Hampton is one of my local favorites and it would be nice to see it one more time before moving out West.

Built between 1783 and 1790, Hampton was the country estate of the Ridgely family. This stately three-storied Georgian mansion was once the largest house in the United States and sat on 25,000 acres of land, but now only 60 acres of the original estate are included in the park.

When I visited Hampton on 26 March 2005, the mansion had “recently” closed for renovation and was scheduled to re-open in the summer of 2007. So while I was there I only got to tour the Italianate gardens (a little dull in late March), the mansion exterior and the farm buildings.

They ran a little behind, but did open back up on November 30th, 2007 (currently, see the park’s home page for the story). Fortunately, I also have an excuse to make the trip, because I have business to take care of at a Country Curtains store, and there just so happens to be one conveniently located in Towson!