HAMMOND HARWOOD HOUSE in Annapolis MD

What's happening guys, Chris VA Travels. I'm here in Annapolis, Maryland and about to visit the Hammond Harwood House. Yeah, historic home built back in 1774 by famed architect William Buckland and this thing is a great example of Georgian architecture. You'll see a five-part Palladian mansion, got wings on the side, two hyphens connecting it to the main portion right here, and this door is considered the best door in America. I'm gonna go up and take a closer look. First off, yeah, let me check out that oxide window up there and great pediment. A lot of commotion in this little area. All right, see the big magnolia, a little bit overgrown. Here it is, close up of the door. Yeah, great pediment. See egg and dart pattern, dental molding, medallions. Oh yeah, egg and dart going all around and this is all hand-carved. Faux door, it's to mimic mahogany and yeah, very impressive. So I'm gonna go inside in a bit, just walk down here and there's the entrance if you want to go inside. Tickets are $15. Oh and I'll also tell you, okay, it looks like you had windows on each side originally. Let you know, open daily except on Tuesdays and they're open from noon until 4. Yeah, so and you can take a basic half an hour tour or the full-on hour tour which I'm going to do. Okay, so rub brick on the lentil there and yeah, they open in about 20 minutes. So I'll just walk around until then and of course your Flemish Bond brickwork, pretty standard. Okay, so cool belt going around and this thing is modeled after a villa in Italy. It's called Villa Pisani and designed by Andrea Palladio. Yeah, famed architect and Thomas Jefferson came out here 1783, did a sketching and he modeled some of these octagonal bays, these wings. He uses inspiration for Monticello. Yeah, take a look at that one more time, wrap around and I think that's going to be the exit. Hey guys, before I take a tour of the inside, I'll tell you about some of the owners and it all starts with Matthias Hammond. He was a patriot, a part of Maryland's Colonial Assembly and this was built as kind of his summer home for his trips here to the capital in Annapolis. His main residence was a place called Howard's Adventure out in Gambrills, Maryland and it's said that he never really lived in this house. He ended up dying in 1786. After that, the house had bounced through a couple different hands before it was purchased by a Judge Jeremiah Chase and he had bought it in 1811 as a wedding present for his daughter Frances and she ended up marrying Richard Lockerman. The house was owned by the Lockermans all the way until 1925 and the Lockermans had turned into the Harwoods because their oldest daughter Hester, she had married a William Harwood. Yeah, so in 1925, it was actually purchased briefly. It was owned by St. John's College before it ended up eventually falling into the hands of the foundation. All right, made it inside and like I say, a lot of great antiques in here to look at. Pretty cool mirror here in the hallway. Richard Lockerman and like I say, he and his wife were the first to fully live in the house. They moved in in 1811. This is a painted ivory locket that was given to them when they got married and there's actually lockets of hair underneath and here's his wife Frances. This large painting over here, this is all Frances's great-grandmother and this dog down here is a King Charles Spaniel which will tell you this paintings from the 1600s and it's special because only King Charles had said that she could have the dog and looks angry. Pretty cool and this is the sketch Thomas Jefferson had made of the house. Here's the key to the front door and that's a serious key. Here's the lock and it's upside down because it was sent over here from England upside down and of course back then you couldn't just return it. Laminated oilcloth down here. Clock here with a big bell on top. It goes back to 1611 and it goes off on the hour. Judge Jeremiah Chase and here's his wife Hester. We're now in the study and check out the secretary made by noted cabinetmaker John Shaw and this is one of only three in existence and one of the others is in the White House. This drop-leaf table is called a Pembroke table and inside you'll see an original card from John Shaw and these Pembroke tables most likely got their name from Henry Herbert the 9th Earl of Pembroke. He was a noted connoisseur and amateur architect. Painting of George on this pretty horse was done by Rembrandt Peale the son of Charles Peale. Famous map you see it a lot of places it was done by Peter Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's father. A lot of neat items in this room and an old barometer right here and this caricature is of the United States England and France. It's a funny. Oh and we're in the dining room of course and it's set for dessert. Cakes look pretty good actually. Oh and pretty neat these punch bowls were taken off the Peggy Stewart and if you're not familiar the Peggy Stewart was a ship that was burned during Annapolis's version of the Boston Tea Party. You'll see a jib door down there and another really nice mirror. These shutters are all hand-carved. We've