On the way back from Valley View (see previous blog post) I passed by the Hampton Mansion. Just for fun, I drove in and was hoping to walk around and take a few photos. It turned out there were hourly tours and one had just begun.
Most people today know Hampton as a sedate Georgian mansion, elegantly furnished and settled amid gardens and shade trees. Built as a country summer home between 1783 and 1790 by the prominent Ridgely family just after the Revolutionary War, the house and its immediate surroundings are just a remnant of the Hampton estate of the early 1800's. The Ridgely property in its heyday equalled half the area of present-day Baltimore, land that made its owners rich through iron production, agriculture and investments.
Hampton is now a National Historic Site and its 63 acres are operated by the National Park Service.
