National Park Service Management
The remaining 62.04-acre (25.11 ha) estate, straddling Hampton Lane, is now managed by the National Park Service and open to the public, with ample free parking, a gift shop, and wheelchair accessibility at the mansion. Visitors are provided a guided tour of the mansion, where the original furnishings owned by the Ridgelys may be seen, along with the family's collection of oil paintings, silverware, and ceramics comprising some 7,000 objects. In addition to the mansion itself, visitors may view nine surviving original structures on the grounds built during the 18th to mid-19th century period:
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- Farm House – located 1,900 feet (580 m) north of the mansion and next to the slave quarters, a portion is believed to predate the Ridgelys' purchase of the property in 1745. The Ridgely family lived here while the mansion was being constructed in the 1780s. Thereafter, it was the residence of the farm manager or overseer. After John Ridgely Jr. and his wife Jane vacated the mansion in 1948, they lived here until their deaths.
- Slave quarters – two preserved stone buildings adjacent to the Farm House, now provided with interpretive exhibits on slave life at Hampton. Displayed is a newspaper advertisement by Charles Carnan Ridgely offering a reward for the return of a runaway slave, as well as a Christmas gift list kept from 1841 to 1854 by the daughter of John Carnan and Eliza for the slaves' children.
- Dairy – built of stone before 1800
- Mule barn – built of stone c. 1845
- Long house/granary
- Ash house, wooden log building, and dovecote
Self-guided tours may be made of the grounds during hours when the park is open to the public, including the farm, formal garden, family cemetery, and two stables built of stone for the Ridgely family's thoroughbred horses. A replica of the original orangery (built in 1824) may also be viewed (the original wooden orangery, which burned down in 1926, was reconstructed on the original foundations in 1976). One surviving 34-foot (10.4 m) deep underground icehouse is visible near the mansion and is open to visitors. Among the surviving trees planted by the Ridgelys in the 1820s are a large tulip tree, a European Beech, and Catalpas. A prize Cedar of Lebanon, brought back from the Middle East as a seedling by Eliza Ridgely, is one of the largest in the U.S.
Numerous special events are scheduled throughout the year, such as chamber music concerts and harpsichord performances presented in the mansion's ornate Great Hall, milking demonstrations at the dairy by costumed milkmaids, carriage rides, hay harvesting by scythe, corn harvesting, blacksmithing demonstrations, and jousting reenactments. The Baltimore Sun reported that Hampton had 35,000 visitors in 2008.
The local community actively supports the site's preservation through a non-profit friends' group, "Historic Hampton," which has assisted the National Park Service in achieving historical accuracy and interpretive potential of the interiors, along with presentation of various activities. In May 2008, a $195,000 challenge grant was announced by the National Park Service, matched by an equal amount to be raised by Historic Hampton, for further restoration of the mansion's interiors. The National Park Service also maintains an on-site archive of Ridgely family papers from 1750–1990 for researchers.
Read more about this topic: Hampton National Historic Site
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