In late 2003, Jonathan and Liz Legg of Chevy Chase toured 24 houses for sale near Easton, Md., in search of a second home. After walking through the last house, Jonathan had just one comment, “They’re not the house on Ferry Bridge Road,” the first house they had looked at. Recognizing a diamond in the rough, the Leggs bought the 1870s Victorian in the spring of 2004, renamed it “Leggacy” and began the ripping out and tearing down.
“Everything was so overgrown,” Liz says. “Two boxwoods had fused together against the back of the house. We didn’t even know there was a door to the mudroom until we cut them away.” A tangle of trees and bushes obscured the view of the upper Miles River, which runs along much of the 6-acre property. “Sitting on the porch, you didn’t even know the house was on the water,” Liz says.
Jonathan, 42, and Liz, 40, grew up near the water. During her childhood in Potomac, Liz’s family kept a boat in Annapolis and a vacation house in Maine on the ocean. Jonathan grew up in Newport News, Va., near the James River. When they started looking for a second home, they knew it had to be on the water. It also had to be close enough to be convenient and getting there couldn’t involve driving on I-95.
The Leggs’ property is largely a point of land that juts into the Miles River. The back of the house overlooks a large lawn, enormous trees and a pool and pool house, which are located halfway to the riverbank. Save a few houses on the distant river shore, no other neighboring homes are within sight.
Leggacy is an elegant, yet livable mix of formal Victorian and kid-friendly casual. “When you see our house,” Liz says, “you might think we’re very stuffy people. We’re not, but this happened to be the house we fell in love with. We weren’t looking for a Victorian as a second home.” The house is built in the “shingle style” that was made popular in the late 19th century, largely in Northeastern coastal areas, by those seeking a rustic, rather than formal Victorian look. Covered in butter-yellow scalloped shingles and trimmed in white, the Leggs’ home has wide wraparound porches, and the complex, asymmetrical roofline of the time formed by dormers, bay windows and a wide turret.
Inside, the Leggs removed lead paint, asbestos and the ancient wiring. They restored the pine wood floors and the original Victorian moldings and intricate wainscoting. One of their greatest finds was a tiger maple pocket door encased by layers of drywall. “We only knew it was there because a previous caretaker came to see us,” Liz says.
The Leggs preserved many of the home’s historic features, including a pair of iron brackets that are mounted on either side of the front doorjamb. They originally held a large iron bar across the door—the 19th century version of locking up at night.
Liz has collected more than two dozen trash-to-treasure glass bottles that have washed up on the property’s shoreline, some most likely tossed into the water by passengers from the now-extinct Miles River Ferry. Established around 1680, the ferry transported passengers via canoe, and later flat-bottomed boat, and docked on what is now the Leggs’ property. According to History of Talbot County Maryland, 1661-1861 by Oswald Tilghman, before the first Miles River Bridge was built in 1858, the only way to cross the river was via ferry. “This was an important ferry crossing to Easton or St. Michaels for the owners of some of our great estates, such as Wye House, Gross’ Coate and Hope House,” says Beth Hansen, curator of the Historical Society of Talbot County. Among Liz’s glass collection are a shampoo bottle, a green perfume bottle, a honey jar and miniature apothecary jars with lids still attached. The rarest and most valuable, she says, is the pale blue, torpedo-shaped seltzer bottle.
The Leggs spend much of their time in Easton outdoors. Jonathan has one rule here: He will go anywhere, as long as he doesn’t have to get into the car. That means a lot of water miles. The Leggs have taken their 30-foot fountain powerboat to places such as Newport News, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and Kent Island. They also have a new 15-foot Boston Whaler they share with a neighbor. On weekends, they’ll boat to nearby St. Michaels and have dinner at The Crab Claw Restaurant. “We’ve discovered all kinds of islands, creeks and inlets on the river that we didn’t even know existed before we bought the house,” Liz says. 
