USA > Delaware > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 2
USA > Maryland > Colonial mansions of Maryland and Delaware > Part 2
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The house is situated on the main way to the Naval Academy and receives many visitors daily from among the sightseers to this institution. Of late years it has been the home of a public charity and gives open door to all callers. Few men or women could be so absorbed in affairs of the present as to fail to respond to its mute invitation to step aside for a few moments for a trip into the past.
When Annapolis was laid out in 1695, the ground on which the old mansion stands was surveyed, forming a part of the original plat of the city. The town-site
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
commissioners put down two adjacent circles of ground in what is the centre of the present-day city. One of these circles they labelled " State," and here the capitol of Maryland stands, a beautiful Georgian edifice with a quaint dome and interior decorations by Bulfinch. The other circle they called " Church," and here was erected St. Anne's Church (of the Church of England) thrice rebuilt but sheltering within its grounds the bones of most of Annapolis' honored dead, including those of many of these very same town-site commissioners. Another part of the future city the commissioners de- voted to "Trade," other parts to "Gentlemen's Homes," and " Tradesmen's Homes." State, Church, Trade, and Gentility were kept carefully separated in the ancient city until well after the Revolution, for it was an aristocratic city with aristocratic ideals; and they are separated even now, some of the city's critics would say.
In the heart of the fine residence district, the Chase House was planned and finished. It faces southeast and is built close to the southeast boundary of its lot, which is enclosed by a high, old-time paling fence. Over the Maryland Avenue side of this fence, near the front door, hang sweet-flowering bushes, the remains of a garden planted a century or more ago. Though the garden is not so orderly as it once was-with close-clipt hedges and tiny, gravelled walks-it still shows the plan on which it was laid out in ye olden time.
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RIDOTTI
ENTRANCE TO CHASE HOUSE 1769
THE CHASE HOUSE
The doorway of the old home is of three-part con- struction with a fanlight over the central portion, and is approached by a high, broad flight of steps headed by a commodious landing with quaint benches on either side. There is a brass knocker on the door representing Medusa's head, with the knocker-stirrup encircling the lower part of the face.
Though large, the house is not ill-proportioned, and the monotonous expanse of the walls is varied by string courses of brick which mark the different stories. The cornice is heavy and the eaves of the roof have wide projections lowering the appearance of the house, and preventing its seeming too high. The carved medallion panels on the inside shutters are to be plainly seen from the street, and this feature adds a touch of ornament to the plain exterior.
The house was originally intended to have wings, but these were never finished, though there is a sort of "rudimentary development " on the northeast side, wherein is situated a kitchen and a laundry.
The main building is divided through the middle by a broad hallway leading from the front door to a great stairway at the back of the house. To the right of this hall, as one enters, is the dining-room, an apartment of stately proportions. To the left is the parlor. Beyond the parlor is a sitting-room, and between these rooms runs a passage from the main hall to a little terrace overlooking the remains of the garden. To the rear of
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
the dining-room is a small breakfast-room, while be- tween these two rooms is a passage leading down a steep flight of stairs, through a very thick old door-frame to the kitchen. There are no other rooms on the first floor.
The stairway commences with a single flight leading to a landing. Steps and landing are lighted by a Palla- dian window which has been copied in many beautiful homes of this country. From here there are two flights in a reverse direction which run without break to a gallery on the second floor. From this gallery halls extend to the northeast and southwest sides of the house. Much less conspicuous stairs conduct one from the second to the third floor. The base of the main stairway is marked by two fine Ionic columns which support the gallery on the second floor. This flight of steps is that down which Dorothy Manners tripped so blithely and so effectively in Winston Churchill's novel of colonial Annapolis, " Richard Carvel," Annapolitans assert, but there is no foundation for the story, save the fitting beauty of the stair. A back-stairs is to be found in the house, too, an unusual thing in houses of the Georgian period, and a sign of great extravagance in its builder.
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The doors of the house throughout are of solid mahogany with latches and hinges of wrought silver. There is much wood-carving, particularly in the dining- room, and the ceilings of the first floor are of stucco.
