Tag: Johns Hopkins Homewood

Finding architecture in the archives with the Roland Park Company collection at JHU

Thanks to Jordon Steele, University Archivist at Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries for this guest blog post on the Roland Park Company records and an upcoming panel discussion on the  Roland Park Company’s lasting legacy in architecture, planning and society. Discover more about this archival adventure through monthly posts by Jordon and his colleagues on the Sheridan Libraries blog.

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JHU Sheridan Libraries

The Roland Park Company Records were donated to Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries in 2010. This rich and diverse collection of correspondence, photographs, architectural drawings, and related corporate records provides a window into one of the most important development companies of the 20th century. Upwards of 400 cubic feet, upon arrival only a small portion of the Roland Park Company Records were fully processed and therefore accessible to researchers. Responding to overwhelming research demand from audiences ranging from the local community to international scholars, the Sheridan Libraries successfully applied for a grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources to hire a full-time, professional project archivist to arrange and describe this collection according to archival best practice.  The collection will reopen to researchers, fully processed and accessible, in March 2014.

Please join us for an exciting program featuring the only two scholars that have published research based on the collection: Professor Robert Fishman, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan and Paige Glotzer, PhD Candidate, Department of History, Johns Hopkins University. They will be joined by Garrett Power, Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Maryland School of Law and the panel chair, Mary Ryan, John Martin Vincent Professor of History, Department of History

The Roland Park Company: Building History in Baltimore and Beyond

Tuesday, April 9, 2013, 5:30 pm to 6:30pm
Mason Hall Auditorium, Johns Hopkins University
Find more information on the event from JHU or on Facebook.

Turnbirdge Avenue, JHU Sheridan Libraries
Turnbirdge Avenue, JHU Sheridan Libraries

This panel will convene urban studies and land planning scholars to discuss the impact of the Roland Park Company’s projects on urban and suburban development, housing policy, race and ethnic relations, and architectural tradition.  From the company’s start in 1891 through the mid-20th century, Baltimore’s Roland Park Company made a major impact on the city’s built environment, played a major role in defining the characteristics of suburbs and suburban life that are now second nature, and left behind a checkered legacy that endures to this day.

Behind the Scenes Tour of Homewood House Restoration

Homewood House Portico Restoration 2012

Are you among the many Baltimoreans who have passed Homewood House on the Johns Hopkins University campus and wondered what the construction is about? Wonder no more! Please plan to join us in learning what it takes to renovate a 211-year-old portico and then come inside for a close-up look at this historic and architectural gem. As for the portico, new discoveries during restoration underscore Homewood House’s superlative construction, and may explain why the house ended up costing four times the original $10,000 that Charles Carroll budgeted for it in 1801.

Tour Details

Wednesday, June 13, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 (on JHU campus)
$15 members | $25 non-members (wine & cheese will be served)
RSVP for the tour today!

Check out the Homewood House with Explore Baltimore Heritage!

Homewood House is the former home of Charles Carroll, Jr., son of Maryland’s only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. In 1800, the elder Carroll offered his son and new bride, Harriett Chew, the funds to build a country retreat. The original plan was to renovate an existing farmhouse, but Carroll the younger had higher social aspirations and wanted a house to reflect it. With more than a little contention between father and son, Homewood House was completed in 1801 at a cost of $40,000, four times what Father Carroll had wished to spend. The exceedingly high cost, however, went into both great architecture and great craftsmanship.

The current restoration of the south portico has reinforced this, with new discoveries of vaulted arches under the stairs and other construction practices that have helped the building stand straight and true for over two centuries. For the tour, Ms. Catherine Rogers Arthur, Director and Curator of Homewood House Museum, and Mr. Travers Nelson, project manager, will take us through the steps involved in the restoration of the south portico and then into the house itself. Today’s current craftsmen undertaking the restoration work include G. Krug & Son, Baltimore ironmongery in business since 1810, for the original wrought iron railing, and SMG Architects as the lead architect. As an extra bonus, the tour will include Homewood House’s most recent acquisition: Charles Carroll of Carrollton’s architectural drawing desk. With several Atlantic crossings to Ireland and back, this Irish-made desk has quite the story to tell. Please join us for a tour of this preservation project in action and one of Baltimore’s historic treasures.

Behind the Scenes Tour of Gilman Hall at Johns Hopkins University

Over 90 years after it first opened its doors to students, Gilman Hall at The Johns Hopkins University, received a careful restoration while keeping an eye on the needs of the modern day student. Mr. Travers C. Nelson, AIA, program manager of design and construction for JHU, will lead us on a tour of this impressive building.

Gilman Hall, Johns Hopkins University Campus

3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218
Thursday, October 13, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
$15/members, $20/non-members. Wine & cheese will be served.
Parking is available at the San Martin or South Parking Garages. Street parking is also available on nearby Charles Street.
RSVP today!

Gilman Hall is 146,000 square feet of classrooms, study space and offices. But it is more than that: it is the intellectual and philosophical heart of the humanities at Johns Hopkins University. Gilman Hall opened in 1915, the first academic building on the Homewood campus, as a single structure with everything a young university student needed for world-class teaching and research. It reopened in 2010 after being closed for two years for renovations, and is now the home at Hopkins for learning in literature, languages, history, philosophy, art, film, and antiquities. “Connections are everything,” said Basil Gildersleeve (1791–1875), the eminent classicist who was the first professor of Greek hired at Johns Hopkins. “Scrap knowledge is the bane of scholars,” he wrote. “Not to see a thing in its connections is not to see it all.” The point of the restoration is to carry out Professor Gildersleeve’s belief.

The Hall’s design – from its seminar rooms to its atrium – is to encourage faculty members and students to collaborate and explore ideas wherever they lead, even (or especially) across disciplines. The renovation work included everything from the careful restoration of the copper roof of the cupola to the creation, out of an airshaft, of a dramatic atrium covered by a state-of-the-art skylight. Important historic elements have been restored, and essential new spaces and building services have been added. The building is expected to be awarded a LEED Silver certification for sustainability. Please join Mr. Nelson in a tour of the renovated space to learn about the history of the building and its renovation.

Behind the Scenes Holiday Tours of Homewood & Evergreen

Image courtesy JHU Museums

Please join us as we celebrate the holidays with tours of two of Baltimore’s most elegant and important historic houses: Homewood House and Evergreen House. Our hosts at each have decorated for the holidays, and we invite you to join us for a little holiday cheer and a lot of Baltimore information on one or both of them.

Tour Information

Homewood House | 3400 North Charles Street, 21218
Wednesday, December 8, 2010

  • Wine and cheese: 5:00 pm to 5:30 pm | Tour: 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm
  • $20 for members; $30 for non-members (half the proceeds go to support Homewood House).
  • Parking is available on Charles Street and other nearby streets.

Evergreen House | 4545 North Charles Street, 21210
Thursday, December 16, 2010

  • Wine and cheese: 5:00 pm to 5:30 pm | Tour: 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm
  • $20 for members; $30 for non-members (half the proceeds go to support Evergreen House).
  • Free parking is available on site.

Register for one or both tours today!
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