Hammond-Harwood House
Encyclopedia
The Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis
, Maryland
, United States
, is one of the premier colonial house
s remaining in America from the British colonial period
(1607–1776). It is the only existing work of colonial academic architecture that was principally designed from a plate in Andrea Palladio
’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura
, 1570, (The Four Books of Architecture). The house was designed by the architect William Buckland
in 1773-74 for wealthy farmer
Matthias Hammond of Anne Arundel County, Maryland
. It was modeled on the design of the Villa Pisani
in Montagnana
, Italy
in Book II, Chapter XIV of I Quattro Libri dell’Achitettura.
The house passed to his nephews John and then Philip Hammond who eventually sold the house to Ninian Pinkney in 1810. Pinkney, however quickly sold the house to Judge Jeremiah Townley Chase
in 1811. Judge Chase bought the house as a home for the family of his daughter Frances Townley Chase Loockerman. He was well acquainted with the house because he rented the northeast wing beginning in the late 1770s.
Judge Chase’s descendants lived in the house until the death of his great-granddaughter Hester Ann Harwood in 1924. Judge Chase’s granddaughter married William Harwood, the great-grandson of William Buckland the architect of the house.
Hester Ann Harwood died intestate and the house was sold in 1926 to St. John’s College
. The College used the house as a teaching tool for one of America’s first courses taught on the decorative arts until financial necessity forced the college to sell to the Hammond-Harwood House Association in 1940. This non-profit corporation continues to own the house and uses it as a museum that is open to the public.
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The house ranks architecturally with many of the great mansions built in the late Colonial period; however, it is the only house directly inspired from a plate in Palladio’s, I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura
. It is arguably the most exquisite house remaining from the Colonial period in America.
Architect William Buckland cleverly adapted Palladio's Villa Pisani design to satisfy the tastes of colonial Annapolis. He re-designed the plan to accommodate the tastes for asymmetrical regional preferences and modified the hyphens
from Palladio's arched entries to more practical single storey connecting links. He also incorporated fashionable urban design by sinking the windows in the method mandated by the London Building Act of 1774. This device provided better protection from fire and gave the overall design a greater degree of visual solidity and three dimensionality (see image at right). This adaptation from Palladio's model marks his maturity as an architect and ranks him as one of America's first and finest architects.
The initial design of Thomas Jefferson
’s Monticello
was taken from the Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese
, Italy
, in Book II, Chapter XV of I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, but this façade was later covered up by Jefferson’s own expansions to his house. Thomas Jefferson made two drawings of the Hammond-Harwood House when he served the government in Annapolis in 1783-4. One could assume that Jefferson recognized the house as derived from Palladio because his knowledge of The Four Books of Architecture was extensive. He referred to the book as his architectural “bible” and the plate of the Villa Cornaro follows the Villa Pisani plate; and directly opposite the Villa Cornaro in some 18th century English transcriptions of the work.
The Hammond-Harwood House was featured in Bob Vila
's A&E Network
production, Guide to Historic Homes of America, in the two-hour segment on the Mid-Atlantic States
.
columns and topped by a fanlight. Above the door the second floor window is framed with a surround and entablature.
The interior presents the appearance of symmetry where it is in fact not symmetrical, using false doors where necessary to maintain the illusion. The main rooms are the first-floor dining room and the second-floor ballroom immediately above, at the rear of the house overlooking the garden. The dining room features an opening, centered in the facade, that is treated as a door on the outside and as a window on the inside.
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, is one of the premier colonial house
Colonial house
American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English , French Colonial, Spanish Colonial, Dutch Colonial, German Colonial and Georgian Colonial...
s remaining in America from the British colonial period
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
(1607–1776). It is the only existing work of colonial academic architecture that was principally designed from a plate in Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura
I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura
I quattro libri dell'architettura is an Italian treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea Palladio . It was first published in four volumes in 1570 in Venice, illustrated with woodcuts after the author's own drawings. It has been reprinted and translated many times...
, 1570, (The Four Books of Architecture). The house was designed by the architect William Buckland
William Buckland (Architect)
William Buckland was an architect who designed in colonial Maryland and Virginia.-Biography:Born at Oxford, England, Buckland spent seven years as an apprentice to his uncle, James Buckland, "Citizen and Joiner" of London. At 21, he was brought to Virginia as an indentured servant to Thomas Mason,...
in 1773-74 for wealthy farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
Matthias Hammond of Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. It was modeled on the design of the Villa Pisani
Villa Pisani (Montagnana)
The Villa Pisani is a patrician villa outside the city walls of Montagnana, Veneto, northern Italy.- Architectural details :It was designed by Andrea Palladio about 1552, for Cardinal Francesco Pisani...
in Montagnana
Montagnana
Montagnana is a town and comune in the province of Padova, in Veneto . It is bounded by other communes of Saletto, Megliadino San Fidenzio, Casale di Scodosia, Urbana, Bevilacqua, Pojana Maggiore and Noventa Vicentina...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in Book II, Chapter XIV of I Quattro Libri dell’Achitettura.
History
Construction on the house began in, or around, April 1774 and a majority of the house was probably completed before the death of the architect in November or December of the same year. Patron Matthias Hammond probably never occupied his elegant house because he abruptly left Annapolis for his family's country estate in 1776. He died in 1786 after renting the house for many years.The house passed to his nephews John and then Philip Hammond who eventually sold the house to Ninian Pinkney in 1810. Pinkney, however quickly sold the house to Judge Jeremiah Townley Chase
Jeremiah Chase
Jeremiah Townley Chase was an American lawyer and jurist from Annapolis, Maryland. He served as a delegate for Maryland in the Continental Congress of 1783 and 1784, and for many years was chief justice of the state’s court of appeals.-Early life :Chase was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Richard...
in 1811. Judge Chase bought the house as a home for the family of his daughter Frances Townley Chase Loockerman. He was well acquainted with the house because he rented the northeast wing beginning in the late 1770s.