The foundations of the Chase House were laid in 1769 by Samuel Chase, " the Signer." In May of that
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دام ٠١١٠٠٠
السبعة
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SHUTTER CARVING, CHASE HOUSE
THE CHASE HOUSE
year he purchased lot Number One Hundred and Seven in the city of Annapolis, an old deed in the land record office, Annapolis, tells us, from Denton Hammond for One Hundred Pounds, Sterling. He commenced to build immediately, and two years from this time, in July, 1771, sold this piece of ground and " all houses, edifices, buildings, improvements, waters, easements, privileges, commodities and advantages whatsoever to the same belonging " to Edward Lloyd, of "Wye House," Tal- bot County, Maryland. The consideration involved was "Five Hundred and Four Pounds, Sterling, of Great Britain, and Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Ninety-one Pounds, Seventeen Shillings and Seven Pence, Current."
These words are quoted from an indenture among the provincial court records of Maryland, now in the Land Commissioner's office in the Court of Appeals Building, Annapolis, and are given verbatim, as it has been a matter of dispute whether Samuel Chase built entirely the old mansion that bears his name, whether he built it in part and left it to be finished by Edward Lloyd, or whether he was at all concerned in its erection. Considering the sum of money involved in the transac- tion last noted, rather great for property in those days- especially when compared with the amount which was paid for the lot two years prior thereto-it seems indis- putable that the house was substantially completed when it came into its second owner's hands.
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
At the same time, when we think of the scarcity of skilled labor and the general slowness of construction work at that time, we must conclude that the interior was finished under Edward Lloyd's direction, and the final stamp given the property by him. This view is strikingly borne out by a comparison of the exterior and interior of the house. The big, simple masses of the exterior and the uncomplicated general plan of the house, contrasted with the slim, fastidious silver door- fittings and decorations of the interior, show two de- cidedly different personalities, and these observations agree very well, too, with the characters of Samuel Chase and Edward Lloyd, as they are to be seen in records of their contemporaries.
In the registry of wills of Baltimore city is to be found the testament of Thomas Chase, " clerk of Balti- more Town, Baltimore County," probated in the year 1779, in which the testator leaves all his world's goods to " son Samuel." This Thomas Chase was the father of the builder of the Chase home. He was a clergyman of the Church of England, but held a civil position for the greater part of his life. The document mentions other children, Ann, Elizabeth, George, and Richard.
There is another will of earlier date in this same de- pository, bearing the name of Richard Chase, brother of Thomas, which mentions two children, Jeremiah and Frances. These good old English names, Thomas, Samuel, Richard, Jeremiah, Ann, and Elizabeth, recur
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THE CHASE HOUSE
constantly in the records of the Chase family. This Richard Chase's will contains one statement, too, show- ing at least that its maker had a mind of his own: "I desire that no funeral sermon shall be preached at my interment."
" Son Samuel," of Thomas, was educated in Annapo- lis when that little city was beginning to thrill to that spirit of independence which brought about the Revolu- tion, and was filled with men ardently reciting the creed of liberty. Among them very soon one finds Chase con- spicuous. He joined the " Sons of Liberty " and be- came known for uncompromising frankness of utterance and a personal bravery that has made him a picturesque figure in Maryland annals. A somewhat more opulent follower of the Hustings than Andrew Jackson, he yet resembles that great fire-eater of later times in many particulars. Once he was assailed by certain prominent men of Annapolis with a newspaper canard containing the following words: " Chase is a busy-body, a restless incendiary, a ring-leader of mobs, a foulmouthed and inflaming son of discord and faction, a promoter of the lawless excesses of the multitude." This followed his connection with the destruction of the property of Zachariah Hood, stamp collector for the province of Maryland. Says the historian Warfield:
Chase replied to these words in a vehement public address : " Was it a mob who destroyed in effigy our stamp distributor? Was it a mob who assembled here from the different counties
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
and indignantly opened the public offices? Whatever vanity may whisper in your ears, or that pride and arrogance may suggest which are natural to despicable tools of power, emerged from obscurity and basking in proprietary sunshine, you must confess them to be your superiors, men of reputation and merit, who are mentioned with respect while you are named with contempt, pointed out and hissed at as fruges consumere nati.
" I admit that I was one of those who committed to the flames in effigy the stamp distributor of this province, and who openly disputed the parliamentary right to tax the colonies ; while you skulked in your houses, some of you asserting the parliamentary right and esteeming the Stamp Act a beneficial law. Others of you meanly grumbled in your corners, not daring to speak out your sentiments."
