Bordering the freshman quad, just past the oldest divided outhouse in Maryland is an elegant brick residence that many Hopkins students will never take the time to explore: Homewood House.
Completed in 1805, Homewood House was a wedding present from Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and at the time the richest man in the United States, to his son Charles Carroll Jr.
Built in the popular Federal style of architecture, Homewood House set Carroll back $40,000, much to his chagrin as he had wanted his son to spend only $10,000. The cost sparked many angry letters between father and son.
At one point, when he heard that his son had ordered expensive books from England, Carroll Sr. wrote to him that, "These books that you have imported without my knowledge or approbation .--I fear are more to decorate your bookshelf than they are for you."
Carroll Jr. did not have a particularly happy life. His wife left him due to his addiction to alcohol, which eventually led to his untimely death nine years later at the ripe old age of 50.
In fact, when Carroll Jr. died, the most valuable part of his estate was the wine.
When the Homewood property was acquired by Hopkins in 1902, the house was being used as a school named the Country School for Boys. It has since moved and been renamed Gilman School.
During the 1920s, Homewood House served as a faculty club and provided graduate student housing. In one part of the house is a raised closet that can only be reached by a ladder. During Prohibition, graduate students kept their alcohol there.
Following a donation from a graduate student (the same graduate student who had lived and hid alcohol in Homewood House), Hopkins undertook a major restoration in the 1980s. Part of the restoration involved microscopic paint analysis to find out what colors the walls were painted.
In 1987, Homewood House was reopened as a museum. The house now looks as it is believed to have looked in the early 1800s.
Several years ago the Homewood House served as a set for a History Channel special on Abraham Lincoln, meant to be the interior of the White House.
Curator Catherine Rogers Arthur said that during her 11 years at the museum, the number of student visitors has increased, due in part to the introduction of a museums and society minor and the creation of an "Introduction to Material Culture" course, taught in the Homewood wine cellar.
The house is not the only part of the property that remains. Not far from the house is a small building that was used as an outhouse. It was divided into a section for men and a section for women - the oldest divided outhouse in Maryland.
Additionally, Merrick Barn, which was used as a real barn on the Homewood farm and is named after the former graduate student who funded its restoration, is now used as a theater.
Filled with elegant furniture, beautiful prints and paintings and plenty of interesting stories told by the extremely helpful docents and curator, Homewood House itself is certainly worth a visit.
In fact, it is free for students. The Homewood House is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.
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