Montpelier Mansion

Infobox_nrhp | name =Montpelier
nrhp_type = nhl

---

caption =
nearest_city= Laurel, Maryland
locmapin = Maryland
area =
built =1783
architect= Unknown
architecture= Georgian
added = April 17, 1970
governing_body = State
refnum=70000852cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Located south of Laurel in Prince George's County, Maryland, Montpelier Mansion is a five-part, Georgian style home most likely constructed between 1781 and 1785.cite web |url=http://www.pgparks.com/places/eleganthistoric/montpelier_history.html |title=Montpelier Mansion History |accessdate=2008-04-13 |publisher=Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission ] Built by Major Thomas Snowden and his wife Anne, the house is now a National Historic Landmark operated as a house museum. The home and seventy acres remain of what was once a plantation of about 9,000 acres.cite web |url=http://www.nmwh.org/home/goodolddays_MD.htm |title=Historic Homes in Maryland |accessdate=2008-07-15 |work=Self Guided Walking Tours of Women's History Sites |publisher=National Museum of Women's History ]

History

Richard Snowden originally migrated to America in 1658 from Birmingham, England, [cite web |last=Morley |first=Dr. L.B. |url=http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/history/cronhist/morley4.pdf |title=Early History of Patuxent Wildlife Research Center |accessdate=2008-07-15 |format=PDF |publisher=Patuxent Wildlife Research Center |year=c. 1948 |pages=p. 9 ] where his family had settled for many years after originating in Wales. [cite web |url=http://www.snowden-warfield.com/index.htm |title=Snowden and Warfield Family Geneology Website |accessdate=2008-07-15 |publisher=Dr. George A. Sheele, MD ] Richard the immigrant had a son, Richard Junior (1719–1753),cite book |title=Historic Graves of Maryland and the District of Columbia |last=Ridgely |first=Helen W. |year=1908 |publisher=The Grafton Press |location=New York |pages=p. 89 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=81odAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89 |accessdate=2008-07-15 ] who had a son, Richard the "iron master"cite book |title=Colonial Mansions of Maryland and Delaware |last=Hammond |first=John Martin |year=1914 |publisher=J.B. Lippincott |location=Philadelphia |pages=pp. 91–95 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=I00AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA91-IA2&lpg=PA93&ots=3VTACj6Qb7 |accessdate=2008-07-15 ] (d. 1763).Hammond 1914, p. 101] Richard the iron master acquired much wealth through an iron forge, mining local iron. Richard then had a son, Thomas (1722–1770), who had a son Major Thomas (1751–1803),cite book |title=Americans of Royal Descent |author=Browning, C.H. (ed.) |year=1883 |publisher=Porter & Coates |location=Philadelphia |pages=p. 190 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2i0BAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA190&lpg=PA190 |accessdate=2008-07-15 ] so called because of his service in the American Revolution. Major Thomas married Anne Ridgely and built the Mansion circa 1783.

Their son Nicholas Snowden, who had been born at the mansion in 1786, was its next owner, until he died in 1831. The home then passed to Nicholas' daughter Julianna Maria who married Dr. Theodore Jenkins there in 1835. Dr. Jenkins died in 1866 and upon Mrs. Jenkins' later death, the mansion passed to her children who kept ownership in the family until 1890. The home was later owned by speculative investors W.P. Davis and Martin W. Chollar. In 1895, it was sold to Josephine D. Taylor of New York as a summer home. Its title went to Lewis H. Blakeman of New York in 1900, then to New York writer Edmund H. Pendleton who lived there from 1905 until his death in 1910, having made it his winter home. [cite book |title=The Founders of Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, Maryland |last=Warfield |first=Joshua Dorsey |year=1905 |publisher=Kohn & Pollock |location=Baltimore |pages=p. 363 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=vgINAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA363&lpg=PA362 |accessdate=2008-07-15 ] Pendleton's estate sold the mansion to Otto V. von Schrader in 1911.

After a succession of other owners, mansion ownership transferred in 1928 [cite web |last=Lavoie |first=Catherine C. |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=pphhdatapage&fileName=md/md0500/md0535/data/hhdatapage.db&recNum=7&itemLink=h%3Fpp%2Fhh%3A%40field(NUMBER%2B%40band(md0535)) |title=Historic American Buildings Survey: Montpelier |accessdate=2008-07-16 |publisher=National Park Service |year=1991 |month=February |pages=p. 6 ] to Breckinridge Long, . The historic home was opened as a public tourist attraction in 1985, [cite web |url=http://www.laurelartguild.org/montpelier.html |title=Montpelier |accessdate=2008-07-15 |publisher=Laurel Art Guild ] reflecting its ownership by Nicholas Snowden in 1830. The mansion can be rented for conferences and weddings and the grounds serve as a cultural center, hosting special exhibitions and performances. [cite web |url=http://www.greaterwash.org/AGW-Best-Practices-Nov2003.pdf |title=What Works: Best Practices for Sensible & Sustainable Growth |accessdate=2008-07-13 |format=PDF |publisher=A Greater Washington |month=November |year=2003 ]

Famous Visitors

*Abigail Adamscite web |url=http://www.pgparks.com/places/eleganthistoric/montpelier_intro.html |title=Montpelier Mansion Introduction |accessdate=2008-04-13 |publisher=Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission ]
*Franklin D. Roosevelt
*George Washington, at least twice (May and September 1787) on his way to and from Philadelphia as a delegate to the Constitutional Conventioncite web |url=http://www.mdisfun.org/pressroom/evergreenreleases/George_Washington_Really_Did_Sleep_Here_Interior_Page.html |title=George Washington Really Did Sleep Here |accessdate=2008-07-15 |work=Evergreen Press Releases |publisher=Maryland Office of Tourism |month=February |year=2004 ]
*Martha Washington, on the way to her husband's first presidential inauguration in 1789
*Woodrow Wilson

Gallery

References

External links

* [http://www.pgparks.com/places/eleganthistoric/montpelier_intro.html Montpelier Mansion official site]
* [http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/nr/NRDetail.aspx?HDID=34&FROM=NRNHLList.aspx Montpelier, Prince George's County] , including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust
* [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.md0535 Montpelier, Montpelier Drive & State Route 197, Laurel vicinity, Prince George's County, MD: 50 photos, 24 data pages, 2 photo caption pages] , at Historic American Building Survey