The Leggs’ children—Avery, 9, Spencer, 6, and Bramley, 3—run between the pool and the dock, play baseball and T-ball in the lower field, go tubing, play on the beach created with 4 tons of sand and fly kites with their father. The pool house, in ramshackle condition when the Leggs bought the property, has been completely updated with two changing rooms, a half bath and a vacationer’s favorite accessory—an outdoor shower with hot water. The pool is a summer necessity, especially when stinging nettles make their appearance along the riverbank in early June. The Leggs cleaned and spruced up the barn, which housed the previous owner’s sailboat and sailing gear. Packed with toys, a pool table and ping pong, the barn now provides the perfect rainy-day escape for the children. Painting has become a favorite family activity, evident in the mosaic of brightly-colored artwork covering the walls of the barn.
On any given evening, the Adirondack chairs surrounding the fire pit are a popular destination; the family roasts oysters purchased by the bushel on nearby Tilghman Island, preparing them simply with butter and a dash of Tabasco. Afterward, the kids make s’mores, and Jonathan, a fireworks enthusiast, builds on his reputation as he and a neighbor across the river compete in exploding shows of color and sound.
“My kids can go three weeks in Bethesda without seeing an animal,” Liz says. In Easton, they are up close and personal with frogs, crabs, geese, fish, snakes, crickets, swans and osprey, two of which raise a family on or near the property every year. The ospreys built a nest on the Legg’s powerboat the first spring they had the house. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources advised the Leggs not to use the boat until after the chicks had left the nest—a minimum of 12 weeks. Jonathan solved the problem the next season—and surprised the locals who said it would never work—by nailing an old crate to the top of a nearby piling and luring the osprey there with squid.
Comfortable surroundings
Formal furniture in some rooms of the house accents its Victorian styling, notably Liz’s childhood kitchen table in the breakfast room—passed down by her parents when they downsized from their Potomac home to a condo in Bethesda. The elegant dining room table left behind by the previous owners gets a lot of use at Thanksgiving when both sides of the family come for a traditional oyster roast. But Liz has worked hard to balance the formal feel with comfortable furnishings, family photos and nautical touches in other rooms, including a weathered bell, a trio of pastel-colored wooden ducks and jars of sea glass. The two first-floor porches are among the family’s favorite spaces to relax. The front porch features a large hanging swing and a hook and ring game imported from the Caribbean. The porch running across the back of the house provides a place for outdoor dining and a nook with a sofa and chairs where Liz loves to drink coffee and read the paper.
The simply decorated bedrooms—four on the second floor and one on the third—retain their original Victorian details. Pastel colors and white crown molding give the rooms a clean look and a relaxed feel. With pullout sofas tucked here and there, the house can sleep 15. “We invite a lot of guests from home,” Liz says. One of her favorite features of the house is the small mudroom off of the kitchen with its dark-paneled walls and original brick floor. “This is the country,” she says, “and my kids are outside all of the time. They do get very muddy.” She also loves the unique back staircase that leads to the third floor. In addition to the fifth bedroom and a small sitting room, the third floor houses Jonathan’s study, painted a bright coral. Although it breaks with the home’s pale palette, Jonathan chose the color because it reminds him of the Caribbean and the Leggs’ honeymoon there. A small deck off of the study provides a sweeping view of the property and the river traffic.
A recent addition to the house is the flagpole out back. “My husband’s heart is definitely in Virginia,” Liz says. “I don’t think he ever thought he’d marry a Marylander, let alone own two houses in the state.” To soothe him, Jonathan’s family presented him with a Virginia state flag, which he displays along with the flag from his alma mater, The College of William and Mary, and the American flag.
Leggacy provides the Leggs with the perfect respite from the bustle of life in Chevy Chase. “When we go, we don’t really leave the property, except to go boating,” Liz says. “We invite friends from home, or go ourselves and just spend quality time with the kids.”
“We can have tons of guests and never feel crowded. There’s a sense of space and wide-openness that you can’t ever achieve living inside the Beltway. If I could just pick up that house and move it, I definitely would.”
Writer Gabriele McCormick lives inFrederick, Md.
