Clifton Mansion the summer estate of Johns Hopkins part two

Clifton Mansion had three building campaigns, the house was originally built as a small 18th century farm house. The house was greatly enlarged in the early 19th century by Baltimore merchant Henry Thompson and bought by Johns Hopkins in the 1830's and greatly remodeled into a Italianate villa in the 1850's. If you look at the center core of the house you can still see outlines of the 18th century Federal house. Johns Hopkins added the third story in the 1850's.

Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American entrepreneur,abolitionist and philanthropist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland. His bequests founded numerous institutions bearing his name, including Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Johns Hopkins was born to Samuel Hopkins (1759–1814) of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and Hannah Janney (1774–1864), of Loudoun County, Virginia. The ancestral home was Whitehall, a 500-acre  tobacco plantation in Anne Arundel County. His first name derives from a maternal great-grandmother, Margaret Johns, who passed it on to her son.

The Hopkins family were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). In 1807 they emancipated their slaves in accordance with their local Society decree, which called for freeing the able-bodied and caring for the others, who would remain at the plantation and provide labor as they could. The second eldest of eleven children, 12 year-old Johns was required to work on the farm, interrupting his formal education. From 1806 to 1809, he likely attended The Free School of Anne Arundel County, which was located in today's Davidsonville, Maryland.

Johns Hopkins Rococo Revival rocking chair dating from the 1850's.

As he became able, Hopkins provided for his extended family, both during his life and posthumously through his will. He bequeathed a home for Elizabeth, where she lived until her death in 1889.
Whitehall Plantation is located in today's Crofton, Maryland. Its home, since restored and modified, is on Johns Hopkins Road, adjacent to Reidel Road. The heavily landscaped property is surrounded by Walden Golf Course, and bears a historic marker.

Hopkins' early experiences and successes in business came when he was put in charge of the store while his uncle was away during the War of 1812. After seven years with his uncle, Hopkins went into business together with Benjamin Moore, a fellow Quaker. The business partnership was later dissolved with Moore purporting Hopkins' penchant for capital accumulation as the cause for the divide.

After Moore's withdrawal, Hopkins partnered with three of his brothers and established Hopkins & Brothers. The company prospered by selling various wares in the Shenandoah Valley from Conestoga wagons, sometimes in exchange for corn whiskey, which was then sold in Baltimore as "Hopkins' Best". The bulk of Hopkins' fortune however was made by his judicious investments in a myriad of ventures, most notably the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), of which he became a Director in 1847 and Chairman of the Finance Committee in 1855. He was also President of Merchants' Bank as well as director of a number of other organizations. 

A charitable individual, Hopkins put up his own money more than once to not only aid Baltimore City during times of financial crises, but also to twice bail the railroad out of debt, in 1857 and 1873.  In 1996, Johns Hopkins ranked 69th in "The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates - A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present."

Johns Hopkins Rococo Revival rocking chair dating from the 1850's. 

The great state of Maryland is one of the few Southern states that did not secede from the Union, during the Civil War. To help ensure Maryland's inclusion in the Union, President Lincoln suspended several civil liberties, including the writ of habeas corpus, an act deemed illegal by Maryland native Chief Justice Roger Taney. Lincoln ordered U.S. troops to place artillery on Federal Hill to threaten the city of Baltimore, and helped ensure the election of a new pro-union governor and legislature. Lincoln went so far as to jail certain pro-South members of the state legislature at Fort McHenry, including the Mayor of Baltimore, George William Brown. The grandson of Francis Scott Key was included in those jailed. The constitutionality of these actions is still debated. Of the 115,000 Maryland men who joined the military during the Civil War 85,000, or 77%, joined the Union army, while the remainder joined the Confederate Army in other Southern states

Because Maryland remained in the Union, it was exempted from the anti-slavery provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation (The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to states in rebellion). In 1864 the state held a constitutional convention that culminated in the passage of a new state constitution. Article 24 of that document outlawed the practice of slavery. In 1867 the state extended suffrage to non-white males.

As in Delaware, numerous planters in Maryland had freed their slaves in the twenty years after the Revolutionary War. By 1860 Maryland's free black population comprised 49.1% of the total of African Americans in the state. This contributed to the state's remaining loyal to the Union during the American Civil War. In addition, Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks temporarily suspended the state legislature, and President Abraham Lincoln had many of its fire eaters arrested prior to its reconvening.

