What do you do with an icon?

Original Sterling House from the back.

If it is the old Sterling Homestead in the heart of downtown Leonardtown, you renovate, preserve as much of the early architecture and artifacts as you can and you make it a beautiful place to do business. At least that’s what Jo Ann and Dean Beck are doing.

The property has quite a history in historic Leonardtown. The “Sterling House” was owned by the Sterling family from 1911 to 2005. Land ownership records date back to 1844 and while there is no confirmation, the original structure was built circa 1850. The original section of the home is now part of the right side of the existing structure. In 1911, the Sterling family added the Queen Anne style turret and expanded structure to make room for their 17 children.

In 2005 the property was purchased by Beck LLC from the Sterling estate. After a lengthy debate by the town

Orginial heat registers have been preserved
– they will be used for decorations in lieu
of heat.

commissioners in 2006 over the zoning change required and the requirement to facilitate enough parking, while at the same time addressing erosion problems from the back of the property into Breton Bay, the Beck’s completely restored Sterling House, saving as much of the old architecture and trappings as possible.

According to Jo Ann Beck, “The home is a significant landmark for Leonardtown and we wanted to maintain as much as we could during the renovations.” Beck went on to state that whenever possible they maintained the look and feel of the original structure. Original floors were maintained where it would pass code. “We salvaged all the original door and window hardware, but needed to upgrade those for the renovation,” said Beck.

The restored version of Sterling House today.

The newly refurbished Sterling House is set to once again, open its doors to the public in the second week of August, where the property will be home to the new Corbel’s restaurant.

In the future, Beck indicated that the property is going to be expanded to contain some mixed use commercial and residential offices, stores and dwellings. “It will be like the old town,” said Beck. “People can run their small storefronts on the first floor, maintain an office on the second and live upstairs.”