Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware, Part 1

Author: Hammond, John Martin, 1886-1939
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Philadelphia ; London : J.B. Lippincott Co.
Number of Pages: 442


USA > Delaware > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 1
USA > Maryland > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 1


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17


125


COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND AND DELAWARE


JOHN MARTIN HAMMOND


Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016


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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 06602 3661


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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND AND DELAWARE


THIS LIMITED EDITION HAS BEEN PRINTED FROM TYPE AND THE TYPE DISTRIBUTED


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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND AND DELAWARE


BY JOHN MARTIN HAMMOND


WITH SIXTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS


K


PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY


1914


COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY


PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1914


PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.


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1


1


PREFACE


SOME people collect old furniture, some old books. I for many years have been a collector of old houses within easy travelling distance of my home in Balti- more, and the best of my finds are to be found in this 1 book. He who would collect old houses must possess much enthusiasm, a determination that will not be dis- couraged, and a fine power of walking. Fully one-half of the points that he visits because of hearsay will be found to be without interest, and of the others that he seeks out only a few insignificant facts will at first be ascertainable. A continual source of surprise to one who searches for colonial homes is how little is known about them even in the immediate neighborhood in which they have stood for so many years.


The material in this book has been gathered from personal visits and studies at first hand of the houses described. Much of the literary matter has come from private papers and from the recollections of the older generation of the descendants of builders of Maryland and Delaware mansions. The photographs I have made myself. I wish to make acknowledgment of inspira- tion and help gained from certain indefatigable workers in history, whose researches have gone into almost every nook of the field in Maryland and Delaware. Any one who delves into Maryland archives will be sure to come across the path of Mrs. Hester Dorsey Richardson, one of the first authorities on Maryland genealogy. Much


V


PREFACE


of the available data of the history of Maryland and Delaware will be found in the voluminous writings of John Thomas Scharff, particularly in his "History of Maryland " and his " History of Delaware." No more complete sectional history was ever published than Joshua D. Warfield's "Founders of Howard and Anne Arundel Counties." The annals of Southern Maryland have been gathered together and told in a most scholarly fashion by James Walter Thomas in " Chronicles of Saint Mary's County."


In the making of this book I have had certain def- inite ends. I wished to call attention, first, to the many beautiful colonial survivals to be found in Maryland and Delaware. Then through the photography and re- production of certain architectural details (such as, in particular, doorways), I have hoped to bring sugges- tion to those about to build homes of the present day. Finally I have laid some stress on family history that the descendants of old families in the two States might feel an especially close drawing to these shrines of the life of yesterday.


The work of gathering together the photographs and data presented in the following pages has meant much tramping, buggy riding and boating,-the first a no light task with a fifteen pound camera,-but it has been a labor of love. I wish to acknowledge the valuable assistance of my friend, Michael Warner Hewes, Jr., in the preparation of several of my chapters, particu- larly those relating to Eastern Shore points.


J. M. H.


BALTIMORE, MD.,


July, 1914.


CONTENTS


MARYLAND


PAGE


CHASE HOUSE


ANNAPOLIS.


15


FAMILIES: CHASE, LLOYD, HARWOOD, RIDOUT


HAMMOND or HARWOOD HOUSE .. ANNAPOLIS


27


FAMILIES: HAMMOND, PINKNEY, CHASE, LOCKERMAN, HARWOOD


-


PACA HOUSE


ANNAPOLIS


36


FAMILIES:


PACA, SCHAAF, NETH, BLAND, KENNEDY, SWANN


BRICE HOUSE.


ANNAPOLIS


45


FAMILIES: BRICE, STEPHEN, MARTIN, ROBB


RIDOUT HOUSE.


ANNAPOLIS


60


FAMILY: RIDOUT


SCOTT HOUSE.


ANNAPOLIS


68


FAMILIES: SCOTT, KEY, BIRNEY, CLAUDE, SISTERS OF MERCY, SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME


BORDLEY or RANDALL HOUSE ... ANNAPOLIS


72


FAMILIES: BORDLEY, RANDALL


WHITEHALL


SANDY POINT, ANNE ARUN-


DEL COUNTY


77


FAMILIES: SHARPE, RIDOUT, STORY


MONTPELIER


LAUREL, PRINCE GEORGE'S


COUNTY.


