places where you won't be able to wipe the wag off your dog's tail - Baltimore MD
The Park
When Captain Charles Ridgely, heir to an iron and shipping fortune, began construction on Hampton mansion in 1783 this now highly suburbanized part of Baltimore County was so remote that wolves howled at night and locals ridiculed the project in the wilderness as “Ridgely’s Folly.” In 1948, after housing six generations of Ridgelys, the Georgian mansion became the first site in the National Park Service to be recognized for its architectural merit and not its historical significance. Once a sprawling, self-sufficient empire of 25,000 acres, all that remains of the original Hampton estate is 63 acres.
The Walks
The elegant stuccoed mansion is off limits to your dog but that is no reason he can’t strut around the grounds like royalty. He can trot down the Great Terrace behind the house, once used for bowling on the green, and into the formal English boxwood garden. Where once a 700-tree orchard stood is an open field ideal for a game of fetch. Scattered among the 200 historic specimen trees are original outbuildings - stables that once housed Maryland’s fastest horses, a citrus-growing orangery and slave quarters. On the front lawn is a grass-covered brick dome enclosing a 33-foot deep pit that was
used as an ice house.
Where The Paw Meets The Earth: Grass and brick and cobble
Workout For Your Dog - No
Swimming - None
Restrictions On Dogs - No dogs in the mansion
Something Extra
One wonders what Charles Ridgely would think of his final resting place were he able to see it today. When placed inside the family’s Greek Revival vault after his death, his land holdings included enough land to make up half of present-day Baltimore. Yet the Ridgely family cemetery now squeezes against an interstate highway with a view of a neighbor’s backyard play set. Still, the brick-walled family cemetery is a unique historical destination open to your dog.
Phone - None
Admission Fee - None
Directions - Towson, Baltimore County; from I-695, take Exit 27-B north (Dulaney Valley Road) and make an immediate right on Hampton Lane to the entrance on the right.
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