Chapter House
The Maryland State Society, NSDAR, purchased our Queen Anne-style home in Roland Park, Baltimore, on February 11, 1953. The house was built in 1892, the same year DAR began in Maryland. Since then we have lovingly maintained our house, and use her regularly for meetings and social events. The state society owns a comprehensive collection of period antiques including furniture, artwork, textiles, china, silver, silver plate, carpets, and memorabilia that is showcased throughout the house and interpreted by way of private events and scheduled tours.
A Bit About Roland Park
In 1891, the English capital by way of the Land Trust Company of Gresham London, supplied funds for the Roland Park Companies which was named after the original landholder Roland Thornbury, who was granted the land in 1600 by the King of England.
In 1903 a Baltimore syndicate took over the company; subsequently, streets were laid out, sidewalks completed, electric lighting installed, and water supplied from artesian wells before lots were offered for sale. The first home in the community was constructed in 1893, after which speculative homes were built which helped to bring potential buyers from Baltimore City to the area.
The Roland Park Company also hired George E. Kessler to be the landscape engineer, who followed the terrain of the land to save as many trees as possible, which is still an important goal of the Roland Park Community. Roland Park is one of the first planned suburban communities in the nation with contributions from well-known landscape and cityscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., among others.
The district is a part of the National Register of Historic Places and Certified Historic District for tax incentives, and since 1953, the 12-room, 2 ½ story frame house has been used as headquarters for the Maryland State Society Daughters of the American Revolution, with many of the original finishes and structural elements of the home still intact.