Stafford Hall

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Stafford Hall is an early 19th-century Federal-style mansion near Clear Spring in Washington County, Maryland, United States. [1] [2] Stafford Hall was the residence of John Thomson Mason, Jr. (May 9, 1815 – March 28, 1873), [3] [4] a U.S. Congressman from Maryland, representing the sixth district from 1841 to 1843. [4]

Federal architecture architectural style

Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federalist Era. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design in the United States of the same time period. The style broadly corresponds to the classicism of Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Regency architecture in Britain and to the French Empire style.

Clear Spring, Maryland Town in Maryland, United States

Clear Spring is a town in Washington County, Maryland, United States. The population was 358 at the 2010 census.

Washington County, Maryland county in Maryland, United States

Washington County is located in the western part of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2010 census, the population was 147,430. Its county seat is Hagerstown. Washington County was the first county in the United States to be named for the Revolutionary War general George Washington. Washington County is one of three Maryland counties recognized by the Appalachian Regional Commission as being part of Appalachia.

Contents

History

Stafford Hall is a large two-story 36 room brick and stone mansion with nine double chimneys built around 1835 by John Thomson Mason, Jr. [1] [2] Mason named his property after Staffordshire, a homeplace of his great-great-great-grandfather Colonel George Mason I (5 June 1629–1686). [5] [6] Stafford Hall was later purchased by Mason's law classmate and Governor of Maryland, William Thomas Hamilton. [2] Hamilton resided at the property for almost 50 years. [2] In 1920, Stafford Hall was bought by the Leo Cohill family. [2]

Staffordshire County of England

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. It borders with Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, West Midlands and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west.

George Mason I was the American progenitor of the prominent American landholding and political Mason family. Mason was the great-grandfather of George Mason IV, a Founding Father of the United States.

William Thomas Hamilton American politician

William Thomas Hamilton, a member of the United States Democratic Party, was the 38th Governor of Maryland in the United States from 1880 to 1884. He also served in the United States Senate, representing the State of Maryland, from 1868–1874, and in the House of Representatives, representing the second district (1849–1853) and fourth district (1853–1855) of Maryland.

Stafford Hall had one of the largest apple orchards in the surrounding area. [7] Its orchard produced more than 50,000 bushels of apples a year and employed hundreds of area residents. [7] Nearby canning corporations including Musselman purchased apples from the Stafford Hall orchard. [7] Stafford Hall Apples were shipped all over the United States, and to England and France. [7] In the 1930s, lightning struck the packing house killing two workers. [7]

Bushel unit of volume

A bushel is an imperial and US customary unit of weight or mass based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel was equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks or 8 dry gallons and was used mostly for agricultural products such as wheat. In modern usage, the volume is nominal, with bushels denoting a mass defined differently for each commodity.

A packing house is a facility where fruit is received and processed prior to distribution to market.

Legend

Local legend asserts the existence of a secret hidden room at Stafford Hall and that anyone discovers the room dies shortly afterwards. [1] [2] Legend also holds that a prominent magistrate from Hagerstown found the room in 1924 and died within the year. [1] [2] In 1926, Leo Cohill's nine-year-old daughter Margaret became ill after finding the room and admitted what she had done on her deathbed, begging her family members to not seek out the room. [1] [2]

Hagerstown, Maryland City in Maryland, United States

Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Washington County. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2010 census was 39,662, and the population of the Hagerstown-Martinsburg Metropolitan Area was 269,140. Hagerstown ranks as Maryland's sixth largest incorporated city.

Coordinates: 39°39′50″N77°54′26″W / 39.66389°N 77.90722°W / 39.66389; -77.90722 [8]

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Federal Writers' Project. Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State. US History Publishers. ISBN   1-60354-019-9.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Renasoft. "A SECRET ROOM, HAGERSTOWN, MARYLAND-32 DEGREE". [The Mystery Network]. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
  3. ↑ Gunston Hall. "John Thomson Mason, Jr". [Gunston Hall]. Retrieved 2009-03-07.[ dead link ]
  4. 1 2 The Political Graveyard (June 16, 2008). "Mason family of Virginia". [The Political Graveyard]. Retrieved 2009-03-07.
  5. ↑ Gunston Hall. "George Mason I". [Gunston Hall]. Archived from the original on 2010-01-15. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  6. ↑ French Family Association (2008). "Children of Dennis French, A.2". [French Family Association]. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Cheryl Weaver (March 3, 2009). "Around Clear Spring: Did You Know?". [The Herald-Mail Company]. Retrieved 2009-03-28.
  8. ↑ "Inventory of Historic Properties". Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
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