The annual Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage, a tradition for the H&G set, returns this spring over five weekends from Saturday, April 20, through Saturday, May 18. For 76 years, the Pilgrimage has offered visitors the opportunity to explore some of Maryland’s most fascinating and noteworthy properties.
The 2013 tour includes about 50 private homes, gardens, farms, churches and historic sites, including a docked Skipjack, across six areas in Maryland. They are Anne Arundel County-Annapolis: Wardour (Saturday, April 20); Queen Anne’s County (Sunday, April 27); Baltimore City: Guilford (Sunday, April 28); Somerset and Worcester Counties (Saturday, May 4) and Charles County (Saturday, May 18).
The annual spring tours showcase MHGP’s efforts to cultivate awareness of Maryland’s rich architectural and cultural heritage. Each year, proceeds support preservation projects in each host community. To date, the Pilgrimage has raised more than $1 million for the preservation and restoration of architecturally significant properties throughout Maryland while evoking oohs and ahs from tour-goers.
This year, visitors will see Ogden Nash’s home and Sherwood Garden’s, where 80,000 tulips bloom, in the Guilford neighborhood of Baltimore, rarely seem homes in the Wardour community of Annapolis, 300-year-old homes in Queen Anne’s County, as well as homes that have never been publicly toured in Somerset and Worcester Counties.
Guests can buy lunch along the route. In Guilford, home to the stone Tudor house shown above, lunch will be served at the Second Presbyterian Church, where the first 700 visitors will receive a free Sherwood Gardens poster and can see the restored sanctuary and its light-filled Georgian Revival interior.
Other tour highlights include:
Anne Arundel:
The Wardour community in West Annapolis offers a walking tour of nine breathtaking properties, including the waterfront home of the president of St. John’s College with its superb art collection. Other stops include the grand Kent Road home built in 1911 by the architect of the Naval Academy’s Bancroft Hall, the largest college dorm in the world. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed the neighborhood in the early 20th century.
Queen Anne’s County:
Queenstown and Centreville are the focus of this tour, with many of the homes built in the 1700s. Reed Creek Farm, built in 1775, has a view of the Chester River and an 18th century ballroom regarded as the loveliest room in the county. The original ceiling was discovered during a recent renovation. The South Liberty Street home has an extensive collection of Delft Pottery and samplers dating from the 1730s.
Baltimore:
Guilford is celebrating its centennial, with the garden tour featured as the first of many events during the year (www.guilfordassociation.org). Sherwood Gardens is the most famous tulip garden in North America. The Chancery Road Turnbull House is the former home of famous Baltimore artist Grace Hill Turnbull and features a mix of Spanish Mission and Arts and Crafts styles. Turnbull’s church-like studio has stained glass windows and a bell tower. The Rugby Road home, formerly owned by famed poet Nash, is a Tudor Revival structure built in 1927. More info at www.facebook.com/GuilfordCentennial.
Somerset and Worcester Counties:
One of the highlights of the tour is the Anderson Road property known as Hollyhurst, with its Flemish-bond brick work. The Federal-style house was lovingly revived in the early 1980s with the introduction of raised-panel woodwork. Crisfield on Phoenix Church Road, also known as Watkins Point Farm, has never been on the tour before. The Greek Revival estate is furnished with 18th century period furniture. Beverly of Worchester, built in 1774, is one of the most elaborate and best preserved Revolutionary War period homes.
Charles County:
The Caleb W. Jones Skipjack will be docked in Benedict, one of only a handful of operating Skipjacks in the world. The Manor of Truman’s Place in Waldorf, shown above, played a role in the War of 1812. Its more recent history includes a rear sunken garden with koi pond and gazebo.
Tickets of each tour are $30, purchased in advance. For tickets and information, go to mhgp.org or call 410-821-6933.
Visitors will have the opportunity to visit such sites as the home where Gen. Marquis de Lafayette quelled a mutiny during the Revolutionary War, the home of a Confederate supporter who aided in the escape of assassin John Wilkes Booth, the home where a War of 1812 cannon ball was lodged and, Keziah’s Diary, pictured here, an estate in Darlington containing original slave quarters.