88


FAMILIES: SNOWDEN, JENKINS,


TAYLOR, BLAKEMAN,


PENDLETON,


VON SCHRADER.


OAKLANDS.


CONTEE STATION,


PRINCE


GEORGE'S COUNTY


. ..


96


FAMILIES: SNOWDEN, CONTEE, BOLLING, HOOFF


BURLEIGH HOWARD COUNTY 105


FAMILY: HAMMOND


DOUGHOREGAN MANOR.


HOWARD COUNTY


110


FAMILY: CARROLL


HAMPTON


BALTIMORE COUNTY


131


FAMILY: RIDGELY


vii


CONTENTS


TULIP HILL


WEST RIVER, ANNE ARUNDEL


COUNTY


138


FAMILIES: GALLOWAY, MAXCEY, MARKOE, HUGHES, MURRAY, PARKER


CEDAR PARK


WEST RIVER, ANNE ARUNDEL


COUNTY


144


FAMILIES: GALLOWAY, SPRIGG, MERCER, MURRAY


RATCLIFFE MANOR.


NEAR


EASTON,


TALBOT


COUNTY.


148


FAMILIES: HOLLYDAY, GIBSON, HATHAWAY


WYE HOUSE.


TALBOT COUNTY


152


FAMILY: LLOYD


READBOURNE


QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY.


161


FAMILIES: HOLLYDAY, PERRY


BELMONT


HOWARD COUNTY


....


166


FAMILIES: DORSEY, HANSON


MOUNT AIRY


CROOME, PRINCE GEORGE'S


COUNTY


184


FAMILIES: CALVERT, DUVALL


BELAIR.


PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY .. 199


FAMILIES: OGLE, BOWIE, WOODWARD


BLAKEFORD.


QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY.


. 205


FAMILIES: DECOURCY, BLAKE, WRIGHT, THOM


BLOOMINGDALE


QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY.


211


FAMILIES: HARRIS, WALLIS, DUDLEY


MONTMORENCI.


BALTIMORE COUNTY


.


216


FAMILIES: WORTHINGTON, CONRAD, LEHR


BELVOIR.


ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY


. .


219


FAMILIES: Ross, MAYNADIER, WORTHINGTON, POLUYANSKI


PLAIN DEALING


TALBOT COUNTY


225


FAMILIES: CHAMBERLAINE, LOCKERMAN, HARDCASTLE


BEVERLY.


SOMERSET COUNTY


232


FAMILY: DENNIS


viii


CONTENTS


SOTTERLY


ST. MARY'S COUNTY


235


FAMILIES: BOWLES, PLATER, BRISCOE, SATTERLEE


DEEP FALLS


ST. MARY'S COUNTY


240


FAMILY: THOMAS


DELAWARE


AMSTEL HOUSE.


NEW CASTLE


247


FAMILIES: VAN DYKE, MOODY, BURNHAM, HAY


DICKINSON HOUSE


KENT COUNTY


251


FAMILIES: DICKINSON, LOGAN


KENSEY JOHNS HOUSE


NEW CASTLE


255


FAMILIES: JOHNS, STOCKTON, MOORE


LOOCKERMAN HOUSE


DOVER


257


FAMILIES: LOOCKERMAN, BRADFORD, CULBRETH


READ HOUSE


NEW CASTLE


264


FAMILIES: READ, COUPER, SMITH


RIDGELY HOUSE


DOVER


266


FAMILY: RIDGELY


STEWART HOUSE


NEW CASTLE


291


FAMILIES: VAN DYKE, DU PONT, JANVIER, LAMBSON, STEWART


THOMAS HOUSE.


NEW CASTLE


293


FAMILIES: THOMAS, READ, THOMAS


ILLUSTRATIONS


MARYLAND


PAGE


WHITEHALL


ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY


EXTERIOR


Frontispiece


ST. PAUL'S RECTORY BALTIMORE


EXTERIOR


6


STEMMER HOUSE


BALTIMORE COUNTY


EXTERIOR


10


CHASE HOUSE


ANNAPOLIS


ENTRANCE.


16


SHUTTER CARVING


18


PALLADIAN WINDOW. 22


HAMMOND HOUSE


ANNAPOLIS


ENTRANCE


30


SOFA OF AMERICAN EMPIRE PERIOD.


