3400 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD, USA

Homewood House

Completed in 1808, for Colonel Charles Carroll IV (1775-1825) and his wife Harriet Chew (1775-1861) of Cliveden, Philadelphia. In 1801, Charles' father - one of the wealthiest men in America - gifted the couple this 140-acre estate (formerly called Merryman's Lott) and Charles built the house to his own design at a cost of $40,000. However, Charles' drinking led to his wife and children leaving him for Philadelphia in 1816. His bad management of the estate continued and led to his father buying it back in 1824 in a bid to put right his "most improvident waste"...

Alcohol killed Charles IV the following year and his father gave Homewood to Charles' son, Charles Carroll V (1801-1862), as a home until he inherited Doughoregan Manor. In 1839, Charles V sold Homewood for $25,150 to Samuel Wyman (1789-1865), a native of Boston who became a successful dry goods merchant at Baltimore. In 1902, his son who had made his home there, William Wyman (1825-1903), donated the Homewood estate with its 179-acres and a $1 million endowment to John Hopkins University. In 1973, funds were received from Robert G. Merrick allowing the university to operate the house as a museum. Renovated with original period furniture, it is open to the public today.