Bachelor's Hope (Centreville, Maryland) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Bachelor's Hope
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 Location in Maryland
Location in the United States
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| Location | 201 Bachelors Hope Farm Lane, Centreville, Maryland |
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| Area | 1.3 acres (0.53 ha) |
| Built | 1798 |
| NRHP reference No. | 84001855 |
| Added to NRHP | May 3, 1984 |
Bachelor's Hope is an old, special house located in Centreville, Maryland. It was built a long time ago, between 1798 and 1815. Because it's so important, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. This means it's officially recognized as a historic landmark.
Contents
Exploring Bachelor's Hope: The Design
The house is built with two main materials: brick and wood. The triangle-shaped parts of the roof (called gables) are made of brick. The long sides of the house are made of wood.
It has five sections (or 'bays') on the front. The house is one and a half stories high. It is also two rooms deep, meaning it has rooms stretching from the front to the back. There is one chimney at each end of the house. These chimneys are in the middle of the brick gable walls. Each chimney has two fireplaces inside. All the brick parts, even the foundation, are laid in a special pattern called "five-course common bond."
The Front and Back of the House
The main entrance is in the middle of the front of the house. What's cool is that the door has two tall, narrow windows on each side. These are called sidelights. The front of the house looks very balanced, or "symmetrical." It faces south, towards an old road that went to Queenstown, Maryland.
On the first floor, there are two large windows on each side of the door. These are called sash windows. Above these, on the roof, are three small windows with their own little roofs. These are called dormers. The front also has a modern porch with three sections.
The back of the house looks a lot like the front. The door in the middle doesn't have sidelights. Instead, it has regular windows on each side. Just like the front, there are three dormer windows above the central door.
Inside the House
The inside of Bachelor's Hope is quite unique. It's a different version of a "central hall Georgian plan." This means there's a hallway in the middle. But what's unusual is that each room is a different size.
Both front rooms have fireplaces. The fireplace in the southeast room is very old. It still has its original mantel from the early 1800s. This room also has beautiful details like a decorative border where the wall meets the ceiling (a cornice). There is also special wood paneling below the windows. The baseboards and chair rail (a strip of wood on the wall) are also original. The southwest room has similar old details.
The room to the northwest looks simpler. Its fireplace mantel and window frames are from the late 1800s. The northeast room has been updated and is now the kitchen. At the back of the first floor, there's a hallway. From this hall, you can find a winding staircase. This staircase leads up to the second floor. Almost all the wood details on the second floor are original. This includes the frames around windows and doors, the fireplace surrounds, and the raised panel doors.
Why Bachelor's Hope is Special
Bachelor's Hope is important because it has many unusual features. Experts believe it's a one-of-a-kind house on the central Eastern Shore of Maryland.
The way it was built, using brick on the ends and wood on the sides, is very rare. You don't see many old buildings like that today. The house also has a unique floor plan for its size. It's a special version of the Georgian central-hall design.
What makes it even more valuable is how well it has been kept. Most of the house is still in its original condition. Even though some small changes were made to the first floor, many of the old parts are still there. For example, the northwest room has original wood paneling on the lower part of the walls. The back hall on the first floor also has this. All the original woodwork on the second floor is still there too.
