SUMMERWOOD
HISTORY
The story of “Summerwood” begins long before the house was built.
Back in 1928, John Norris Childs and Charlotte Sellman Fray Childs began construction of a stately home on a lookout on the South River in Annapolis, Md. John and Charlotte, along with their two children at the time Carla and Jack, lived nearby in the “Bungalow” while the sprawling summer home was being built. The home was complete in 1929.
It was here, at the convergence of Crab Creek and Church Creek, that the Childs family spent summers of crabbing, sunbathing, boating, and cocktailing on the terrace. The three children, Jack, Carla, and Mary, found the property, which they called “the farm,” to be the ultimate playground, spending many a day skinny dipping and jumping off the boat house into the creek.
As the children grew older, they started lives and families of their own. In 1948, Carla married Kingsbery Weatherby Gay. As a wedding gift, John and Charlotte gave the newlyweds a neighboring piece of property on Church Creek. This property, approximately 6 acres, is now known as Summerwood.
A simple three-room log cabin was built on the Summerwood property in 1949, the same year that the couple’s first child, Kingsbery Weatherby Gay, Jr. (Bery), was born. It is rumored that the couple’s second child, William Childs Gay (Bill) was conceived in the cabin on the fourth of July 1950. The couple’s third son, Thomas Stewart Gay (Tom), was born in 1954.
The structure now known as the “big house” was built in 1958, the year that King and Carla’s fourth child, Charlotte Persis Gay, was born. The 4-bedroom house is positioned on a piece of land projecting into Church Creek, granting sweeping views of the South River while maintaining the tranquil feel of the quiet creek.
The family of six, who called Richmond, Va., their home, spent each summer on the grounds at Summerwood. Fishing, crabbing, skinny dipping – many of the same activities (and mischief) that their mother Carla participated in as a child nearby their grandparents’, known to the four children as Grammy and Pito.
Overtime, the Summerwood property grew to accommodate droves of visitors – King and Carla’s bridge club, the Childs and Gay extended families, and Bery, Billy, Tom, and Charlotte’s friends. In the summer of 1977, “Tree Tops,” a quaint one-bedroom garage apartment was built next to the big house. And a swimming pool was added in 1981 and was dedicated to Grammy, a year after her death.
Summerwood’s proximity to the creek lends itself to summer days spent on the water. And over the years, there have been a number of boats that have called Summerwood’s dock home. A wooden rowboat, a 13' Boston whaler, a canoe, the little bear called Tiki, a 16' Sea Ray, a small Jon boat, Tori the ‘79 Bristol, a 19' Sea Pro, and now a 34’ Bay Cove, appropriately named Summerwood.
Summerwood is now the beloved summer escape for Carla and King’s many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Known affectionately as Gram and Granddad, Carla and King loved to watch the children frolic in the creek, precariously row in the canoe, run alongside the tractor, spit watermelon seeds over the bank, chase the many Golden Retrievers in the field, and crab from the dock. “Drink time” and mealtime were especially loved times for social gatherings for Gram and Granddad at Summerwood – 25 cents for your napkin in your lap, no elbows on the table, blue ferries emptying the dishwasher. Time spent at Summerwood was, and is, a wholesome family and friend assembly with food, drinks, fun, and always a “project.”
The legacy of Grammy, Pito, King, and Carla lives on to this day at Summerwood. The many things that make Summerwood the perfect getaway – a breeze on the porch on a hot day, a cool dip in the pool, a cookout on the terrace overlooking Church creek – are luxuries that we would not have without the generosity of the Childs family and Gram and Granddad. The spirit of Summerwood is easygoing, relaxation, and togetherness. Simply put, summer wouldn’t be summer without Summerwood.
A History in Photos