It was a time of strong men and strong language! On another occasion, while Chief Justice of the General Court of Maryland, and when there was a riot in the streets of Baltimore, Chase with his own unaided hands arrested two of the ringleaders of the disturbance of the peace and dragged them before the sheriff.
His prisoners refused to give bail and the sheriff was afraid there would be a successful effort to rescue them if he took them to jail through the crowded streets.
" Summon a posse comitatus," thundered Judge Chase.
" Sir, no one will serve."
" Summon me, then ; I will take them to jail!"
Instead of presenting the rioters, the grand jury in- dicted the judge for holding a place in two courts at the same time.
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PALLADIAN WINDOW IN CHASE HOUSE
THE CHASE HOUSE
Still later in life, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, by appointment from Presi- dent Washington, Chase was impeached in the United States Senate for mingling diatribes against current political conditions with his judicial utterances. While the impeachment did not hold, no one doubted its provo- cation. He was a signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and a delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1778.
Judge Chase's first wife was Ann Baldwin, of an old Maryland family, by whom he had four children, Samuel, Thomas, Ann, and Catherine. He married a second time, Hannah Kitty Giles, of Kentbury, Eng- land, and died June 19, 1811. Thomas Chase married his cousin, Matilda, daughter of Jeremiah T. Chase. Catherine married Henry Ridgely, of Howard County, Maryland.
The second owner of the mansion, Edward Lloyd, of Wye House, was of the old baronial stock of the colony, and was the fourth Edward Lloyd in Mary- land. The family was English in origin and a more extended account of it will be found in the chapter on Wye House, where this Edward kept a deer park, horses and hounds, and rode when he went abroad, in that illustrious but cumbersome institution-a coach and four. His tax assessment in 1783, despite depreda- tions by British marauders at Wye House, included 261 slaves, 799 head of sheep, 147 horses, 571 head of
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
cattle, 579 head of hogs, 215,000 pounds of tobacco, 500 ounces of plate and 72 tracts of land covering 11,8841/2 acres. At his death he left his home in Annapolis to his son Edward Lloyd, V, who became Governor of Mary- land, 1809-1811.
During its occupancy by Edward Lloyd, IV, the Chase House was the scene of many brilliant social entertainments, and the tradition of hospitality thus established was continued by this gentleman's son and heir, Edward Lloyd, V, the next occupant, during whose occupancy, moreover, the old home became the " Governor's Mansion " of Maryland, by reason of its master's election to that high office in 1809.
One must again turn to the record office in Annapo- lis to follow the life of the Chase House. May 11, 1826, Edward Lloyd, V, sold the Chase House to his son-in- law, Henry Hall Harwood, for $6,500, the first mention in deeds concerning the property of coin of the United States. November 5, 1847, it was purchased from the heirs of Henry Hall Harwood, who died suddenly, by Miss Hester Ann Chase, daughter of Jeremiah T. Chase. She left it, in her will of 1875, to her nieces, Matilda and Frances Catherine Townley Chase, daughters of Thomas Chase (son of Judge Samuel) and his cousin- wife Matilda (daughter of Jeremiah T. Chase). The old home thus came back at last to descendants of its founder. These two ladies did not marry and were sur- vived by their sister, Hester Ann Chase Ridout, wife
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THE CHASE HOUSE
of Reverend Samuel Ridout, to whom they in turn left their half-interest in the old home.
The final phase of the life of the Chase House was entered into in 1888, following the death of Hester Ann Chase Ridout, by reason of the following words in this noble-hearted woman's will: "Desiring to estab- lish a home for destitute, aged and infirm women, where they may find a retreat from the vicissitudes of life and to endow the same, as far as my means will allow, to be called and known as the ' Chase Home,' I hereby devise and bequeath to Dr. William G. Ridout, John Scharff Stockett, John Wirt Randall, Frank H. Stockett, Eu- gene Worthington, Dr. Zachariah D. Ridout, Elizabeth M. Franklin, and Nannie S. Stockett, and to their heirs, successors and assigns, all that lot of ground on Mary- land Avenue, in the City of Annapolis, together with all the buildings and improvements thereon, where I now reside . . . together with the furniture which may be in said house at the time of my decease, not including, however, family portraits and silver-ware; in trust, to be held by them and their successors in perpetuity for the objects and purposes of such 'Home.'" Mrs. Rid- out also left property in Baltimore to these trustees as an endowment for the " Home."
