View of the Hampton Mansion from the gardens, Hampton National Historic Site

There are a number of historical buildings, a family cemetery, and a formal garden on the grounds of Hampton National Historic Site. You can see everything in thirty minutes to an hour, so strolling the grounds is a good way to spend time if you have to wait for a tour of the mansion. Unfortunately, very few of the buildings have informational signage detailing their history—many aren’t even identified—so a tour of the grounds is more of a way to pass time than an educational experience.

A circular driveway leads from the Visitor Center to a parking lot at the mansion. The best way to see the grounds is by starting off along this road, heading right if you are at the Visitor Center with your back to the entrance. You will pass the Visitor Center parking lot and a modern building, which is used to store some of the Hampton artifacts.

The first points of interest are two greenhouses, neither of which is in working order. The first one you come to, Greenhouse #1, was built in 1855, and it is in fairly rough shape today. Each greenhouse has an attached seedling and potting bed building made of stone, and the one that went with Greenhouse #1 is in ruins. The building also no longer has any glass.

Seeding and potting bed building ruins of Greenhouse #1 at Hampton National Historic Site

Greenhouse #2 was was built around 1840. It was fitted with a boiler and heating pipes in 1853 so it could be used in the winter.

Hampton Mansion’s Greenhouse #2 at Hampton National Historic Site

After the greenhouses, the next obvious stop is the garden. However, there are two historical buildings to the south. Near the first greenhouse is the carriage house, a yellow building with brown trim. It is believed to have been built in 1885. It does not show up on a grounds map from 1877, and on an 1843 map the space was occupied by a cottage. The carriage house looks brand new, so the National Park Service must have recently restored it. This building is closed to the public.

Carriage House at Hampton National Historic Site

A second building, the gardener’s house, is in the wooded area just south of the carriage house. The construction date is not known with certainty, other than it did not appear in documents from 1829, but was mentioned in documents from 1843. The house originally only had two rooms, but it was enlarged to its present-day size in 1855 in an attempt to lure the best gardeners in the country to work at Hampton. When Hampton National Historic Site was first established, the building was used to house the caretaker. The house is closed to the public.

Gardener’s House at Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

From the gardener’s house, make your way to the three terraces of the formal gardens, which are located on what is the backside of the mansion. Work on the gardens began in the 1780s when Hampton Mansion was being built, but the effort was an afterthought to the construction of the building itself. To further retard progress, the original owner, Captain Charles Ridgely, died shortly after its completion. It wasn’t until the late 1790s and early 1800s under the second owner, Charles Ridgely Carnan, the nephew of the Captain, that the real work on the gardens began.

The gardens are known as the Falling Gardens due to being landscaped into three terraces, or parterres. Originally, the first terrace was divided into two box gardens of geometric design, one on either side of a grass walkway, while the second and third terraces were standard flower gardens. Over time, the second terrace was landscaped geometrically as well. The design of the west garden on the first terrace (front left garden if looking from the mansion) has never changed, while the designs of the other gardens were modified over the years depending on the owners and what was the latest rage in gardening. Today the National Park Service maintains four geometric gardens on the first two terraces. The designs are all based on photos from the 1870s.

Gardens at Hampton National Historic Site

View of the Hampton Mansion gardens on the first terrace, Hampton National Historic Site

East side garden of Hampton Mansion on the first terrace, Hampton National Historic Site

From the gardens, make your way up to the mansion along the gravel path. As mentioned, what you see is the backside of the mansion, though built in the Georgian style with its defining characteristic being perfect symmetry, the back and front of the mansion are identical.

To the left of the house is the orangery. The current building is a 1976 reproduction of the original Greek Revival style building that was heavily damaged by fire in 1929 and torn down in the late 1930s. The original is thought to have been built in 1840. Like the first greenhouse and the gardener’s house, the orangery was not on an 1829 list of structures, but it was mentioned in an 1843 document. The orangery, which is basically a greenhouse, was where citrus trees were moved for the winter and where tropical plants were grown. Today the building is used for events such as art shows, concerts, and lectures. Restrooms are located inside.

Front of the Orangery at Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

Back of the Orangery at Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

From the orangery, walk to the front of the mansion—the opposites side from the gardens—and look for a small hill. This is the ice house, a 34-foot underground pit used to keep ice that had been cut from frozen lakes and ponds from melting during the summer. It is believed that the ice house was built along with the mansion, which dates it to the late 1780s.

