Riversdale (Riverdale Park, Maryland) facts for kids
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Riversdale
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Riversdale Manor in 1989
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 Location in Maryland
Location in the United States
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| Location | 4811 Riverdale Road, Riverdale Park, Maryland |
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| Built | 1801–1807 |
| Architect | Henri-Joseph Stier d'Aertselaer, George Calvert |
| Architectural style | Federal, Georgian |
| Website | |
| NRHP reference No. | 73002166 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | April 11, 1973 |
| Designated NHL | December 09, 1997 |
Riversdale is a large, beautiful house built between 1801 and 1807. It's also called Baltimore House, Calvert Mansion, or Riversdale Mansion. You can find it at 4811 Riverdale Road in Riverdale Park, Maryland. Today, it's a museum that you can visit!
This grand house was once the center of a huge farm, about 739 acres, where enslaved people worked. Riversdale was planned by Henri Joseph Stier, who came from Belgium. He started building it in 1801, wanting it to look like his home in Belgium. But four years later, Mr. Stier went back to Belgium. His daughter, Rosalie Stier Calvert, and her husband, George Calvert, finished the house. George Calvert was the son of Benedict Swingate Calvert, who was related to the important Calvert family of Maryland.
Later, Rosalie and George Calvert's son, Charles Benedict Calvert, started the Maryland Agricultural College on part of the Riversdale land. This college is now the University of Maryland, College Park! Riversdale is special because it's a well-preserved example of a Federal-style mansion. It's also important because of its connection to the Calvert family. Because of its history, it was named a National Historic Landmark in 1997.
Contents
Discovering Riversdale's Past
Riversdale's story began in 1801. Henri Josef Stier and his wife, Marie Louise Peeters, started building the house on almost 800 acres of land. They first asked a famous architect, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, for designs. But they couldn't wait for his ideas. So, a local builder named William Lovering helped them build the house following Mr. Stier's plans.
The first part of the house, the east wing, was finished in August 1802. The Stiers lived there for a short time. In June 1803, the elder Stiers returned to Belgium. Then, Rosalie and George Calvert moved into Riversdale. They brought many enslaved people with them to work on the farm. In 1805, plans were made for the gardens, but most of these ideas were never built. The west wing of the house was finished in 1806, making the whole house complete.
Art and Family Life at Riversdale
For 13 years, Riversdale was home to a unique collection of European paintings. These paintings belonged to the Peeters and Stier families. It was one of the only collections like it in the United States at that time! It included more than 63 paintings by famous artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Most of the very large paintings were kept in storage. In 1816, they were sent back to Belgium.
Before the paintings were packed, a painter named Rembrandt Peale convinced Rosalie Calvert to show them off for two weeks at Riversdale. Rosalie became the owner of Riversdale that same year, but she passed away in 1821. George Calvert continued to live there until he died in 1838.
The large property was then divided between his sons, George Henry and Charles Benedict Calvert. Charles Benedict lived at Riversdale his whole life. He was very interested in farming and even had a unique octagonal "cow-house," which sadly burned down in 1910. Charles Benedict died in 1864. The property was then divided again among his wife, Charlotte, and their five children. Charlotte lived in the main mansion.
Changes Over Time
In 1887, a big part of the property, about 300 acres, was sold to John Fox and Alexander Lutz. They also bought another 174 acres nearby. Fox and Lutz started to develop the land into the town of Riverdale Park. The new town was great because it had easy train access to Washington, D.C.
The Riversdale mansion was kept in a park, but it was later used as a boarding house. In 1912, Thomas H. Pickford bought the house and made many changes. He even moved some of the original fireplaces to his house in New York!
From 1917 to 1929, a U.S. Senator from California, Hiram Johnson, lived in the house. In 1926, the house was sold to Senator Thaddeus Caraway of Arkansas. Senator Johnson's lease ran until 1929, so he was upset about the sale. He moved out in the spring of 1929, and the Caraways moved in. They also made some changes to the house. Sadly, Thaddeus Caraway died in November 1931. His wife, Hattie Wyatt Caraway, took over his Senate seat. She was elected twice but couldn't keep up with the mortgage payments.
In 1932, Thomas H. Pickford bought the property again. The next year, he sold it to a former congressman from Oregon, Abraham Walter Lafferty. Mr. Lafferty lived at Riversdale from 1933 to 1949. He tried to buy the land south of the mansion from Hattie Caraway. But Mrs. Caraway sold it to a developer in 1947. This developer drained a small lake and built houses there.
In 1949, Lafferty sold Riversdale to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. They used it as an office until 1982. Then, because of some building problems, the offices moved out. The house was then carefully restored. Finally, in 1993, Riversdale opened to the public as a museum!
What Riversdale Looks Like
Riversdale is a "five-part" mansion. This means it has a main, two-story central part. On each side, there are smaller, one-and-a-half-story sections called "pavilions." These pavilions are connected to the main house by short, one-and-a-half-story hallways called "hyphens."
The main part of the house is covered in stucco and has a sloped roof. The front entrance has a porch with columns and a small triangular roof. This porch protects the double front doors. The front doors have a beautiful fan-shaped window above them. The porch on the north side has a cool storage area underneath, which was used for dairy products.
The south side of the house, which faces the garden, also has a porch with columns. Large windows open onto this porch, allowing people to walk from the porch right into the central living room. Both porches have floors made of black, white, and pink marble. Most windows in the house have many small glass panes. The roof is covered in red wood shingles, and there are four chimneys, though one is just for looks to make the house look even.
The smaller end pavilions are turned so their narrow sides face north and south. The east pavilion was once the kitchen. The west pavilion used to be the stable and carriage house. In the 1930s, it was changed into a music room. But during the 1993 restoration, it was returned to its original look. The connecting hallways (hyphens) also have entrances on their north sides.
Inside Riversdale
When you step inside Riversdale, the first floor has three main living rooms, called parlors, across the south side of the house. On the north side, there's a central entrance hall. To the right is a staircase, and to the left is a service hall. All these rooms have beautiful, detailed woodwork.
The central parlor, also known as the salon de milieu, is the most fancy room. It has wooden columns, fancy plaster decorations on the ceiling, and decorative trim. The east parlor was used as the dining room. The west parlor was called the salle de compagnie, a room for guests.
The second floor is set up much like the first. The main bedrooms are above the east and west parlors. Each of these bedrooms has its own smaller dressing room. There's also a smaller bedroom in the center with curved walls. The north side has several smaller rooms.
There's even a unique "mezzanine" level between the first and second floors on the northeast side. It's a bit lower, with a ceiling just over six feet high. The main level of the east hyphen used to be a breakfast room. In 1912, the rooms above it were removed to create a large banquet room. However, the upper levels have since been restored to create an apartment for a caretaker. The west hyphen was where the owner of the plantation had his study. The old carriage house and stables, which were damaged by fire, were turned into a two-story music room.
The basement of the house has many spaces, mostly used for storage, like a wine cellar. There are also crawl spaces under the wings with impressive brick arches.
To the east of the main house, there's a separate, two-story brick building. This building was used as a kitchen, with one room on each level. Digging around the property has also shown where other buildings used to be, like a water tower, a wash house, and a greenhouse.
Images for kids
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Riversdale, July 2007
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Riversdale Manor in July 2007
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Calvert Family Cemetery in November 2008
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Plaque Commemorating the Calvert Family Cemetery in November 2008
