Hammond-Harwood House

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The Hammond–Harwood Home, located at 19 Maryland Avenue in Annapolis, Maryland, is a historic house museum. Built in 1774, it is one of the finest colonial buildings from the British colonial period (1607–1776) still standing in America. It is the only surviving example of colonial academic architecture based on a plate from Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura (The Four Books of Architecture) (1570). The home was built for wealthy farmer Matthias Hammond of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, in 1773–1774 by architect William Buckland. It was based on Palladio’s depiction of the Villa Pisani in Montagnana, Italy, in Book II, Chapter XIV of his book. In 1960, it was classified as a National Historic Landmark, and it is presently operated as a museum by a non-profit group.
The home is architecturally comparable to several of the major mansions constructed during the late Colonial period, but it is the only one that was explicitly inspired by a plate in Palladio’s I Quattro Libri dell’Architettura. It is, without a doubt, America’s most beautiful mansion from the colonial era.
To suit the sensibilities of colonial Annapolis, architect William Buckland altered Palladio’s Villa Pisani design. He changed the concept to fit uneven regional preferences and changed the hyphens from Palladio’s arched entrances to more practical single-story linking links. He also included trendy urban architecture by lowering the windows, as required by the 1774 London Building Act. This device improved fire resistance while also adding visual solidity and three-dimensionality to the entire design (see image at right). This adaption of Palladio’s model demonstrates his growth as an architect, establishing him as one of America’s first and best.

History of Hammond-Harwood House

The house was started in April 1774, and the most of it was presumably finished before the architect died in November or December of that year. Because he quickly departed Annapolis for his family’s rural estate in 1776, owner Matthias Hammond is unlikely to have ever occupied his exquisite home. After renting out the residence for several years, he died in 1786.
The home was passed down to his nephews John and Philip Hammond, who sold it to Ninian Pinkney in 1810. Pinkney, on the other hand, swiftly sold the mansion in 1811 to Judge Jeremiah Chase. The mansion was purchased by Judge Chase for his daughter’s family, Frances Townley Chase Loockerman. Because he had rented the northeast wing of the home since the late 1770s, Chase was intimately acquainted with it.
The mansion was occupied by Judge Chase’s descendants until the death of his great-granddaughter Hester Ann Harwood in 1924. Judge Chase’s granddaughter married William Harwood, the great-grandson of the house’s architect, William Buckland.
The house was sold to St. John’s College in 1926 after Hester Ann Harwood died intestate. Until financial constraints prompted the institution to sell the house to the Hammond–Harwood House Association in 1940, the house was utilised as a teaching instrument for one of America’s first decorative arts courses. The mansion is still owned by this non-profit organisation, which runs it as a public museum.