32


PACA HOUSE


ANNAPOLIS


EXTERIOR


40


BRICE HOUSE


ANNAPOLIS


MANTEL IN DRAWING-ROOM


46


EXTERIOR.


50


RIDOUT HOUSE


ANNAPOLIS


ENTRANCE


64


SCOTT HOUSE ANNAPOLIS


EXTERIOR.


68


ENTRANCE HALL


70


WHITEHALL


ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY


FROM THE GARDEN.


78


ENTRANCE TO PARLOUR.


80


ENTRANCE, INTERIOR CARVING


82


MONTPELIER PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY


REAR VIEW


90


SUMMER HOUSE


94


GARDEN


94


xi


ILLUSTRATIONS


OAKLANDS


PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY


CHINA CUPBOARD


98


STAIRWAY 98


BURLEIGH


HOWARD COUNTY


EXTERIOR


106


GARDEN ENTRANCE. 108


DOUGHOREGAN


HOWARD COUNTY


FROM THE REAR


114


GARDEN ENTRANCE 120


HOMEWOOD


BALTIMORE


EXTERIOR.


122


HAMPTON


BALTIMORE COUNTY


CENTRAL PORTION 132


CUPOLA


134


SPRING HILL


HOWARD COUNTY


EXTERIOR


134


TULIP HILL


ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY


ENTRANCE. 138


GARDEN ENTRANCE


140


HALL AND STAIR


142


RATCLIFFE


TALBOT COUNTY


SHELL CUPBOARD 148


ALCOVE WINDOW 148


GARDEN ENTRANCE 150


FROM THE GARDEN


150


BELMONT


HOWARD COUNTY


EXTERIOR


168


ENTRANCE


178


MOUNT AIRY


PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY


EXTERIOR


188


RIVERDALE


PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY


EXTERIOR


192


MOUNT AIRY


PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY


FIREPLACE IN DINING-ROOM


196


THE SIDEBOARD.


196


xii


ILLUSTRATIONS


BELAIR


PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY


CENTRAL PORTION 200


FROM THE TERRACE 202


MAIN STAIRWAY


202


BLAKEFORD


QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY


ALL-THE-YEAR-ROUND SUMMER HOUSE.


206


FROM THE EAST


206


BLOOMINGDALE


QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY


EXTERIOR


212


SIDE PORCH


214


STEMMER HOUSE


BALTIMORE COUNTY


GARDEN ENTRANCE.


214


MONTMORENCI


BALTIMORE COUNTY


EXTERIOR.


216


THE WINDING STAIR 216


PARLOUR CORNER


216


BELVOIR


ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY


ENTRANCE


220


FROM THE SOUTH.


222


DELAWARE


AMSTEL HOUSE


NEW CASTLE


ENTRANCE.


248


KENSEY JOHNS HOUSE


NEW CASTLE


EXTERIOR.


254


RODNEY HOUSE


NEW CASTLE


EXTERIOR.


256


LOOCKERMAN HOUSE


DOVER


THE STAIRWAY.


260


A CORNER CUPBOARD


260


RIDGELY HOUSE DOVER


EXTERIOR.


268


FROM THE GARDEN 272


PARLOUR CORNER.


280


THOMAS HOUSE


NEW CASTLE


ENTRANCE


292


INTRODUCTION


THE scattered survivals of the colonial era of home building in Maryland and Delaware have certain great similarities of construction, but they are more closely bound together by ties of blood than by architectural detail. The colonial mansions of the latter little Com- monwealth show decided evidence of Dutch influence in their construction, while those of the former present probably as pure examples as will be found of the Eng- lish adaptation of the classic motive in building, which forms the backbone of the Georgian school. Side by side however, geographically speaking, the eastern shore of Maryland and the whole of little Delaware being isolated by the Delaware and Chesapeake bays, the two States are very closely connected genealogically. The Ridgely, Loockermann, and Johns families, to men- tion only a few, have branches in both States and have been conspicuous in the history of each.


