Widehall is a large, brick, 2+1⁄2-story, middle-Georgian period, city house fronting on Water Street, with the Chester River waterfront behind it.

[3] The house's high basement is screened by a claire-voie of four brick piers topped by sandstone ball-finials, and a pair of boxwood hedges.

1749–1791) held an interest in his late father's Chestertown property, and was not yet 21, Smyth petitioned the Maryland General Assembly to allow the 20-year-old to act as an adult in the real estate transaction.

[3] Smyth's December 1769 petition provides documentation that his new house was already well under construction:In Consequence whereof the said Thomas Smyth hath erected on the said Lot a Large and Valuable Brick House and Kitchen which he was Desirous of finishing and compleating immediately[,] but being unwilling to risque so valuable a part of his Property without securing his Title to the said Land[,] which could not be done while the said William Granger was under Age[,] the said Petitioners have prayed that an Act of Assembly might pass to enable the said William Granger[,] tho' under Age[,] to convey to the said Thomas Smyth all his[,] the said William Granger[']s[,] Right Title and Estate in the said Lot of Land in as full and ample Manner as if he was of full Age.

Smyth paid the agreed upon purchase price of GB£100,[5] was granted clear title, and work on his new house resumed.

Michael Owen Bourne, recorder of the NRHP nomination for Widehall (1972), and later author of the masterful Historic Houses of Kent County (1998), conjectures that it was built "possibly employing designs, if not craftsmen themselves from Annapolis or Philadelphia.

A fireplace in South end & Stairs to 2nd Story, loft over Not plastered[,] Cedar Shingle ridge roof[,] Oak Joist & Rafters.

[8] Two years later, George Burgin Westcott purchased the altered house from Crawford, and leased it out as Brown's Hotel.

The hotel had become a boarding-house operated by Mrs. M. E. Watts by August 1893, when the Chester River had a historic flood, and her boarders were evacuated by rowboat.

[10] Fertilizer manufacturer Wilbur Watson Hubbard (1860–1938) and his wife Etta Belle Ross (1865–1965) purchased the property in 1909.

The old kitchen ell was demolished, and Sill designed a grand, Federal Revival, two-story porch that was the full width of the river facade.

The key document for the renovation was the 1842 insurance survey, which listed the architectural details of each room and included a plan of the first floor.

[8] Sill removed the side-closets on either side of the front and rear parlor chimneybreasts, and replaced them with a pair of square archways between the rooms.

The couple's son, Wilbur Ross Hubbard (1896–1993), was a major collector of antique furniture, silver and china,[13] and occupied Widehall until his death at age 97.

[17] Hubbard spoke about his mother and Widehall in a c.1979 oral history:She spent a great deal of her time arguing with my father and the architect.

WIDEHALL, 101 Water St. 1769.Brick, 2+1⁄2 stories over high basement, rectangular, hip-on-hipped roof, interior chimneys, gabled dormers, modillion cornice, front center entrance with pediment supported by engaged fluted columns, Welsh arched windows, rear full-width 2-story Ionic portico;[R]oof, dormers, 2-story NE kitchen, and rear porch added during 1910 restoration.