A Fresh Take: William Brown House Virtual Tour

By Riley Hoaglin

Anne Arundel County is full of historic landmarks. One breathtaking site is Historic London Town and Gardens. The site offers scenic water views, gorgeous trails full of stunning plants and flowers, and notable historic buildings (some are reconstructions). One of the most notable landmarks that Historic London Town has to offer is the William Brown House. 

William Brown was a man of many trades. He built this Georgian-style structure in 1758-1764 to be a tavern, but due to the circumstances of declining trade he lost the business and this landmark building eventually became the County Almshouse.

The William Brown house is rich with history and is a site worth seeing. The great news is: you do not even have to leave your house to enjoy a tour! A virtual tour is now available! The tour offers an up-to-date, seamless visual of the house with various facts distributed throughout, like easter eggs. Arrows lead you into the house and from room to room, or grab the screen with your mouse and move it left or right to rotate your view. When you click on the different “i” or camera-shaped icons, pop-ups give you short blurbs on the background and history of the house, or up-close pictures of notable details and artifacts.  One of my favorite icons is located in the Tavern Room. When you click on the “down” arrow that says “Tavern Room Table,” there are four choices at the 4 places around the table. One of them talks about the popular colonial game Whist, and leads you to a link where you can try whist virtually to learn the rules of the game. 

Historic London Town and Gardens is just a click away! Expand your knowledge with this free, user-friendly website. It takes a few tries to get the hang of how to explore it, but the result is more than worth the effort! And maybe after you visit it virtually, you can go in person, too!

To plan your visit to Historic London Town and Gardens, click here: https://www.historiclondontown.org/visit