From the late 17th century until 1962, the property was privately owned and associated with important personages from the late 17th century to the 20th century, including Dr. Mordecai Moore, Caleb Dorsey,[5]Alexander Contee Hanson, and David K. E. Bruce.[7]
The property was then successively owned and maintained as the Belmont Conference Center, by the Smithsonian Institution, the American Chemical Society, and Howard Community College. It is now the 68-acre[4] Belmont Manor and Historic Park, owned by Howard County and its Department of Recreation and Parks. It adjoins Patapsco Valley State Park. Facilities on the estate include the Belmont Manor House, a carriage house, a cottage, a large barn,[4] formal gardens, a pond, and an aqua garden.[8]
Dr. Mordecai Moore, who helped found the Society of Friends in Maryland,[4] received a tract of 1,368[9] or 1,662 acres of land granted by King William III's 1695 land patent.[4] The tract, called Moore's Morning Choice, sat on a ridge above Elkridge Landing with views of the lower Patapsco River Valley.[10]
About 1735, this land and an adjoining tract called Rockburn[11] were purchased by Caleb Dorsey (1710–1772), of Hockley-in-the-Hole on the Severn River, an early industrialist and farmer. Dorsey operated forges and iron furnaces along the Patapsco River, near Elkridge.[12] Dorsey and his sons Edward and Caleb, Jr., used up to 94 slaves to work the land for cash crops.[13] Rockburn was constructed by Edward Dorsey about 1736, followed by his brother Caleb Dorsey, Jr. who built a house in 1738 he dubbed "Belmont".[4][14] A pig iron forge was operated onsite along with nearby forges at Avalon and Hockley in a Hole.[15] Caleb Dorsey and his wife Pricilla Hill (died 1781) were buried at Belmont.[16] Caleb Dorsey Jr.'s son Edward inherited the property and took over the enslavement of the Black people there.[17] Edward later gave the property to his daughter, Priscilla, the wife of Alexander Contee Hanson,[6] a United States senator.[4]
After the American Civil War, Belmont became the social center of a new wealthy elite, notably the many lawyers who built homes at "Lawyer's Hill" near the Belmont property.[18] From 1873 to his death in 1880, Charles Grosvenor Hanson allowed the house to fall into neglect following the death of his wife.[19] An original reproduction portrait of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1794 or 1795 hung in the mansion for a century and was sold in 1913 by the Hanson family to a New York collector for $15,000 to $20,000.[20] Howard Bruce, who bought the house in 1918,[21] was the last owner to use it as a private residence.[4]
Belmont Conference Center
Smithsonian Institution (1962–1982)
In 1962, Belmont was owned by David K. E. Bruce, former ambassador to Britain, France and Germany. He sold the property for $500,000 and then donated Belmont and 339 acres to the Smithsonian Institution for $5.00 as a philanthropic gift.[22] The Smithsonian Institution maintained the property as a conference center.[23]
The Belmont Conference Center was established in 1964 and was in almost continuous operation until 2010. Belmont hosted numerous conferences, social gatherings, weddings, meetings, and other functions. Examples of the numerous academic, government, and non-profit conferences held at Belmont include:
In 1967, a conference entitled "Bibliography and the historian: the conference at Belmont of the Joint Committee on Bibliographical Services to History"[24]
In February 1976, a four-day conference on the use of Human Subjects for Research took place at the Belmont Conference Center. The Belmont Report, resulting partly from this conference, was published in 1979.[25]
The John Clare Society of North America held their first international John Clare Conference at the Belmont Conference Center on March 21–22, 2003. The Society is a non-profit literary organization devoted to the study, preservation, and publication of the works of English poet John Clare.[26][27]
Howard Community College (2004–2012)
In 2004, the American Chemical Society sold the Belmont Estate to Howard Community College (HCC) for $5.2 million (~$8.04million in 2023),[28] funded in part by a $2.6 million loan from the government of Howard County. The college used it for culinary classes and continued to operate the Belmont Conference Center.[4]
On September 30, 2010, Howard Community College announced that it could no longer afford to maintain and operate the Belmont Estate, due to the effects of the economic recession.[28] The government of Howard County, whose loan terms included the right of first refusal,[4] conducted from September 2011 to May 2012 a detailed study of the feasibility of purchasing and operating the property for public purposes.[citation needed]
Belmont Manor and Historic Park
Day of Service Tree Planting in 2012 at Belmont with Governor Martin O'Malley
On May 30, 2012, Howard County Executive Kenneth Ulman announced that the county would buy the Belmont Estate from the college in exchange for forgiving the $2.6 million debt and $89,000 in cash. The sale closed on June 21, 2012.[29][30] The county government also sold 13 acres of the land to developers, retaining 68 acres of the original property.[31]
Howard County subsequently established Belmont Manor and Historic Park in summer/fall 2012.[33] The park is operated by the county's Department of Recreation and Parks, to be used as a conference center and a site for weddings, private parties, and environmental education programs.[4] The Manor opened for public operations in April 2015.[34]