One of the first campaigns of the American Civil War was planned at Johns Hopkins' summer estate, Clifton, where he had also entertained a number of foreign dignitaries including the future King Edward VII. Hopkins was a strong supporter of the Union, unlike most Marylanders, who sympathized with and often supported the South and the Confederacy. During the Civil War, Clifton became a frequent meeting place for local Union sympathizers, and federal officials.

Hopkins' support of Abraham Lincoln also often put him at odds with some of Maryland's most prominent people, particularly Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, who continually opposed Lincoln's presidential decisions, such as his policies of limiting habeas corpus and stationing troops in Maryland. In 1862 Hopkins wrote a letter to Lincoln requesting the President not to heed the detractors' calls and continue to keep soldiers stationed in Maryland. Hopkins also pledged financial and logistic support to Lincoln, in particular the free use of the B&O railway system.

I believe this room was used as a dinning room by Johns Hopkins. Added on to the house by Hopkins he hired the leading architectural firm of Niernsee & Neilson. The room has ornate early Victorian plaster work 

Detail of the ornate early Victorian plaster work in the dinning room 

Detail of the ornate early Victorian plaster work in the dinning room 

A beautiful ornate plaster arched bay window in the dinning room

A ornate plaster bracket 

Plaster ceiling in the arched bay window 

A ornate plaster bracket 

A beautiful ornate plaster arched bay window in the dinning room

The bust of a woman in the ornate Plaster ceiling

The bust of a woman in the ornate Plaster ceiling

The ornate plaster cornice molding with egg motif 

The ornate plaster cornice molding with egg motif 

The Henry Thompson parlor is being restore to a late 18th century look as the mantel, woodwork and doors survive from the original house 

A original Federal wood mantel 

French wallpaper of the period 

Detail of late 18th century woodwork 

This room in the house has ornate marbleized stucco niches that date from around 1804. It is believe the work was done by Italian craftsmen working on the White House and Capital buildings.

Note how delicate the Neoclassical work is. This room in the house has ornate marbleized stucco niches that date from around 1804. It is believe the work was done by Italian craftsmen working on the White House and Capital buildings.

This room in the house has ornate Neoclassical marbleized stucco niches that date from around 1804. It is believe the work was done by Italian craftsmen working on the White House and Capital buildings. 

The interiors of the President Manson now called the White House could have had this same kind of  Neoclassical decoration before the British burned in, in the War of 1812 

Original marbleized stucco dating from the early 19th century

Plaster ceiling in the staircase hall 

The staircase is made of black walnut

A 1850's mural of the Bay of Naples was covered by layers of paint. It is now being restored. 

Detail of staircase molding in black walnut 

Victorian gold gilt stenciling 

1850's painted glass used in the house 

Late 18th century Federal doorway in upstairs bedroom. Although Hopkins had the house greatly remolded in the 1850's in the Victorian Italianate style. He kelp parts of the 18th century Federal moldings and detail and even recreated theses planer Federal molding into new rooms that he added on to the house in the 1850's. 

Late 18th century Federal doorway in upstairs bedroom. Although Hopkins had the house greatly remolded in the 1850's in the Victorian Italianate style. He kelp parts of the 18th century Federal moldings and detail and even recreated theses planer Federal molding into new rooms that he added on to the house in the 1850's. 

A Early 19th century blue-gray King of Prussia marble mantel that was quarried in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, dates from the Henry Thompson remolding 

A original late 18th century mantel in upstairs bedroom 

A upstairs library study for Johns Hopkins 

A upstairs library study for Johns Hopkins 

Newel post finial 

View from the six-story tower where Hopkins could watch ships come and go from Baltimore Harbor.

Andrew Jackson Downing, one of America’s foremost nineteenth-century taste-setters, praised Clifton as one of the most elaborate places in the country. 

View from the six-story tower where Hopkins could watch ships come and go from Baltimore Harbor.

Johns Hopkins, Baltimore merchant and philanthropist, purchased Clifton in 1837 as his summer estate. Hopkins expanded the house into an Italianate villa complete with ornamental gardens and a lake on the 500 acre property. He added countless exotic trees, a lake, an orangery and a garden with over 100 pieces of marble sculpture.

Six-story tower where Hopkins could watch ships come and go from Baltimore Harbor.

With the then largest single philanthropic gift in American history, Hopkins secured his legacy by establishing institutions that were to serve the ill, the elderly, the poor and the mentally ill, regardless of race, gender, and religious beliefs. The world has been forever enriched by his great dedication and service to the Baltimore community. Today, the view from Clifton Mansion stretches between the world famous university and hospital that Hopkins endowed in his will.