She survived her husband three years, and had no direct heirs. In accordance with her request, she lies buried at Whitehall, her husband's family home, and by his side.
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
Its later owners have not changed the Chase House in any essential, preferring rather to maintain it in its vestiture of the olden times. It contains, amongst other minor colonial relics, a set of china bearing the Chase coat-of-arms, an immense bedstead requiring a set of steps to enter it, and an eight-day clock which belonged to the bachelor Proprietary'Governor Horatio Sharpe, and was kept by him at Whitehall.
THE HAMMOND, OR HARWOOD, HOUSE ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND HAMMOND-PINKNEY-CHASE-LOCKERMAN- HARWOOD
HE Hammond House, Annapolis, Maryland, very often called the Harwood House, is on Maryland Avenue, directly opposite the Chase House, just described. A more striking contrast in exterior than these two buildings could hardly be imagined, as, where the latter is high and square, the former is low, long and distinguished for grace; the one a solid, single unit, the other depending for its architectural effect almost entirely upon one- story-and-a-half wings, which are almost the only examples of semi-octagonal additions of this character in the United States. The Chase House is notable for breadth, simplicity, and generosity of line and mass; the Hammond House for elegance, refinement of detail, and beautiful proportion. Either one in itself would be sufficient to give character to a city fortunate enough to possess it, and that the two, so diverse in character, yet so representative of the best homes of our fathers, should be face to face affably holding converse in stately eighteenth-century style across the same street in the same city, is a rare cause for congratulation.
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
The Hammond House was built in 1774 by Matthias Hammond, the revolutionary patriot; was inherited, in 1786, by John Hammond, nephew of the builder; sold by its inheritor, in 1789, to his brother, Philip Ham- mond; was transferred by purchase, March 31, 1810, from Philip Hammond to Ninian Pinkney and by pur- chase, October 28, 1811, from Ninian Pinkney to Jere- miah Townley Chase, who bought it as a home for his daughter, Frances Townley Chase Lockerman. The present owner of the house is Miss Hester Harwood, a granddaughter of Frances Townley Chase Lockerman, whose father, William Harwood, in 1853, married Mrs. Lockerman's daughter, Hester Ann Lockerman.
There are many interesting traditions in Annapolis of this old property, one of them relating to the quaint transaction that took place between Edward Lloyd who lived in the Chase House and Matthias Hammond during the building of the latter's home. The story goes that the latter had planned to have a three-story edifice without wings, very much like other town houses of the time in Annapolis, and was proceeding merrily along in this direction, when it occurred to the former that if the latter carried out his plans in full, the former would have no view of the water from his front windows -a very much sought-after condition in those days.
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Events proved that the two gentlemen were good friends, as otherwise, in that litigious age and city, they would certainly have gone to the courts and our two
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THE HAMMOND, OR HARWOOD, HOUSE
beautiful colonial reminders of the present day might never have been finished; or the two men would never have come to so amicable an agreement as they did reach. Mr. Hammond agreed to change the plans of his house so that Mr. Lloyd might have a good view if Mr. Lloyd would pay the cost of the wings which would be added to his house to make up for the space lost in the projected third story. Thus, instead of his hopes taking wings, as they might have done had he gone into the courts, Mr. Hammond's house took wings, and all was well. This accounts for the fact that the founda- tion walls of the Hammond House are five feet thick in the central portion, which-even with the generous emphasis on such details of those days-seems rather too much for a two-story building.
Another tradition in Annapolis of the old home has a flavor of romance. Mr. Hammond was engaged to be married to a fair lady, whose name has not been handed down to us, and this house, a very gem of classical architecture, was to be his wedding gift to his bride. It was finished, and its master had even sent to Philadelphia for furniture when his fiancée would have nothing more to do with him because, tradition hath re- ported it, she declared he gave more of his thoughts to the house than to herself. The rift in the lute of love between these two was complete, their marriage never took place, and the only result was this beautiful crea- tion of brick and mortar which has preserved its form
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
and dignity when the human beings who brought it into existence have almost passed from recollection.