Historic preservation
The front entrance of the mansion, decorated for the holiday season
A number of organizations have played an important role in promoting, and advocating for, the historic preservation of the Belmont Estate. These include the Rockburn Land Trust, the Save Belmont Coalition, Preservation Howard County, Preservation Maryland, the Maryland Environmental Trust, the Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway, Inc, and the Land Trust Alliance.[citation needed]
Preservation Howard County's president, Fred Dorsey, a descendant of the original owners of the estate, has said that because of its experience, the county is the rightful owner to provide stewardship of the historic property. Maintenance issues are some of the challenges, including maintaining the exterior that had been coated with lead paint.[4]
Historic designations
The original historic site nomination for Belmont was researched and prepared in the mid-1970s for the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT). Further research and updates by Howard County and the State of Maryland were carried out in 2010.[23]
The Belmont Manor House and Estate are included on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), as part of the Lawyers Hill Historic District in Elkridge, Maryland,[2][35][36] which was added to the NRHP on September 23, 1993.[37]
↑ Bibliography and the historian: the conference at Belmont of the Joint Committee on Bibliographical Services to History, May 1967. WorldCat.org. 1968. OCLC476391770.
↑ County Council Of Howard County, Maryland (2012). "Resolution No. 113-2012"(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on October 20, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2012.
↑ "#69 - County Executive Ken Ulman". And Then There's That... HoCoMoJo (Howard County Mobile Journalism). June 29, 2012. Archived from the original on November 1, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2013.
Bruce, David K.E.. (Nelson Douglas Lankford, editor). OSS Against The Reich: The World War II Diaries of Colonel David K.E. Bruce. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1991.
Hall of Records, Ann Arundel County-1972. Annapolis, Maryland.
Hall of Records, Howard County, Maryland. Annapolis, Maryland.
Howard County Historic Society, Inc., "Belmont'", Vol. I., No. 2, March 1959.
Lankford, Nelson Douglas. The Last American Aristocrat: The Biography of David K.E. Bruce, 1898-1977. Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1996.
Maryland: Belmont: Howard County, pp.166–183. Families: Dorsey, Hanson. Index - references to Belmont: pages 10, 166, 168, 171–177, 179–180, 182. Belmont Illustrations (photos): Exterior, page 168; Entrance, page 178
Newman, Harry Wright. Anne Arundel Gentry: A Genealogical History of Some Early Families of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Volume 3 (Volume 3). Annapolis, Maryland, 1933 (reprinted 1979).
Stein, Charles Francis, Jr. The Origin and History of Howard County Maryland. Published by the author in cooperation with the Howard County Historical Society. Baltimore, Maryland: Press of Schneidereith & Sons, 1972.
Besides the references listed above, the genealogy and history of the Dorsey family are outlined on pp.193–201.
Warfield, Joshua Dorsey. The founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland. Baltimore, Maryland, 1967.
Elkridge is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Howard County, Maryland, United States. The population was 15,593 at the 2010 census. Founded early in the 18th century, Elkridge is adjacent to two other counties, Anne Arundel and Baltimore.
Doughoregan Manor is a plantation house and estate located on Manor Lane west of Ellicott City, Maryland, United States. Established in the early 18th century as the seat of Maryland's prominent Carroll family, it was home to Founding Father Charles Carroll, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, during the late 18th century. A portion of the estate, including the main house, was designated a National Historic Landmark on November 11, 1971. It remains in the Carroll family as a private working farm.
Dorsey, Maryland, is an unincorporated community along the border of eastern Howard County and northwestern Anne Arundel County in Maryland, United States. It is located south of Elkridge, north of Savage, and close to Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI). It is in the southern part of the Baltimore metropolitan area.
Burleigh, also known as Burleigh Manor or Hammonds Inheritance, is a historic home located at Ellicott City, Maryland, United States, built on a 2,300-acre (930 ha) estate. Which included "Hammonds Inheritance" patented in 1796. It is a Federal-style brick dwelling built between 1797 and 1810, laid in Flemish bond. Based on the 1798 Tax assessment of the Elkridge Hundred, the original manor house started as a one-story frame building 24 by 18 foot in size. Also on the landscaped grounds are a 1720 stone smokehouse; a much-altered log, stone, and frame "gatehouse" or "cottage," built in 1820 as a workhouse for slaves and another log outbuilding, as well as an early-20th century bathhouse, 1941 swimming pool, and tennis court. Portions of the estate once included the old Annapolis Road which served the property until the construction of Centennial Lane to connect Clarksville to Ellicott City in 1876.
