The land on which this house was built was part of four lots originally owned by the Pennington family, who ran the Pennington Funeral Home. The Funeral Home was housed in a saltbox style building that began as a cabinet-making shop in 1800 and made into an undertaking parlor in 1817 by William Canby Pennington (1797-1851) and his wife, Eliza. Their property fronted 100 feet on the south side of Pennington Avenue and 60 feet on the west side of the 20-foot Freedom Lane. (Two townhouses were recently built on that corner of the property.) When Eliza died in 1862, she left all the Pennington property to one of their sons, Joseph A. Pennington (1828-1895).

In February 1904, William C. Pennington, Robert Pennington and his wife Carrie, along with other family members, sold this lot to Mary M. Pennington, the wife of George T. Pennington (1871-1947), who was William Canby Pennington’s grandson. However, two months later, George and Mary Pennington sold this lot to William C. Pennington (1860-1920). At that time, William C. Pennington also owned the house next door at 121 North Stokes Street, which had already been built. It is possible that William Pennington built this house prior to selling the property to William M. Lawder (1883-1919) in 1905, but it seems equally possible that Lawder bought just the lot in 1905 and built the house himself. The following year, 1906, William Lawder was appointed as manager of the Havre de Grace Opera House, in addition to being Secretary of the Havre de Grace Fire Company. The Funeral Home property backed up to the rear of this lot at that time.

In 1909, William and Grace Lawder sold this property to Frederick C. Lawder (1877-1948) who in 1910 was on the Board of the Special Ducking Police and later became a director of the Havre de Grace Banking and Trust Company. His wife was Grace M. Lawder (1889-1964). Fred and Grace sold this home in 1918 to Annie E. Trimble. Annie lived in and raised her four children in this house. After Annie’s death in 1936, when she died intestate, the property went to her four children; however, one of them, Charles M. Trimble also died intestate in 1943. After that, Annie Trimble’s daughter, Elva L. Wilson and her husband, Daniel Wilson, bought the house in 1944. They spent the rest of their lives here and upon Elva Wilson’s death she bequeathed the property to her daughter, Patricia Wilson McMillan, in 1990.

Patricia McMillan and her husband, James M. McMillan (1934-2017), already lived in a home on South Washington Street; this home most likely became a rental property for them. In 2010, when Patricia McMillan died, she bequeathed this property to her husband, James McMillan. He was a graduate of the Havre de Grace High School, an accomplished decoy carver and painter, and was a founding member of the Havre de Grace Decoy Museum.

Following the 2017 death of James McMillan, his estate sold this property in 2018 to LGMD Properties, LLC. They had just completed a complete renovation of the property next door at 121 North Stokes Street. LGMD spent a couple of years rebuilding this home “from the studs,” reconfiguring it with an open floor plan, a French country-style chef kitchen, restored original moldings and cypress doors, yellow pine floors, and a second-floor private deck. The rear of the property backs onto North Freedom Lane. LGMD Properties LLC sold this restored home in spring of 2021 to Martin and Sarah Letscher.

County Records
Built 1930. 1720 sq ft, 2 stories with basement, 1 bath, 6000 sq ft lot.