now stepped into the drawing room. Miss Lockerman may have tutored her children in this room. You would have had guests received in here and the last owner of the house was house poor. She had sold off the rest of the property and she lived in just this room. This is pretty neat. You'll see how the floorboards were pegged together and all the floors are original. Pretty large window lighting the stairway and there's a gibs around going around the window. You see that a lot in churches and no shortage of nice mirrors in here. Made it up here into the game room and this is where the gentlemen would play cards, drink whiskey. This back here would be called a handkerchief table. Down here is a sea chest owned by Dr. Pickney and he was a surgeon during the Civil War. This lady above the fireplace owned a tavern here in town. Made it into the ballroom. A little tea table right here. Great detail on the mantel. Up here a convex mirror that would really help shoot light across the room. Painting of Mr. Goldsboro and below is the actual chair he's sitting in. Clock here was given by Marquis de Lafayette and he was enamored with George Washington. Linen press cupboard right here and obviously you would store clothes in here. This gentleman asked the artist not to fix this painting. He wanted to be painted as he was. More ivory lockets. Back bedroom back here and what's interesting is that this is one of the few rooms in the house that has a lock. Doll back here is named Baltimore and it's featured in this painting up here of Mary Proctor that was painted by Charles Wilson Peale. Serious hot boy right here. Nice piece of furniture. You'll see this corner chair right here and you'll see underneath what it was used for and here's a smaller one and some children's furniture. Sampler here was done by Sarah Randall in 1820. Second bedroom up here. Dresser back here is another John Shaw piece. Here's kind of a famous painting I've seen several times and this is of Martha Washington's inaugural ball and with plenty of well to do's. Here we are John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Nellie Custis. Made it down into the kitchen. This corner cabinet held the spices which were pretty valuable items. You'll see the large lock. Blue willow plate going back to 1820 and it was made over in England. Stoke-on-Trent. Pan around take a look at all these kitchen utensils, pots, kettles and all the cooking of course would have been done by the enslaved labor and this fire would have been going all day and looks like making breakfast right here. Slave girl named Juliet and she was loaned out for a year by Mr. Lockerman to a local tailor for $126 in order to pay off a debt. Here on the first floor is an art gallery of paintings done by the Peale women and this room originally was a bedroom. This painting is actually a copy and it was done by Harriet who was the second wife of Rembrandt Peale. Jane McKim and her husband William Harwood he was a speaker in the Maryland House of Delegates. Copy of a painting of William Buckland the originals at Yale University. Here are some of his architectural tools we saw earlier. Wow yeah how great was that that really was a decorative arts museum inside and they said that they actually give it a an individual clock tour there were so many nice clocks in there yeah this was a good one and yeah so I'll walk the grounds I just a small lot back here and okay yeah another oxide window up there the kind of cartouche going around it and you don't have the big the face on the door of course but yeah just box woods and a little right up here oh and this is a pleasure garden so oh yeah see the whole row of magnolias back there hydrangeas but over here re-envisioning the Lockerman's early and 19th century pleasure garden and originally made up of four city lots and I'll let you pause and read if you want more information but yeah I'll just browse around pretty nice place to sit right there catch some shade and just a sundial over here and looks like there's another right up but a few benches it looks like yeah magnolias are in bloom let me stop right here oh one other thing I could tell you that the house was built that that wing over there on the right I guess to the left if you're standing in front was totally closed off you couldn't walk into the main portion of the house even the basement was closed off originally that's pretty neat but I'll just see what this says over here but yeah just a small pleasure garden a couple little benches architectural masterpiece I'm probably talking yeah about buckling okay so somebody got a full shot of it and maybe that's standing on the porch of the Chase Lloyd house and again there's that Italian Villa right there the Villa Pisani and yeah it took Palladio's design and kind of modernized it put an 18th century touch on it sketched in here the initials of Jeremiah Lockerman 1829 and these bricks are twice fired all right that wraps it up I'm gonna get out of here and I will tell you that I'm on a week long trip here through Eastern Maryland and I'm gonna dip into Delaware for a couple sites so a lot of good stuff coming up and yeah see you guys in the next one