Dorsey Hall is a historic home in Columbia, Maryland, United States. It is a six-by-one-bay, 2+1⁄2-story stucco structure with a gable roof covered with asphalt shingles. It is a well-preserved and detailed example of the vernacular dwellings of the early 19th century in Howard County and associated with the Dorsey family, one of the "first families" of the county.
Temora, is a historic home located at Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland. It is a T-shaped, two-story and cupola, Tuscan-style Victorian house of stuccoed tongue-and-groove boards. The house was built in 1857 after a design prepared by Norris G. Starkweather, a little-known but accomplished architect from Oxford, England, who also designed the First Presbyterian Church and Manse at West Madison Street and Park Avenue in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, with his later more famous assistant - Edmund G. Lind. The house was built for Dr. Arthur Pue Jr. on land given from his grandmother Mary Dorsey Pue of Belmont Estate. The name of the estate Temora comes from the poems of Ossian
Troy, also known as Troy Hill Farm, is a historic slave plantation home located at Elkridge, Howard County, Maryland, United States. It is associated with the prominent Dorsey family of Howard County, who also built Dorsey Hall.
Waverly Mansion is a historic home located at Marriottsville in Howard County, Maryland, USA. It was built circa 1756, and is a 2+1⁄2-story Federal style stone house, covered with stucco, with a hyphen and addition that date to circa 1811. Also on the property are a small 1+1⁄2-story stone overseer's cottage and a 2-story frame-and-stone barn, and the ruins of a log slave quarter.
The Christ Church Guilford, historically known as the "Old Brick Church," is an historic Episcopal church located about one mile from Guilford, now part of Columbia, in Howard County, Maryland. The small Georgian church was completed in 1809. It was constructed of handmade brick laid in English garden wall brick bond with unmarked joints.
The Elkridge Furnace Complex is a historic iron works located on approximately 16 acres (6.5 ha) at Elkridge, Howard County, Maryland.
The Howard County Conservancy is a non-profit land trust that operates a nature center in Woodstock, Maryland. Founded in 1990, the center is is located at the historic 300-year-old, 232-acre (0.94 km2) Mt. Pleasant Farm, and also maintains an additional nature center at the nearby Belmont Manor.
Elkridge Landing was a Patapsco River seaport in Maryland, and is now part of Elkridge, Maryland. The historic Elkridge Furnace Inn site resides within the Patapsco Valley State Park.
Oakland or Oakland Manor is a Federal style stone manor house commissioned in 1810 by Charles Sterrett Ridgely in the Howard District of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The lands that became Oakland Manor were patented by John Dorsey as "Dorsey's Adventure" in 1688 which was willed to his grandson Edward Dorsey. In 1785, Luther Martin purchased properties named "Dorsey's Adventure", "Dorsey's Inheritance", "Good for Little", "Chew's Vineyard", and "Adam the First" to make the 2300 acre "Luther Martin's Elkridge Farm".
Montpelier Mansion, sometimes referred to as "Montpelier I", was a house in western Laurel, Maryland, now more closely associated with Fulton, Maryland within Howard County, Maryland, United States. The Georgian style building was built circa 1740 and demolished following a 1994 historic survey with addendum and photos dating as late as August 1995.
Bethesda is located in Ellicott City, Maryland within Howard County, Maryland, United States. The home is sometimes mistakenly referred to as "Dower House" because a small dower house exists on the property. A "dower" is a widow's share for life of her husband's estate, so a dower house is where a widowed mother would live when her son and his family inherited and moved into the main house.
Woodlawn or Papillon was amanor home in Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland in the United States.
The Spring Hill Farm is a historic slave plantation located in Ellicott City in Howard County, Maryland, United States.
Troy Park is a regional park comprising 101 acres in Elkridge, Maryland. The park is located at 6500 Mansion Lane off Washington Boulevard, near the intersection of Maryland Route 100 and I-95.
Rockburn Branch Park is a local park in Elkridge, Maryland that follows the Rockburn Branch, a tributary of the Patapsco River. The park features 7.4 miles of trails, 10 ball diamonds, 2 turf fields, 4 smaller fields, along with tennis and basketball courts. The park is also home to the Pfeiffers Corner Schoolhouse, Clover Hill Historic House, and Rockburn Elementary School.
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