Large Rundown Estate in Maryland over 160 Years Old
Ravenshurst House, Glen Arm Maryland
Ravenhurst is a mid-nineteenth century, Carpenters' Gothic house, probably built about 1854-1857. This large house was an addition to an earlier stone dwelling thought to have been built about 1800. The large, board and batten addition is an excellent example of Andrew Jackson Downing's picturesque country house. In addition to being architecturally significant, it was the residence of two important Baltimore County residents; Major General Isaac Ridgeway Trimble, an engineer, railroad executive and Confederate officer; and the Hoen family, noted for their printing firm in Baltimore,
The Ravenhurst estate combined a number of tracts, including Elizabeth's Purchase, Coxes Hope, Wilson's Security and Union. The property was sold at auction in 1835 when the trustees in the case of Wilson vs. Wilson advertised 166 acres, including a two-story stone house, outbuildings and a lime quarry and kiln. John Wilson bought the farm, but sold the property with 92 additional acres to Moses Rankin in 1837. J.C. Sidne's 1850 county map showed Mr. Rankin's house which he sold for $3000 to Samuel Rankin in 1854. Isaac R. Trimble purchased most of the tract for $15,375 in 1857 and sold it to his son, David Churchman Trimble, the same year for the same amount. Thus, the increase in value indicates that Ravenhurst was built by Samuel Rankin, a Baltimore merchant.
General Trimble, one of the first graduates of the West Point Class of 1822, was an engineer officer loaned by the army to the railroad companies. As a lieutenant, he helped survey the first Baltimore and Ohio route in 1827. Resigning his commission in 1832, he became a professional railroad engineer, was appointed chief engineer of the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad in 1839 and general superintendent of the Baltimore and Potomac in 1859. He also worked with Samuel F.B. Morse and others to erect a telegraph line from Washington to New York (1847). During the Baltimore riots of 1861, Major Trimble helped maintain order as commander of the uniformed volunteers and was ordered by Police Marshall Kane to burn the bridges of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad to prevent federal troops from reaching the city. According to the Baltimore Sun of June 10th, 1861, a Pennsylvania regiment stationed along the line of the Northern Central Railroad searched Ravenhurst for boxes supposed to contain firearms. They found containers of furniture, wares, etc,, sent to the house from Baltimore for the Trimbles' usual stay in the country for the summer months. Nevertheless, the Lincoln administration regarded Major Trimble's actions as anti-Union activity and Trimble left Maryland to become a Confederate officer. After the war, he served on a commission to solve the Jones Falls flooding problem in Baltimore. Their 1869 Report recommended conveying the falls through downtown in a covered conduit, a project completed in 1915.
General Trimble died in 1888, and his son, a resident of Talbot County, sold Ravenhurst to Henry Hoen (1827-1893). Members of the Hoen (Hoehn) family, originally from Holland and Germany, emigrated to Baltimore about 1835. Henry's cousin August joined Weber and Co., established in 1835, was reportedly the oldest lithographer in the United States. Edward Weber died in 1848, and August Hoen and his brother Ernest changed the name of the firm to A. Hoen and Company. Later Henry Hoen became a partner in the company, which is credited with introducing the art of lithographic printing in color. In 1889 A. Hoen and Company printed a multicolored lithograph of Ravenhurst estate, identified as the former property of General Trimble. All buildings were labeled and dimensions given.
The ownership of Ravenhurst has been kept within the Hoen and related families up to the present time. Colonial Development, Inc. filed a plat for a subdivision in 1966, giving the present owner life tenancy and the developer the right to purchase the house and its remaining four acres.
Building Description
Ravenhurst is located at 12915 Dulaney Valley Road in Baltimore County, Maryland. The main block, facing southwest, is a massive board and batten, 2 1/2-story house built about 1854-1857. Its picturesque design was influenced by the Carpenters' Gothic residences promoted by Andrew Jackson Downing. Ravenhurst is a complex composition of gables with simple but heavy vergeboards, finials, pendants, an octagonal tower with a domed roof, and tall chimneys.
The exterior of the house is painted yellow. Extending across the entire three-bay facade is a 52-foot, one-story porch. The entrance has a transom over three-paneled, double doors flanked by sidelights. The second-story windows break through projecting eaves and board and batten siding continues upward over them to form gabled dormers with pointed windows. The central bay and dormer are larger and have double windows. On the northwest gable end is a bay window on the first floor. Throughout, windows are finished with a hood molding.
Ravenhurst's T-shaped plan provides a central hall flanked by four rooms on each floor. The principal rooms to the front of the first floor have floor-to-ceiling windows opening onto the porch. In the rear extension are smaller rooms on each side of the stairs. The dog-leg stair is not continuous. It ends at a landing on the second floor and then begins another run to the third. On each floor is a central hall which has a large, circular opening in its ceiling so that the interior of the dome can be seen from all levels. A circular stairway leads from the third floor to the level of the cupola's windows.
The interior of the house has been gutted. Since 1966 the present owner, when in need of funds, sold the mantels, banisters, flooring, light fixtures, floorboards, plumbing, etc. Only a few fragments, such as some molded plaster cornices on the first floor, remain.
Adjoining the northeast corner and fitting into the intersection of the T is an older, two-story stone house of five bays facing in the opposite direction. It is thought to have been built about 1800 and has been extensively remodeled inside. Part of the exterior is covered with board and batten, but some whitewashed stone remains under the two-story front porch. Its projecting eaves have vergeboards similar to the main house.
There is also a third addition connecting the stone house to the main block. This two-story board and batten wing extends northeast from the stair at the rear of the main hall in Ravenhurst. It was partially complete as shown in an 1889 lithograph plat of the estate and later extended to its present length. There is a triangular first-floor bay window added to the northwest by the present owner after she retired from her millinery business.
There were numerous outbuildings on the grounds. Northeast of the house were an ice house, smokehouse, barn, and corn crib/wagon house. Only a small wash house, complementing the design of the main house, remains.
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