Judge Chase’s descendants lived in the house until the death of his great-granddaughter Hester Ann Harwood in 1924. Judge Chase’s granddaughter married William Harwood, the great-grandson of William Buckland the architect of the house.
Hester Ann Harwood died intestate and the house was sold in 1926 to St. John’s College
St. John's College, U.S.
St. John's College is a liberal arts college with two U.S. campuses: one in Annapolis, Maryland and one in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Founded in 1696 as a preparatory school, King William's School, the school received a collegiate charter in 1784, making it one of the oldest institutions of higher...
. The College used the house as a teaching tool for one of America’s first courses taught on the decorative arts until financial necessity forced the college to sell to the Hammond-Harwood House Association in 1940. This non-profit corporation continues to own the house and uses it as a museum that is open to the public.
Architecture
I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura
I quattro libri dell'architettura is an Italian treatise on architecture by the architect Andrea Palladio . It was first published in four volumes in 1570 in Venice, illustrated with woodcuts after the author's own drawings. It has been reprinted and translated many times...
. It is arguably the most exquisite house remaining from the Colonial period in America.
Architect William Buckland cleverly adapted Palladio's Villa Pisani design to satisfy the tastes of colonial Annapolis. He re-designed the plan to accommodate the tastes for asymmetrical regional preferences and modified the hyphens
Hyphen (architecture)
In architecture, a hyphen is a connecting link between two larger building elements. It is typically found in Georgian style architecture, where the hyphens form connections between a large central house and end pavilions in the Georgian five-part house, which was in turn derived from Palladian...
from Palladio's arched entries to more practical single storey connecting links. He also incorporated fashionable urban design by sinking the windows in the method mandated by the London Building Act of 1774. This device provided better protection from fire and gave the overall design a greater degree of visual solidity and three dimensionality (see image at right). This adaptation from Palladio's model marks his maturity as an architect and ranks him as one of America's first and finest architects.
The initial design of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
’s Monticello
Monticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
was taken from the Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese
Piombino Dese
Piombino Dese is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region Veneto, located about 35 km northwest of Venice and about 20 km north of Padua...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, in Book II, Chapter XV of I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura, but this façade was later covered up by Jefferson’s own expansions to his house. Thomas Jefferson made two drawings of the Hammond-Harwood House when he served the government in Annapolis in 1783-4. One could assume that Jefferson recognized the house as derived from Palladio because his knowledge of The Four Books of Architecture was extensive. He referred to the book as his architectural “bible” and the plate of the Villa Cornaro follows the Villa Pisani plate; and directly opposite the Villa Cornaro in some 18th century English transcriptions of the work.
The Hammond-Harwood House was featured in Bob Vila
Bob Vila
Robert Joseph "Bob" Vila is an American home improvement television show host known for This Old House , Bob Vila's Home Again , and Bob Vila .-Early life:...
's A&E Network
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
production, Guide to Historic Homes of America, in the two-hour segment on the Mid-Atlantic States
Mid-Atlantic States
The Mid-Atlantic states, also called middle Atlantic states or simply the mid Atlantic, form a region of the United States generally located between New England and the South...
.
Description
The Hammond-Harwood House is a five-part brick house with a five-bay two-story central block, two-story end wings and one-story connecting hyphens on either side. The central block has a shallow hipped roof. The wings project toward the street with three-sided hipped-roof bays. The hyphens are rendered as a blind arcade, with the central bay a door opening with a pediment above. There is little decoration, with plain rubbed brick flat arches over the windows. Ornament is confined to the central bay, whose door is framed by engaged IonicIonic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
columns and topped by a fanlight. Above the door the second floor window is framed with a surround and entablature.
The interior presents the appearance of symmetry where it is in fact not symmetrical, using false doors where necessary to maintain the illusion. The main rooms are the first-floor dining room and the second-floor ballroom immediately above, at the rear of the house overlooking the garden. The dining room features an opening, centered in the facade, that is treated as a door on the outside and as a window on the inside.
See also
- Paca House and GardenPaca House and GardenThe William Paca House is an 18th century Georgian mansion in Annapolis, Maryland, United States. William Paca was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and a three-term Governor of Maryland. The house was built between 1763 and 1765 and its architecture was largely designed by Paca himself...
- Brice House
- Tulip HillTulip HillTulip Hill is a plantation house that was built between 1755 and 1756 one mile from Galesville in Anne Arundel County in the Province of Maryland. Tulip Hill was built before the American War of Independence....
- Chase-Lloyd HouseChase-Lloyd HouseThe Chase-Lloyd House in Annapolis, Maryland is a brick three-story Georgian mansion dating from 1769-1774 with interiors by William Buckland . Its construction was started for Samuel Chase, who would later be a signatory to the Declaration of Independence and Associate Justice of the Supreme...
, another National Historic Landmark, located across the street
External links
- hammondharwoodhouse.org Official web site
- Hammond-Harwood House, Anne Arundel County, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust
- Hammond-Harwood House, 19 Maryland Avenue & King George Street, Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, MD: 17 drawings, 16 photos, 2 data pages, 1 color transparency, at Historic American Building Survey