands 
of level acres, once 
held by the family. 
“Beverly” is the 
largest house in all 
the region, and that a 
region famed for big 
houses. Plven the 
rear is beautiful, but 
the front is really 
imposing. The tall 
pillared portico looks 
down an avenue of 
old cedars, two hun¬ 
dred feet wide and 
nearly half a mile 
long. The great 
kitchen fireplace is 
wide enough to take 
in a cord stick. They still have notable 
Christmas doings at “ Beverly.” Not far 
from the house is the family burying ground, 
a characteristic feature of the great places on 
the Peninsula, and here lie buried the Denises 
of the last two centuries. Littleton Upshur 
Denis lies there with four wives beside him, 
the last but recently buried. Local gossips 
tell an odd story of this last marriage. The 
fourth wife was the ward of Littleton Upshur 
Denis when he became a third time a widower. 
DOORWAY OF ISAAC BARNES’ HOUSE 
71 
