The Hampton Estate

Well, I've had yet another adventure through the history of Baltimore! It's a bit difficult to escape them when I enjoy them so much, and they're required for class... anyway.

This week, my Historic Preservation class took a trip to the Hampton Estate, which is about a ten-minute drive away from Goucher campus. In fact, Goucher's current campus used to be part of the estate, and it is said that one of the would-be masters (Captain Charles Ridgely) was killed in a riding accident somewhere on campus (right by the Mary Fischer Library, to be exact). It was owned by the Ridgely family, who began building the mansion in 1783. It was completed in 1790, and was, at the time, the largest home in the United States. It was used as a summer home for the Ridgely family, and the estate included orchards and ironworks, a farm, and a racing track (Charles Carnan Ridgely, the second owner of the estate, and the nephew of the first was an avid horseman, and began to breed Thoroughbreds at Hampton. Carnan Ridgely was originally "Charles Ridgely Carnan," but changed his name in order to inherit the estate after the would-be owner, Captain Charles Ridgely, died).

It is now a museum, with each room restored to a different period of the mansion's history.

This, for example, is the Parlor, as it was in the 18th Century, just after the American Revolutionary War.

I love this carpet. It vaguely reminds me of a rug we used to have in New York, but then again, a lot of things vaguely remind me of other things. Don't mind me. Anyway. I didn't know this before, but at the time, carpeting was sold in strips of about 27 inches (if I remember correctly), and one can see the tiny gaps between strips...

...Yep.

And I happen to find this door quite interesting:

Ordinary, wooden door, right? Not quite. It's made of wood, of course, but it is painted over look like mahogany. Apparently, this was quite a popular method of decoration at this time. In the Great Hall, which I do not have many pictures of, the "marble" decorations at the bottom of the walls are actually wood, painted by somebody to look like marble.

And this is the East Hyphen. A "hyphen," in this case, describes part of a building that connects two larger areas of a building. In Georgian houses, which Hampton is a rather good example of, there were typically two hyphens, one on each side, connecting the larger part of the house to smaller areas. The East Hyphen, in this case, connects to the kitchens.

Each of these bells is connected to a separate room in the house. They each sound slightly different, so that when they were rung, servants knew which room to go to.

The Kitchens:

The Dining Room:

I have to say, I really love this room. Not as in "OhmygoodnessIwouldtotallydecoratemydiningroomlikethis," but in the more "I could spend my day staring at this room," sort of way. It is restored to what it would have looked like just after the Napoleonic Wars. It has a lot of this very beautiful Prussian blue paint, as you can see, and yes, we know for a fact that this was the color used at the time. It's surprisingly bright, but then again, nothing looks too ridiculous next to the mural they have on the wall. These sorts of wall murals were quite popular in Europe at the time, and the Ridgelys were very much aware of this. So they had their dining room wall painted with landmarks of Paris. I kept expecting to look around and see a guillotine painted somewhere, but no... I was disappointed.

The Drawing Room:

Now, we are very clearly no longer looking at the Federal Period. The Drawing Room (the room to which one would "withdraw" after dining) is as it would have looked in the 1850s-1860s. As you can see, there's another very elaborate carpet (imported from England), also in strips, though its more difficult to tell with this one. Here, we have another example of what I was talking about with the "mahogany" door: the wooden decorations on the walls are painted to look like sandalwood.

And I could kick myself for not getting a close-up, but in this room, one sees more decorations with stag heads, and shields with three stars... these are part of the Ridgely Family crest. Later on during the tour, we got to see a lot of the family silver, and quite a bit of it was also decorated with these symbols.

The White Curtain Room:

Well, quite clearly, there aren't any curtains in this room, but that's only because the museum is still researching exactly what they would have looked like. It's nice to know somebody is being a stickler about these things... anyway. This is a bedroom on the second floor, as it would have been in the 1890s. The second floor was meant more for guests, so it was more highly decorated, as you'll be able to see as I go on.

Another bedroom:

This room is restored to its Napoleonic War-era state. Small meals like breakfast and dessert would have been had in this room, and it also houses a telescope, which I would have been very happy to see closer up... but ah well. And if my photographing abilities were not as horrible as they are, you would be able to see that one of the panes of glass looks a bit different than the others... it was a common practice during this time to etch window panes with names, as well as dates of birth (and death). It's a bit classier than graffiti-ing the wall, I suppose...

Just a little section of wall decoration that was kept in the Gallery Room, where they are currently keeping the Ridgely Family silver.

The Needles Bedroom:

Still on the second floor...

