Riversdale House Historic Site & Museum — Attraction in Riverdale Park

We went here so a friend could complete some work for school. The docents loved it and were extremely accommodating, getting our friend all the information that she needed and then some. They gave us a very detailed tour of the home and spoke specially on Adam Plummer, a slave who lived and was forced to serve on the property. The unique thing about Plummer is that he could read and write, which resulted in one of the only firsthand accounts of slavery during those times. It's a real shame that they don't have a copy of the journal, or even excerpts from it, especially in the outbuilding that they have set up as a home for slaves would have been. I would have purchased a copy in the gift shop without hesitation.

The mansion is gorgeous and has many unique features. The coolest thing we learned was that people of that time would protect their wood floors with not just carpets, but also gigantic canvases. More or less a painting that you walk on! That kinda blew my mind. Since then I've recognized similar canvases (at Montpelier for example).

Definitely come check it out to see how different architecture is from those days. Take the tour, learn some things. They even have a little library...

Riversdale, is a five-part, large-scale late Georgian mansion with superior Federal interior, built between 1801 and 1807. Also known as Baltimore House, Calvert Mansion or Riversdale Mansion, it is located at 4811 Riverdale Road in Riverdale Park, Maryland, and is open to the public as a museum.

Once the manor house and centerpiece of a 739-acre (2.99 km2) slave plantation, Riversdale was built for Belgian émigré Henri Joseph Stier, Baron de Stier, who lived in the William Paca House in Annapolis, Maryland immediately prior to building Riversdale. Stier planned the house in 1801 to resemble his Belgian residence, the Chateau du Mick. Four years later, Stier returned to Belgium, leaving the unfinished Riversdale to be completed by his daughter, Rosalie Stier Calvert and her husband, George Calvert, the son of Benedict Swingate Calvert, who was a natural son of The 5th Baron Baltimore. Rosalie and George Calvert's son, Charles Benedict Calvert, established the Maryland Agricultural College, now the University of Maryland, College Park, on part of the...

This was the perfect follow up to a lunch at 2Fifty Texas BBQ, in Riverdale Park, MD. My group went for a walk and ended up taking the tour of Riverdale House.

We received a nice welcome in the visitor's center and purchased tickets for the tour. The welcome center staff gave us a brief intro to the property before directing us to the House, where we were greeted by the guide. What followed was a fascinating look at an 18-19th Century estate with ties to Flanders, the first family of Maryland and a connection to the Washingtons and the University of Maryland.

I highly recommend this tour. You learn about much more than a house and get a deeper understanding of the region and Nation's history as well as some...