Hampton NHS Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Hampton National Historic Site

Beagan, Chris; Killion, Jeff

Hampton National Historic Site (NHS) 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 NHS landscape is comprised of two distinct component landscapes: 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. Hampton Mansion: 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. Hampton Farm: The Hampton Farm property includes the 18th century Farm House, around which are outbuildings that include several slave quarters, an ash house, long house/granary, dairy, mule barn, and foundations of a corn crib. Roads and paths connect these features, which are set within lawns and meadows dotted with shade trees. Near the center of the triangular-shaped site is the Farm House Cluster, situated around a slight rise in topography and a natural rock outcropping, and directly visible from the adjacent Hampton Mansion property to the south. In the western portion of the site is the West Farm Field, which is planted with annual ryegrass, oats, and/or corn to evoke its historic agricultural character. In the eastern portion, a stream emanates from a spring directly below the dairy and flows north to a wetland.

Hampton NHS Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Hampton National Historic Site

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