Ice House at Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

How an ice house works

The next stop is on the opposite side of Hampton Mansion from the orangery. The building located next to a small garden is the pump house where the irrigation system controls were located. It is thought to have been built in 1906, but it could date back to as early as the 1870s. It is now used as a garden tool shed by the Glen Arm Garden Club, the organization that maintains the garden in front of the shed.

Pump House at Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

The garden sits on the foundation of an octagonal building that burned down in 1945. This was originally a slave quarters, most likely for those who either worked in the house or in the gardens. The National Park Service has talked about constructing a historically accurate reproduction of the building, but this has not yet been done.

Garden where the slave quarters once stood at Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

There is a collection of four buildings just east of the pump house. The leftmost is a garage built in 1910, the time when automobiles began replacing horse transportation at Hampton.

Garage at Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

The buildings to the right of the garage, left to right, are a smokehouse, a woodshed, and a privy (there is another one behind it). All of these buildings are thought to have been constructed sometime between 1800 and 1843, which is the first time they are mentioned in Ridgely family documents. The buildings were restored in 1968 by the National Park Service; none are open to the public.

Smokehouse, woodshed, and privy at Hampton Mansion, Hampton National Historic Site

The next stop on the Hampton Mansion grounds tour is the Ridgely Family Cemetery. From the four buildings, take a short walk along the nearby dirt road to the cemetery. The mausoleum dates to 1830. There is no indication as to who is buried in it, but since most of the graves outside of the mausoleum are from 1850 through the 1950s, most likely it is the resting place of the earlier family members. The cemetery was not part of the original property purchased by the National Park Service in 1947, which is why there are graves from after the park’s creation. The Ridgelys sold the 2-acre cemetery along with another 2-acre lot where the stables are located to the Society for the Preservation of Maryland Antiquities (SPMA) in 1953. The SPMA donated both lots to the National Park Service in 1990.

Ridgely family mausoleum at Hampton National Historic Site

Grave of Eliza Ridgely, daughter of Charles and Margaretta Howard Ridgely, the 4th owners of Hampton

Grave of Juliana Elizabeth Howard, sister of Margaretta Howard, the wife of Charles Ridgely (4th owner of Hampton)

Grave of John Campbell, first husband of Eliza “Didy” Ridgely, daughter of John and Eliza Ridgely, 3rd owners of Hampton

The last stop on the grounds tour is two stables located near Hampton Lane. These are not near the mansion, so getting to them involves either driving or a five-minute walk. If driving, take a right out of the main entrance and proceed a tenth of a mile down the road to the Home Farm. Be sure to park outside the farm entrance along the street, because if you drive into the farm all the way down to the main parking lot, you have as far a walk from there as you do from the mansion. To reach the stables, walk east along Hampton Lane (away from the mansion entrance) and take the first right you come to, a gravel road. The two stables are located a short ways up this road. If walking, the stables are located on the same dirt road that leads to the cemetery, but in the opposite direction.

The construction date of Stable #1, the building closest to the mansion, is not known with certainty. The National Park Service believes it is 1805, though it could have been built anytime between 1798 and 1843. The second stable was built in 1857.

While at first glance the two stables appear identical, if you look closely you will notice that the original building is made from a much rougher stone, giving it a cobblestone appearance. The stones of the second stable are obviously hand cut and much more uniform. With all the resources in the world, why wouldn’t the Ridgelys have built the second stable to match the first? My theory stems from the fact that the walls of Stable #1 were plastered over in 1851, which was the style of the time. I am guessing that the hand cut stones were easier to come by in 1854, and with plans to plaster the second stable upon completion, why worry about what the stones looked like? When the National Park Service renovated the stables in 1964, the plaster from both buildings was removed.

Hampton Mansion Stables, Hampton National Historic Site

Stable #1 now houses a few of the Ridgely family carriages and horse related artifacts. It is open to the public during regular operating hours, though visitors cannot walk around inside. The exhibits are viewed through a glass barrier just inside the doorway. Stable #2 is not open to the public.

Ridgely Family carriage inside Stable #1 at Hampton National Historic Site

Collection of tack inside Stable #1 at Hampton National Historic Site

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