Hampton Mansion: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Hampton National Historic Site, National Park Service
Beagan C and Brown M. 2025. Hampton Mansion: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Hampton National Historic Site, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 975884. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Hampton Mansion is part of Hampton National Historic Site (NHS), which is located in Towson, Maryland, just thirteen miles north of downtown Baltimore. The park is situated in a quiet residential neighborhood, immediately to the north of Interstate 695, the Baltimore Beltway. The 62.04-acre park retains the core resources of a once vast 25,000-acre estate amassed and operated by the Ridgely family for over 200 years. The Hampton landscape is comprised of two distinct components: the 48.02-acre Mansion landscape, located to the south of Hampton Lane, and the 14.02-acre farm landscape, located to the north. Together, they depict the integration of a once sprawling domestic, agricultural, commercial, and industrial enterprise, and remain as tangible vestiges of the political, economic, and social changes that shaped the nation from 1745 to 1948. The National Park Service acquired the Mansion property in 1947, but did not assume direct management of it until 1979. The Farm property was acquired in 1980. The Hampton Mansion property is dominated by the 1783-90 Georgian-style mansion and a multi-terraced formal garden, around which are outbuildings that including greenhouses, an orangery, garden maintenance building, caretaker’s house, stables, privies, a smokehouse, paint house, pumphouse, garage, and an icehouse. This assemblage is connected by historic driveways and paths, and set within lawns and meadows dotted with shade trees. The mansion sits atop a ridge overlooking the Dulaney Valley, with the gardens, outbuildings, and the adjacent Hampton Farm property descending from this high point in all directions. Distinct areas defined by use, circulation, and vegetation surround the mansion and include the Cemetery Woods and Ridgely Family Cemetery, East Orchard, Garden Maintenance Cluster, Great Terrace and Falling Gardens, Mansion and Domestic Service Cluster, North Lawn, and West Field (see Site Plans at the end of this report). Not only is it a significant resource for visitors from across the nation and globe, Hampton NHS is well visited by Towson schools, residents, and neighbors. With its long history, park resources continue to tell many different stories that resonate with a diversity of visitors, revealing the daily activities of the Ridgely family, laborers, and enslaved persons, and illustrating18th and 19th century history and design. Vibrant interpretive, youth education, and volunteer programs and partnerships engage the public to ensure that the Hampton landscape will be preserved and enjoyed for many generations to come.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Beagan, Chris; Brown, Margie
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- HAMP
- Keywords
- Agriculture, Archeology-Historic-Non-Aboriginal, Architecture, Colonial Traditions In The New World, Conservation, Creating Social Institutions and Movements, Designed Landscape, Developing the American Economy, Domesticity And Family Life, Early Federal Period 1789-1800, Estate Landscape, Ethnic Heritage-Black, Expressing Cultural Values, Extraction or Mining Industries, Functional Landscape-Interpretive Landscape, Georgian (1730-1780), Hampton, Hampton Hall, Hampton National Historic Site, Historic Preservation, Industry, Iron And Ferro Alloys, Landscape Architecture, Museum (Exhibition Hall)-Other, Northampton, Plantation Agriculture, Political and Military Affairs 1783-1860, Politics – Government, Shaping the Political Landscape, Slavery And Plantation Life, Social History, The Federal Government Enters The Movement, Transforming the Environment, Ways of Life