Odenton Heritage Society Open House

An 18^th century “lost mansion” on a plantation that later became the U. S. Naval Academy Dairy in Gambrills will be the focus of a display at the Odenton Heritage Society during its open house on Sunday, January 5.  The prominent Hammond family of Annapolis completed the mansion by about 1730.  Generations of descendants, including Matthias Hammond, owner of the Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis, resided at the plantation, as did an undetermined number of enslaved workers.  In 1876, Baltimore businessman George Kirby remodeled the mansion in the Italianate style and made it his summer retreat, underscoring the end of colonial and antebellum ways of life and the decline of the Hammonds’ wealth and influence.  The mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the mid-1970s, only to be destroyed by fire in 1978.  Admission to the OHS Historical Center, which includes a community and railroad history museum, is free.  The Center is located at 1367 Odenton Road, and it will be open from 1 pm to 4 pm.