Portland Manor

Portland Manor 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.

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

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 prestigious Anne Arundel County Orlando Ridout Prize for historic preservation. The framed award is displayed in the entry hallway. Also on display is certification listing Portland Manor on the National Register of Historic Places.

The historic character of Portland Manor juxtaposes unique glimpses of the original structure with modern conveniences including central air-conditioning, a high-efficiency propane furnace, inconspicuous room lighting and all copper plumbing lines. Its interior décor; consistent with treatment of similar houses in Williamsburg, Virginia; is compatible with the current owner’s preference for contemporary furnishings.

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 (equipped with a Viking stove, a Bosch dishwasher, a Sub Zero refrigerator/freezer and a GE microwave oven). 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, the owner commissioned a dendrochronology study with partial funding from a grant from Historic Annapolis. Herman J. Heikkenen, Ph.D., a professor at Virginia Tech University who conducted the study using tree-ring analysis, provided similar services in establishing dates of construction for most of the historic buildings in Williamsburg, Virginia as well as many of the most significant historic buildings in Annapolis, Maryland. Dr. Heikkenen’ study concluded that the original construction of Portland Manor occurred in 1754. In addition to his supervision of the dendrochronology study over a two-day period, Willie Graham, research architect with Colonial Williamsburg, provided helpful observations and advice to the owners involved with restoration of Portland Manor on his several other visits to Portland Manor.