Portland Manor is a historic home at

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. It is a 2-story, center-passage plan, frame building. The main block was constructed in 1754, with the two wings added and enlarged about 1852. Also on the property are the remains of a large circular ice house and several frame outbuildings. Portland Manor was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1996.

History

The Portland Manor timber frame manor house is sited on a fenced 3.8-acre portion of an original 2000-acre parcel granted to Jerome White Esq, Surveyor-General of Maryland, by

Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (8 August 1605 – 30 November 1675) was an English politician and lawyer who was the first List of Proprietors of Maryland, proprietor of Maryland. Born in Kent, England in 1605, he inherited the proprietorsh ...

in 1667.NRHP Official History
Retrieved 12 September 2021 The original grant was for 2,000 acres, but White returned to England in 1670. In 1699 1,090 acres of the property were granted to Colonel

Henry Darnall Colonel Henry Darnall (1645 – 17 June 1711) was an Irish-born planter, militia officer and politician who served as the chancellor of Maryland from 1683 to 1689. He was also appointed as the proprietary agent for Charles Calvert, 3rd Bar ...

, agent for

Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (August 27, 1637 – February 21, 1715) was an English colonial administrator. He inherited the province of Maryland in 1675 upon the death of his father, Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore. He had been his ...

. When Henry Darnall died in 1711, the property passed to his grandson Henry Darnall (c. 1700–1782), and then to his son Richard Darnall, who died in 1808. In 1804 Henry Bennett Darnall was born at Portland Manor. On 1 September 1825 the house and land was listed for sale in the ''

Maryland Gazette ''The Gazette'', founded in 1727 as ''The Maryland Gazette'', is one of the oldest newspapers in America. Its modern-day descendant, ''The Capital,'' was acquired by The Baltimore Sun Media Group in 2014. Previously, it was owned by the Capita ...

'', described as "the residence of the late Bennet Darnall Esq Deceased... ncluding590 acres of valuable fertile land, in an excellent state of cultivation, and well adapted to the growth of wheat, corn and tobacco". The main "dwelling house" was described as being "in tolerable good order". The bulk of the property remained in the hands of Darnall family until 1828, when 340 acres of land was purchased by Richard Estep. On November 26, 1860, Louisa Ann Darnall, daughter of the wealthy planter Henry Bennett Darnall, married George Biscoe Steuart, member of the

Steuart family The Steuart family of Maryland was a prominent political family in the early history of Maryland. The Steuarts, of Scottish descent, have their origins in Perthshire, Scotland. The family grew wealthy in the early 18th century under the patronage o ...

at Portland Manor.Ancestry of Roaslie Morris Johnson, p.42
Retrieved 12 September 2021 Although subdivided numerous times since then, the 3.8-acre remnant remains surrounded on three sides by unspoiled farmland and has been carefully maintained and restored over a fifteen-year period, beginning in 1997, by an owner/architect. In 1997, a dendrochronology study concluded that the original construction of Portland Manor occurred in 1754. In 2001, Portland Manor was recipient of the Anne Arundel County Orlando Ridout Prize for historic preservation.

Portland Manor today

Today, living spaces on the first floor include a 19' × 22' living room, a 14' × 19' dining room, a sitting room, an office/library, a powder room, and a large country kitchen. The second floor, accessed by the original central staircase and two secondary stairs, includes four large bedrooms, three full baths and a laundry/storage room (equipped with a front-loading washer and dryer and an upright freezer). A large L-shaped porch off the kitchen on the east side overlooks a fence-enclosed perennial and herb garden and pond; a

screened porch A screened porch, also known as a screen room, is a type of porch or similar structure on or near the exterior of a house that has been covered by window screens in order to hinder insects, debris, and other undesirable objects from entering the ...

on the west side is oriented to views of rolling farmland and dramatic sunsets. There is a partial basement measuring approximately 19' × 22'. The grounds include a variety of mature trees, a boxwood garden and two outbuildings; a 10' × 20' smokehouse, currently used as a garden shop, and a 20' × 30' barn that has been completely restored for use as a workshop/pottery studio and for yard equipment storage. Future archeological investigations may confirm suspected locations for an icehouse and various outbuildings and may add to the various artifacts found by the current owners that are included in a historic display at the second floor hallway.

References

External links

*, including photo from 1993, at Maryland Historical Trust {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses in Anne Arundel County, Maryland Houses completed in 1725 1725 establishments in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Anne Arundel County, Maryland