Take a Tour of a Jaw-Dropping Maryland Country Estate

While most of his peers were focused on the next math test or making the football team, David Williams spent his teenage years running a lawn maintenance business in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and planning for his dream house. “I started thinking about this house in high school and started to draw up the main house during those years,” says Williams, who is now a business investor. Some five decades later, his dream has finally come true.

Nestled along the Chester River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Northwest Point Farm has seventeen structures scattered across its 152 acres, anchored by a 24,000-square-foot stately, Georgian main house. The property’s inception and five-year journey to completion is documented in a just-out book, The Design of a Country Estate by its architect and designer, Cathy Purple Cherry.

“David came to our first meeting with a lot of graph paper, pictures torn out of magazines, and clear diagrams of his thoughts,” says Cherry, whose firm, Purple Cherry Architects, has been building stunning residences inspired by their natural settings across the Mid-Atlantic and beyond for more than three decades. “Here was a man who knew what he wanted.” Still, there were a lot of details—from nitty gritty structural specifics down to interior minutiae—that the duo had to hammer out. Each structure, including the main house, guest house, carriage house, entertaining and sports barn, art studio, and pool house, were guided by Williams’s longtime vision and his collection of antiques and artwork (his mantra: “Don’t buy a piece for a particular space. Buy what you love and find a space for it”). Cherry brought thirty years of experience, a love of millwork, an eye for layering textures, and a dedication to optimizing a property’s natural setting and light.

The result is a peaceful sprawl that serves as a working farm dotted with sheep and hayfields, a place to entertain, and a retreat for Williams’s family and friends. There are three things that make the property special, Cherry says. “First, it doesn’t feel as big as it is. Second, it’s so comfortable and homey and feels lived in. And finally, there’s the cool factor of the rooms and spaces most people never have been in before, like the wine cave, media room, and hidden safe room.” 

Below, peek inside the brick-floored hunting room, the soaring bar space and tucked-away wine cellar, a blue-accented bedroom with a river view, and more.

Situated in the main house, this “hunting room” goes far beyond a traditional mudroom. Two divided blue Dutch doors usher guests into the space, which offers a sink for cleanup, open storage for boots, gear, and clothing, and a long, weathered table for gathering or dropping whatever is on hand.

In the main house, the bar area, with its ultra-high ceilings and angled millwork, called for some creativity, so Cherry layered in two large iron lanterns, three downlight sconces, and four hanging pendants to retain the wow factor but keep the space cozy. Meanwhile, a jib door in the bar leads down a hidden stairway into the wine cave.

Williams’s personal favorite room is the entertaining basement: a vaulted brick cave comprising a wine cellar, dining room, glass room, and kitchen. “The whole area just functions and flows so well when we use it as a family or when we are entertaining fifty people,” he says. The space is a miracle of mason work—each Chicago brick was cut individually on a miter and scored to fit into the vaulted ceiling. 

“This particular kitchen is a house unto itself,” Cherry writes in the book. Beyond the custom zinc-topped island with copper pans clanking merrily above sits a second island to divide the room. Then comes a wood-and-iron breakfast table, and beyond that, a seating area anchored by a fireplace. 

Williams’s study offers a darker, moodier feel than the rest of the house, with a wraparound coat of slate blue paint, warmed up with leather furniture and brass light fixtures. A freestanding desk lends an airy flair and a hidden closet behind a bookcase panel adds a little mystery and fun. French doors lead to the billiard area, and the keyhole window peeks into a bar. 

The carriage house serves as a parking space for two vehicles, which Williams and his guests use to explore the property. Symmetrical, deep gable rooflines and two cupolas are framed behind a white picket fence, while a grouping of dogs fashioned from grapevine twigs frolics on the lawn.

The accents of pale blue in the primary guest suite complement the views of the Chester River. A vintage Louis Vuitton trunk foots the bed.

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