Historic mansion persists

TOWSON, Md. (AP) — Hampton Mansion has plenty of historical and architectural significance. All it needs is a higher profile.

The mansion, maintained by the National Park Service, is considered one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in the United States. It is one of just a few plantation homes with extant slave quarters. With 25,000 square feet of living space, it was the largest private home in the United States when it was completed in 1790.

Hampton sits on 63 acres just outside the Baltimore Beltway, less than a mile from the heart of Towson. But many area residents don’t know the first thing about it.

“You say ’National Park Service’ in Baltimore, and you immediately think of Fort McHenry,” said Rhoda Dorsey, president emeritus of Historic Hampton Inc., a nonprofit group that supports the site. “You don’t think of anything else.”

Hampton, which reopened to the public last month after a three-year restoration, is an odd fit among the Park Service’s 392 properties. With its bold stucco exterior and dramatic cupola, it’s the only national park designated for its architectural significance.

The Ridgely family, which lived at Hampton for seven generations, also bears some responsibility for the mansion’s present-day obscurity. The Ridgelys simply aren’t prominent enough to poach history buffs from neighboring Virginia.

Although they had social relationships with presidents — Theodore Roosevelt’s wife, Edith, was a guest at Hampton in 1902 — the Ridgelys enjoyed the pinnacle of their political influence from 1816 to 1819. That was when Charles Carnan Ridgely, the second master of Hampton, was appointed to three one-year terms as Maryland governor.

Although Maryland was part of the Union during the Civil War, it was south of the Mason-Dixon Line and remained a slave state. It did not embrace emancipation until November 1864, nearly two years after President Lincoln delivered the Emancipation Proclamation.

When he died in 1829, Charles Carnan Ridgely freed more than 300 slaves in his will. But his son, John Carnan Ridgely, bought about 60 slaves and freed only one. Several dozen people were enslaved at Hampton when emancipation came to Maryland. Many stayed on as paid servants.

Down the hill from the mansion’s dramatic front lawn sits a 1745 farmhouse where the Ridgelys lived while Hampton was under construction. Next to the farmhouse are three buildings where slaves lived, including two built from stone — a rarity for slave quarters. Most were built of wood and didn’t survive.