One great distinction between the colonial homes of Maryland and Delaware relates to the comparatively unimportant matter of size. The homes of Maryland are of much bolder conception than those of Delaware. There are many reasons for this, but on the surface it is apparent that Delaware, with its unsettled early days- founded by the Dutch, wrangled over by the Swedes, and finally wrested from both of these nationalities by the strong hand of the English-would not attract as wealthy a class of settler as Maryland, nor would its


1


INTRODUCTION


people spring from a stock with as imperative a tradi- tion of luxurious living as those of the cavalier life in the Southern State. In point of charm and historic interest, however, one finds as much to please the imagination and the eye in the homes of Delaware as in those of any other State of the Union.


A characteristic architectural development of colonial Maryland is the wing. This is not typical of the colonial homes of Delaware. Maryland was essen- tially a slave-holding and tobacco-growing colony and the wing was a creation designed to meet the double demand for a place to house the house-servants near at hand and for an office close to the dwelling-house from which to conduct the affairs of the plantation. At first these demands were met by a small isolated structure close to the big house. Then came a covered passage- way from the house. Finally the wing as a concrete part of the whole became an accepted convention.


In both Maryland and Delaware, as well as Penn- sylvania, brick was the favorite material used for build- ing. Incidentally in New England frame was usual. Yet stone and brick were plentiful in New England, and wood in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Just why there should be this characteristic and undeniable difference in choice of building stuff is one of those things " no fellow hopes to know." Temperamental variances would seem to be a better explanation, even though a somewhat ambiguous one, than an attempt to blame it


2


INTRODUCTION


on the climate; for wood is certainly a less appropriate building stuff for a cold northerly climate than stone.


The homes of Maryland and Delaware were always built on a navigable water-course and usually with the front of the house toward the water. There were good reasons for this. Our ancestors did not have good roads and they were not especially fond of walking. Again the water-courses were safer routes of travel than the forests where hostile savages might do mischief. As late as 1750, indeed, the fear of Indian attack had not


left Annapolis, the capital of Maryland. Follow the Delaware up from the Atlantic and diverge into almost any of the tributaries of this body fifty miles or so above its mouth, and you will find the colonial houses of Dela- ware. Penetrate into southern Maryland by the Pa- tuxent or go up the Severn upon which Annapolis was situated and in these reaches of land will be found the colonial mansions of Maryland.


The period of fine home building in Maryland and Delaware extended from about 1735 to the end of the eighteenth century. It was not until the beginning of this stretch of time that a really wealthy class had been developed in either of the two colonies. Now the planter came into his own. His acres were a " going concern," a concern that probably paid larger dividends in pro- portion than the great bulk of those commercial ventures which have been born in the present day. His own work was little more than casual supervision; two or three


3


INTRODUCTION


months in the year he would devote to the planting and the cutting, and the rest of the time was his own, over- seers taking the mass of small details from his shoulders. It was at this time that he began to build himself a beautiful home, that Annapolis in Maryland and Dover and New Castle in Delaware became social capitals, and that the lawyer class-made up chiefly of leisured men -attained that brilliance of forensic and intellectual achievement which was characteristic of the bar of these two States before the Revolution.


The typical Maryland colonial mansion, using this word to mean a pretentious dwelling, was a large central building with wings, surrounded by a number of smaller dwellings for servants and overseers. It was usually two stories in height and occasionally, though very rarely, three, and it was made after designs sent from London.


This interesting question as to who were the archi- tects of the Maryland and Delaware houses has received investigation from the late T. Henry Randall, of the Randall House, Annapolis, Maryland, an aged man at his death several years ago, an architect himself, and a life-long resident in the traditions of the aristocratic ancient city, and his opinion expressed several times in his writings and in his conversation coincided with the last sentence above. The planter was his own architect and builder, securing his plans from good authorities in England and patiently and carefully following them


4


INTRODUCTION


after they were secured. The reputation for smartness and fashionableness of Annapolis just before the Revo- lution drew to it some architects from the other side of the water, but they were never numerically a large class. A book of designs from which many of the old doorways and interior details of the mansions of Maryland and Delaware were evidently copied is to be found, among other places, in the British Museum in London and bears the title, " The British Architects or Builders Treasury, by Abraham Swan, Architect. London, MDCCVII." It was from such sources as this that our forefathers drew their inspirations.