 Back on the first floor, to the last room, which happens to be my favorite:

Of course, my favorite room would be the Music Room, shown here in all it's Victorian glory (there's even a little print of Queen Victoria in the corner. Something I wasn't quite expecting to find in Towson, Maryland of all places, but perhaps I shouldn't be too surprised. The Ridgelys did a lot of traveling, and there is a reason we know the period as "The Victorian Era" in the United States, and not just in Britain). This is how the room would have looked in the 1900s to be specific. There are hand-painted silk shades on each window, which I unfortunately could not manage to get a proper picture of, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say they were quite beautiful.  
I was excited to see this room in the first place, as I've been studying Victorian Parlor Organs for the past week or so, and I was excited to see one in person. So I walked into the room, ready to see an organ with a ridiculous amount of decorated wooden shelving, and instead, I got... well. A pretty standard-looking piano.

I'm not disappointed, really. I'm just a bit bemused, since Parlor Organs were so much a part showing off one's style and taste at this time... I suppose I can't really explain my feelings about it without going into a discussion of Parlor Organs in general, which will have to happen another time, but... anyway. Suffice it to say I was surprised. They also had the original harp used by one of the female family members, so I cannot complain.

And a few pictures of the facade to finish up:

 Well, that's just about that. If you are interested in learning more about it, here is the Hampton Estate's website: http://www.historichampton.org/.

And just a few words about myself personally... things are going fairly well. Busy as ever, but well. I just got my second major paper back from European History, which I wrote about the "Age of Metternich." If you are interested in reading it, let me know, and I will email it to you, along with my professor's comments. But anyway, I got another "A," so I'm pleased. I'm hoping (okay, I'm fairly sure) I did as well on the second part of my European History midterm.

More soon! My love to all,
Tasha

Fell's Point

Well, we did make it to Fell's Point!

I realized that I sort of mentioned that in passing without really explaining, so... Fell's Point is a Historic District in Baltimore, dating from 1763, which is known for it's bars and pubs, and among History students, for it's historical infamy as one, big, brothel, and for it's hooked shape.

But anyway. It's a very interesting area, partly because it was originally not part of Baltimore at all: in fact, it was quite a trip to get from one town to the other in the 18th century, as one would be traveling through swamp, essentially. Baltimore town was built on its now famous Inner Harbor, but the issue was that the Inner Harbor is actually quite shallow. Fell's Point, on the other hand, has a deep-water port, which made it relatively easy for large, ocean-going vessels to anchor there. So what ended up happening was that ships would anchor at Fell's Point, and unload their cargo onto smaller barges, which would take the goods to Baltimore. As a result, Fell's Point evolved as a more maritime community, where sailors lived between journeys (you can imagine for yourself what that community looked like), while Baltimore Town became inhabited by merchants and artisans, and was therefore somewhat more established and conservative.

Baltimore annexed Fell's Point in 1773, and that's where I'm going to leave the story until the 1900's, when much of Baltimore burned down. Fell's Point survived, making it one of the only areas where 18th century architecture survives in the city.

It was made into a Historic District in the 1960's, after it was almost destroyed to make way for a highway that was to be built through the area. There is a very long, dramatic, and fascinating story behind what I just summarized in one sentence, but I'll save that for another time.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a lot of pictures, but the cornices on some of the buildings are really beautiful. This is a relatively plain brick one, but most are made of wood, and can be very ornate.

Supposedly, this is the next project for the Fell's Point Preservation Society.

Anyway, I went there on a field trip with my Historic Preservation class this afternoon. One of the 3 people who work at the Fells Point Preservation Society is the head of the Graduate program in Historic Preservation at Goucher, so we got a private tour of one of the projects they are currently working on. The building is called "The Academy," for some unknown reason, since it was never at any point an academy... It was built in 1790, and many additions were made in the 1890's. A porch was added in the 1920's, but it has since been taken off, since the Preservation Society lacks the funds to restore it.

Currently, most of the house is down to the bare bones, so you can see the old wooden frame, and the nogging (essentially bricks that were laid to fill the spaces in the frame). The Baltimore area is very rich in clay, so naturally, one finds bricks being used quite a bit, even though it was porous and a rather unreliable building material in the 18th and 19th centuries. Usually, one finds brick being covered up by wood or by Form Stone (such as in the house above).

An original doorframe.

The plans.

The original staircase.

One can see some of the original nogging here. Apparently, they are going to keep part of this area uncovered, so visitors can see the different layers of the wall.

Wallpaper from the 1920's.

Some of the original roof.

A view from the back of the house. 

This is what is known as a sally port. The more recognized usage of the word describes a secure entrance, usually to a prison or a fort (and of course, Fort McHenry has many of them). These, however, are simply entrances to alleys that lead to the back of a house. Though I suppose they fit the definition of a "secure entrance." They would have to be, I assume.

If you're interested, Fell's Point has a website (and it's not purely about bars!) at http://www.fellspoint.us/ It's worth looking around the site-- they have some interesting videos on the architecture, and some really good stuff on the history of the area. Needless to say, I'm going to have to take another trip there on my own, so I can take my time with the place... and hopefully cover more than just one house.

Until next time, my love to all!

Tasha