Its builder was the great-grandson of Maj .- Gen. John Hammond, who settled near Annapolis, Mary- land, before the eighteenth century and died in 1707, Matthias' line of descent reading; John, Charles, Philip. Since we must hear again of his family, and since he remained a bachelor throughout the rest of his life, we shall not now further discuss him except to say that by profession he was an attorney.
The Hammond House is notable for its doorway which, with the second-floor window and the bull's- eye above, form a group very generally and greatly admired.
The principle of symmetry is observed with great strictness throughout the exterior and interior of the house. In the reception-room, even, where a doorway is needed in one wall to balance a doorway in the adjacent wall, a dummy-door has been constructed, which is com- plete in every detail of lintel, frame and carving.
The left wing of the house is not connected with the main body, and was used as an office by the builder of the house. The right wing is connected, and contains the kitchen and pantry. In each wing are second floors containing bedrooms.
The main hall-way leads from the main entrance to a drawing-room in the back of the house overlooking the garden. On the right of the drawing-room is the
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ENTRANCE TO HAMMOND HOUSE 1774
THE HAMMOND, OR HARWOOD, HOUSE
dining-room. A library and a reception-room are on either side of the hall.
On the second floor, over the dining and drawing- rooms, and taking in the whole back of the house, is a ball-room, nineteen by twenty-seven feet, one of the most beautiful colonial rooms ever built. It is wain- scoted with wood to the height of about three feet, and the tall window frames, door frames, mantel and cornice are most exquisitely carved. The great charm of the room lies in its fine proportions, high ceiling, and atmosphere of grace and dignity, and it was a fitting setting for the many brilliant social gatherings it held under its first master's régime.
The ground back of the house once sloped away to the water, but the little creek which did duty then has long since been filled in, and the only view to be ob- tained in that quarter now is the roofs of the Paca and Brice mansions and the tops of some modern little structures built on "made " land. The remains of a terraced garden are to be found here, yet this garden in its fullest perfection was not original with the house, but is to be associated with the name of a later occupant, Frances Townley Chase Lockerman, whose love for, and success with, flowers was proverbial in her day. She it was who planned the walks and had set out the borders, the remains of which we admire to-day.
The deed of sale, on record in the land office at Annapolis, Maryland, between Philip Hammond and
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COLONIAL MANSIONS OF MARYLAND
Ninian Pinkney, contains a concise summary of the title of the house, which seems to point to the fact that Pinkney had been a tenant before he purchased it, and a section may be quoted. The location of the property is described, and then follows:
all of which four lots or parcels of ground lie contiguous and adjacent to each other and form a square commonly called " Hammond's Square," and on which property the aforesaid Matthias Hammond built that elegant and commodious dwelling- house, office and kitchen, which was lately rented and now occupied by the above-mentioned Ninian Pinkney, a party to these presents. The above-mentioned property was devised to John Hammond, son of Charles Hammond, in the last will and testament of the aforesaid Matthias Hammond, as will fully appear by the said will, and which property was by John Ham- mond on or about the 14th of December, 1789, conveyed to the above-mentioned Philip Hammond.
Ninian Pinkney's father, Jonathan Pinkney, was a sturdy, bulldog Englishman, who remained loyal to the mother country during the Revolution and lost, as a consequence, his lifetime's accumulation of property. His sons, Jonathan, William, and Ninian, had each to make his own way in the world from the beginning, which each did successfully, William, in especial, rising to high honor at the bar and in the statecraft of his country, serving variously as United States Senator, Minister to Great Britain, Minister to Russia, and Attorney-General of the United States. Ninian, the youngest son, married twice. By his second wife,
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SOFA OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE PERIOD Part of the estate of the late Mrs. Mary V. Hammond, of Frederick County, Md. (Dimensions: Seat, 8 feet by 2 feet. Height of back from floor, 38 inches)'
THE HAMMOND, OR HARWOOD, HOUSE
Amelia Grason Hobbs, a widow, daughter of Richard Grason, of Talbot County, and sister of Governor Wil- liam Grason, of Maryland, he had three children: Mary Amelia, William, and Ninian, Jr. He was " Clerk of the Council " for thirty years.
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