Portland Manor

Portland Manor

Portland Manor, March 2010
Location 5951 Little Rd., Lothian, Maryland
Coordinates 38°47′22″N 76°38′22″W / 38.78944°N 76.63944°W / 38.78944; -76.63944Coordinates: 38°47′22″N 76°38′22″W / 38.78944°N 76.63944°W / 38.78944; -76.63944
Built 1725
Architect Unknown
Architectural style Colonial, Other
NRHP Reference #

96000434

[1]
Added to NRHP April 18, 1996

Portland Manor, also known as the Benjamin C. Neff House, is a historic home at Lothian, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States. It is a 2-story, center-passage plan, frame building. The main block was constructed in 1754, with the two wings added and enlarged about 1852. Also on the property are the remains of a large circular ice house and several frame outbuildings.[2]

Portland Manor was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.[1]

The Portland Manor timber frame manor house is sited on a fenced 3.8-acre portion of an original 2000-acre parcel granted to Jerome White Esq. by the 2nd Lord Baltimore in 1687. Although subdivided numerous times since then, the 3.8-acre remnant remains surrounded on three sides by unspoiled farmland and has been carefully maintained and restored over a fifteen-year period, beginning in 1997, by an owner/architect. In 2001, Portland Manor was recipient of the Anne Arundel County Orlando Ridout Prize for historic preservation.

Living spaces on the first floor include a 19’ x 22’ living room, a 14’x 19’ dining room, a sitting room, an office/library, a powder room, and a large country kitchen . The second floor, accessed by the original central staircase and two secondary stairs, includes four large bedrooms, three full baths and a laundry/storage room (equipped with a front-loading washer and dryer and an upright freezer). A large L-shaped porch off the kitchen on the east side overlooks a fence-enclosed perennial and herb garden and pond; a screened porch on the west side is oriented to views of rolling farmland and dramatic sunsets. There is a partial basement measuring approximately 19’ x 22’.

The grounds include a variety of mature trees, a boxwood garden and two outbuildings; a 10’ x 20’ smokehouse, currently used as a garden shop, and a 20’ x 30’ barn that has been completely restored for use as a workshop/pottery studio and for yard equipment storage. Future archeological investigations may confirm suspected locations for an icehouse and various outbuildings and may add to the various artifacts found by the current owners that are included in an historic display at the second floor hallway.

In 1997, a dendrochronology study concluded that the original construction of Portland Manor occurred in 1754.

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ Barbara A. Brand (August 1995). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Portland Manor" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
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