There’s a charming old farmhouse in Northeast D.C. that you probably don’t know about unless you live nearby. The two-story wood frame building is tucked behind a grandiose art deco religious college, invisible from any public roads. It sits at the end of a 300-yard driveway on a quiet, woodsy 22-acre lot filled with mature trees and overgrown vines.

The property at 14th and Shepherd Streets NE is owned—and currently unused—by Howard University. Local historians and preservationists refer to this 140-year-old home as the Sherwood Farmhouse, after James Lewis Sherwood, who originally had it built in 1885 and lived there with his family for more than 30 years. Despite boarded-up windows, peeling exterior paint, and some graffiti on one side, it is largely intact. This farmhouse has survived

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