History

A registers national landmark established in 1858

From the Historic Landmarks Application:

My Lady’s Manor is, and always has been, a rural or agricultural area, with one village, Monkton. Monkton first developed around a water-powered gristmill; it continued to thrive because of that available source of power and later in the nineteenth century it became a station on the Baltimore and Susquehanna, later the North Central Railroad. Throughout the region, population growth has been very slow through the past two centuries; while houses exist, representing almost every decade in those two centuries, their density seems remarkably unchanged, and remarkably unlike all other regions so close to a metropolitan center, Baltimore. Contemporary suburban developments are few, so far; those few which do exist are of low density, and they are, fort he most part, so sited that the impact of their increased density is minimal. Contemporary industrial sites are virtually non-existent; contemporary commercial sites are very few in number, with but one or two stores each.

The architecture of this region has always been traditional, with few attempts at conscious style; indeed, those few attempts are quite conservative. The region abounds in good building stone, so stone has always been a common building material. Clay deposits have allowed brick to be a readily-available alternate, frequently employed when a greater degree of sophistication was desired. Of course, the once-boundless forests have made log and frame structures commonplace.

The fertile land has allowed the region to be prosperous from the very beginning. The land is well-maintained today, as it undoubtedly always has been. Topography is rolling, principally drained by two streams — the Big Gunpowder and the Little Gunpowder Rivers — which course through the hills between rocky banks and slops to their convergence just before they reach the Chesapeake Bay.

In the study of architectural history, dates and so-called styles become important. When that study is focused on a particular region, basically with vernacular structures, styles are easily recognizable, and related structures easily may be grouped. Specific dates are generally rare, however, for vernacular structures. A few buildings will have datestones and a few others will be dated by a documentary reference. Some will have datable original details, such as patented door hardware. Such structures become landmarks, useful in the establishment of relative dates for other structures.

In Maryland, the 1798 Federal Direct Tax records provide a unique and invaluable documentary source for many structures, for those records contain a description of all buildings standing in 1798, including their size, number of stories, and materials, sometimes their shape and internal arrangement, and the size of the materials fo their associated outbuildings. This landmark record is even more significant because it occurred conveniently as one century passed and another emerged, and as the machine cut nail replaced the hand-wrought nail. The attribution of buildings to one century or another is important in our thinking, as is the attribution to the colonial period or to the post-colonial period. Having the documentary records to compare with the physical evidence in the form of nails, and vice-versa, provides double verification of conjecture.

Although permanent settlement is My Lady’s Manor began early in the eighteenth century, one should not be surprised to find eighteenth century structures extremely rare. The first structures undoubtedly were small, simple, hasty, crude; they were replaced as soon as time and wealth permitted. St. James’ Church remains, without question, the earliest identifiable structure in the region, although it has undergone extensive alterations with additions, beginning late in the eighteenth century. Substantially built of brick by the Established Church, it is related to numerous small Anglican churches in Maryland, rectangular in shape, and with an apse. The apse occurs only rarely in churches of the colonial period, except in Maryland, where is occurrence was common. Its architectural form emphasized the importance of the altar within, certainly related to the so-called “high church” tradition within the Anglican Church; no theory has been advanced for this colonial Maryland “high church” tradition, but its presence is obvious.

The Gwynn House stands alone as a substantial and large house fitting the 1798 description, and retaining much of its original fabric. The other few houses which can be attributed positively so the pre-1798 period retain only their structure and some details.

Grouping of structures emerge as the years pass, and the use of moulded brick cornice on several houses becomes a noticeable feature of sophisticated structures in My Lady’s Manor about 1820-25. Brick cornices throughout the first half of the nineteenth century are common throughout the United States, and the moulded brick cornice is not unique to My Lady’s Manor, but it is not common anywhere. In My Lady’s Manor, this detail, together with the other typical contemporary details, was applied to otherwise traditional houses, in form related to their eighteenth century ancestors, rectangular in shape, five bays in length with the principal entrance centered and with a gable roof.

That traditional house form lived throughout the nineteenth century; only its details were changed to relate it to its time. My Lady’s Manor was not a region with house of consciously stylish design; that traditional house was standard throughout the century. A group of traditional houses has the kitchen in a rear wing of contemporaneous construction with a small original pantry in a wing off the kitchen, perhaps the last regional characteristic which can be observed in My Lady’s Manor.