Even in the town houses in Annapolis, where space was more confined, the buildings retained their wings and their aspect of generosity of mass, the chief differ- ence between town and country being that in the country there were more out-buildings. Each plantation house was its own store, as the merchant class in Maryland was small and each house had a private wharf where goods were received from vessels from Europe. The greater planters owned the schooners in which barter was carried on with the mother country.


The decoration of the homes was done by hand by intelligent servants trained to the work or by those artisans whom chance, misfortune, or adventure sent to the New World.


Despite the mildness of the climate in Maryland and Delaware and the severity of the summers the


5


INTRODUCTION


houses were built without piazzas. Sometimes there would be a covered stoop at the entrance, but the Eng- lish tradition in this regard was carefully followed. It was not until after the end of the eighteenth century that the porch as a place of sufficient size for the family to take the air was introduced. The grounds around the houses were almost always carefully terraced and, usually, toward the river. This gave a splendid space on which to stroll of humid evenings, and summer- houses in the gardens were very common.


A distinguishing feature of the builders of the colonial mansions in both Maryland and Delaware seems to have been their love of gardens. After the planter had built his house, he always chose a sunny spot of ground to devote to flowers and box-bushes, these latter guarding the sides of formally planned gravel walks.


Just how long did it take our forefathers to build one of these homes? Probably about four years on the average if there was no interruption. We know that two years after the Chase House in Annapolis, Maryland, was started the outside of the house was completed. Skilled labor was scarce and the builders of those days did their work with a care and a regard to permanence which does not mark all modern home erection. The timbers of Tulip Hill, West River, Maryland, are heavy enough for the keel of a large ship, and the thick walls of the quaint Ridgely House, Dover, Delaware, would


6


F


ST. PAUL'S RECTORY, BALTIMORE 1794


INTRODUCTION


make a whole city block of two-story modern brick houses.


When our forefathers built a fine house how much did it cost them? The Chase House, Annapolis, when almost completed was sold by Samuel Chase for nearly five hundred pounds sterling, of Great Britain, and twenty-four hundred pounds current, while the purchase price for the lot on which the house stood was one hundred pounds sterling. When Ninian Pinkney sold his beautiful home opposite the Chase House to Jere- miah Townely Chase in 1811, the consideration was three thousand, five hundred dollars, of the United States mint, the purchasing power of a dollar being much greater then than now. Whatever our fore- fathers' homes may have cost them when new, it is lamentably true that until very recent years many of them were sold for the proverbial song, and rag-time at that.


Of nearly every old house that one visits, it is proudly asserted that the bricks were brought over from England, usually as ballast for the ship it is said, or as the result of a direct order for such a commodity. This is a tradition that seems to have no settled home. It can be heard in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia, yet there is not a single bill of lading recorded in Mary- land which shows brick as an item of import, and the only pertinent information in the author's possession


7


INTRODUCTION


upon this moot question is the recollection of certain members of the Snowden family of Maryland of having seen passages in old letters that referred to brick having been brought from England for the building of Birm- ingham. These letters were destroyed by the fire which carried away this beautiful manor house. The fire did not destroy the brick in entirety and, to be sure, they are of size and texture not resembling any other old brick in Maryland. It would seem that as a rule, how- ever, the popular tradition of imported brick is without foundation, though one hesitates to contravene a general opinion so well established. But the colonists needed more important things from England than brick to ballast a ship, and there was good clay in this country. Governor Sharpe had his own brick-yard to assist in the building of Whitehall, Maryland. It is probable that the planters as a class were their own brick-makers.


Around the old homes of Maryland and Delaware hang many traditions often scattered to various quarters to be gathered together one by one. Sometimes one finds a beautiful colonial homestead which seems to strive terribly to unfold to you the story of its past but for which you miss just the word which will make all intelligible to you. There comes to mind in this con- nection the Stemmer House, near Baltimore, about which records cannot be found to connect its history from its erection just before the Revolution by the man


8


INTRODUCTION


from whom it took its name with its acquisition not long after the opening of the nineteenth century by Robert Howard. It is now owned and occupied by Miss Sallie Hays, the grand-daughter of Robert Howard, and lately housed, also, the family of Miss Hays's cousin, Mrs. E. B. Hall. This old homestead is one of the finest examples of colonial architecture in Maryland, and yet it is to be doubted if more than two dozen people outside of its immediate neighborhood know of its exist- ence. It consists of a central building with wings, though the wings are not developed to the full type which marked most of the homes of Maryland of this period. It is large, and contains very beautiful· interior carving. The stairway which leads from the rear of the usual central hall is of notable grace, winding to the second floor in an airy curve with a window lighting its course midway and with hardwood stairs and with slender mahogany pilasters. In its general design it resembles the stair of Montmorenci, the Worthington homestead in the Worthington Valley, Maryland.


