On Saturday, May 8 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Maryland’s House and Garden Pilgrimage turns its attention to Charles when the tour opens 11 beautiful and historically significant homes in the county. The event will take place in rain or shine and the public is invited to explore these properties.

The first home featured is the Thomas Stone National Historic site or Habre de Venture located at  6655 Rose Hill Rd.in Port Tobacco. Habre de Venture was established as a National Historic Site to protect the home and property of Thomas Stone, one of the 56 signers of the United States Declaration of Independence. The home is a unique five part colonial mansion restored after a fire gutted parts of the home on New Year’s Day 1977. Handsomely paneled rooms provide a window into the days when the house served Stone as a residence and law office. The wings and connecting hyphens are built at angles to the central block, forming a protected forecourt.

 

 

Second on the tour is Carmel of Port Tobacco located at 5678 Mount Carmel Rd. in La Plata. The home was established in 1790 as the first house of religious women in America at the invitation of John Carroll, the first Catholic Bishop of Baltimore. The monastery prospered until 1831 at which time financial difficulties made it necessary to sell the property and move to Baltimore. Today the Carmelite Nuns reside in the cloistered area.

 

 

 

Number three on the list is located at 8880 Mitchell Rd. in La Plata. This expansive home welcomes all visitors. Styled after a classic French Country House, the architecture was modified to include modern design aspects of the orient and includes several outbuildings. The house has four bedrooms and four full baths, an office and large family room and sun rooms with sliding glass doors leading to the rear yard and multi-level patio, deck and gardens.

 

 

 

The fourth featured home, located at 8625 Turkey Hill Rd. in La Plata was constructed circa 1747 by Basil R. Spalding, a prominent Charles County merchant and landowner, Oak Grove is a significant example of Southern Maryland’s early-Federal architecture. Particularly significant to Charles County, it is the only extant example of a brick, one-story, early Federal house of this type.

 

 

 

 

Next up are the Homes of Mt. Zephyr. Standing high above the Mattawoman Creek, Mt. Zephyr is what remains of an original land grant to Judge Thomas Dent around 1650. Judge Dent’s son, Col. William Dent, and his wife Elizabeth Fowke were married in Durham Parish in 1684, the first marriage recorded at Old Durh