Dossier 3651Historic SiteMedium 68

Sotterley

Hollywood, Maryland1 min readFile amended October 2, 2026Directions

A historic site in Hollywood, Maryland, an NPS Network to Freedom, Sotterley is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The 1703 plantation—where the slave cabins stand on the Patuxent. The archive files it under Underground Railroad history, the Underground Railroad and African American history. The dossier holds 3 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors.

Archive note: 3 sources on file

Status

Operating

Access

Open to public

Designation

NPS Network to Freedom

Coordinates

38.380, -76.539 · Approximate (reference)

Signal: cold trace

Is Sotterley haunted?

No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.

Dark History Historic Sites

The record — long form

Sotterley dates to 1703 — the Tidewater plantation on the Patuxent that grew into a working estate run by enslaved labor for three centuries, its house and slave quarters surviving as one of Maryland's most complete plantation landscapes.

The file's documented spine is the plantation's continuity: a working farm from the colonial era through the twentieth century, the quarters and the mansion kept together — the whole economy's architecture surviving in one place. The Network to Freedom listing marks its resistance history.

The quarters' register

The file's legend layer is empty — Sotterley's claim is its documented completeness: the slave quarters standing beside the mansion, the plantation's enslaved community's buildings preserved as the record, no folklore needed for the weight.

The plantation's 300-year run is the file's register — an estate that outlasted every era keeping its whole population's buildings, the quarters' survival the archive's own memorial.

Why this file matters

Sotterley is the archive's complete-plantation file — a 1703 Tidewater estate keeping mansion and quarters together, a Network to Freedom site whose buildings are the record.

A plantation that kept its enslaved people's quarters keeps the whole history — the file's suggestion being that Sotterley's ground holds the community the records tried to erase.

Documented history

NPS includes this site in the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. The detail is preserved in 'Public NPS Network to Freedom listings, row 2, ID 01GA01'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.
Verified historyNational Park Service
Sotterley is documented on the National Park Service Network to Freedom for its role in the Underground Railroad. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'NPS Network to Freedom listing'. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.
Verified historyNational Park Service
The 1703 plantation is documented. A documented site gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that record. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. Sources including 'NPS Network to Freedom listing' carry the record. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.
Verified historyNational Park Service