The builder of this mansion, it has been asserted, was a sea-captain who was so wedded to the ways of the sea that he had a hammock slung in his bedroom on the second floor and slept in this in preference to a bed- stead which a land-lubber might have chosen. In proof. of this, two large hooks are shown you in this room from which a hammock might have been slung. The


9


INTRODUCTION


grounds around the house were carefully terraced and in the rear was a garden.


The era of fine home building in Maryland reached its finest flower in Annapolis, as would be supposed from the social pre-eminence of this little capital, just before the Revolution. In southern Maryland, the scene of the original settlement of the State, are to be found homes even antedating the Georgian period of building, some very pretentious and all equally difficult of access because of the poor railroad facilities of this part of the State. Among the charming homes in Saint Mary's County, Maryland, of which an extended story has not been told in the body of the book are: Tudor Hall, Mrs. Joseph H. Key's place; Ellenborough, an- other Key house; Cremona, which has been inherited by Miss Eliza Thomas, of Baltimore; Saint Cuthbert's, the home of Mrs. Walter Briscoe; and Portobello, opposite the historic town-site of St. Mary's, now the possession of Mrs. Hyatt.


There may be mentioned, too, Rose Hill, Chancel- lor's Hope and Pamonky, in Charles County; Rane- lagh, the Contee place, Brookefield, Poplar Hill, Bald Eagle, the Waring homestead, Acquasco and Matta- poni, in Prince George's County; the Hermitage in Queen Anne's County; Plimhimmon and Myrtle Grove in Talbot County; the Lee House, Rehoboth, in Dor- chester County; Success Farm, in Cecil County; the


10


5


-


THE STEMMER HOUSE


INTRODUCTION


Dairy Farm, the Hall homestead, in Harford County. All of these places were in preservation a few years ago.


Among the interesting colonial homes in Delaware not treated fully in the text are: Belmont Hall, near Smyrna; the Wilson House and the Corbit House at Odessa; and the Cowgill House at Dover. The Cowgill House has been very well described in a novel popular twenty years ago, " The Entailed Hat."


A long chapter might be written of the beautiful colonial homes in Maryland and Delaware which have passed away in the memory of the last generation.


In some of the colonial places of these two States life is lived in a state closely approximating that when the house was new. In Oakdale, Howard County, the home of former Governor Edwin F. Warfield, of Mary- land, one finds himself where the traditions of this old Maryland family are carefully maintained.


A minor triumph of colonial home building in Mary- land is the rectory of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore, illustrated in this chapter. Erected in 1794 as the home of the spiritual director of this parish, it has never served any other purpose. It at present shelters the Rev. Dr. Arthur Kinsolving and his family. Situated at the intersection of busy Cathe- dral and Saratoga streets in the downtown section and opposite a large hotel, it draws many curious glances from Baltimoreans and strangers to the city alike.


11


INTRODUCTION


The life that was lived in these old homes has been pictured often by novelists and historians. It was not all cards and wine, dancing and love-making, with a little bit of duelling thrown in for good measure after breakfast as cheap romancers would have it, but one cannot help thinking that the occupants of these houses knew how to live life fully and frankly and one may be sure that they had sufficient leisure, as well, for reflec- tion and rest.


COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND


THE CHASE HOUSE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND CHASE-LLOYD-HARWOOD-RIDOUT


HE old Chase House, Annapolis, Maryland, as it is affectionately spoken of by residents of this quaint and delightful city, is one of the largest of the colonial man- sions which have made that place a Mecca for artists and students of architecture. It faces the Hammond House on the north side of Maryland Avenue, over which it gazes to the sleepy harbor front and the broad waters of Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, its three stories and a half above the pavement giving it an advantage of height over any other residence in Annapolis.




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