It's coming! It's coming! The 78th annual Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage (MHGP) features Roland Park again this year. Roland Park joins communities throughout the state including those in Washington, Anne Arundel, St. Mary's and Dorchester counties.
Because of its fine architecture and a plan that incorporates the landscape and fosters community, Roland Park is one of the most studied neighborhoods in the United States. The MHGP has previously included Roland Park six times: in 1974, 1982, 1986, 2000 and 2006.
Sometimes we grow so used to the historic and varied architecture of this community that we forget how unique it is. Because Roland Park was developed over two decades, many different styles of architecture are represented.The hills and ridges, the proximity to Stony Run, the small and large parks as well as abundant tree canopy and green space enhance the architecture, both institutional and residential. Going on a tour within the neighborhood can rekindle our appreciation.
When our neighborhood is about to be on display to visitors from all over the region, it's time to pull out the brooms, pruners and weeding tools and start sprucing up. Things right now are looking ragged and winter-worn. From what I have seen on recent walks, the "hood" is not quite ready for prime time.
We had better be about sweeping and pruning as in a little over a month, on Sunday, May 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., eight properties will be featured: six houses and two gardens. Two are on Goodwood Gardens, two are on Edgevale Road and one each on St. John's Road, Boulder Lane and Lake Avenue.
Headquarters for this portion of the pilgrimage is the Woman's Club of Roland Park. Tickets can be purchased there now for $30 or for $35 on the day of the tour. Lunch, for an additional $15, will be served at the Woman's Club from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lunch must be pre-ordered through the club by calling 410-889-0760.
Advance tickets are also available on line at http://www.MHGP.org or by calling 410-821-6933.
Proceeds of the Roland Park portion of the tour will benefit the gardens at the Roland Park Woman's Club, built in 1904. Before plans for this tour were underway, I had no idea that America's first female landscape architect, Beatrix Jones Ferrand, had anything to do with Roland Park, let alone with the property right across the street. She was a founding member, of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the only woman. While much of Ferrand's original work is no longer intact, the gardens at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington still shine.
Ferrand was a friend of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, whose son, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., designed much of Roland Park. The hope is that funds raised from the pilgrimage will restore the gardens using some of Ferrand's original plans.
Because the tour includes some of the neighborhood's most private and narrow streets, with no parking available at any of the houses, free shuttle buses will operate from the parking lot of the Baltimore Polytechnic School at Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane and stop at each of the various sites, including the Woman's Club.
Houses and gardens on the tour are of various styles and ages. From the deeply hilly and shady garden of a classic, shingle-style home to the sunny gardens surrounding a palatial stone house and those adjacent to a path on the hidden network of Roland Park footpaths, the gardens and the houses that anchor them differ.
Several are more than 100 years old. Several include modern additions and kitchens, ponds, swimming pools, even pool houses. Most feel far away from the city. One house still has the call-bell system that once summoned a staff that kept the house going. One sits on 15 acres and has 11 bathrooms. Another features collections of fine porcelain and oil paintings from Columbia. A formal garden designed in the style of a Colonial Williamsburg garden graces another. Almost all have been featured in regional magazines, such as Baltimore Style Magazineand Baltimore Magazine.
For Roland Park residents it will be easy to walk out the door to Roland Avenue and the Woman's Club then jump on a shuttle for a day of neighborhood exploration. Until then I plan to get out my saw and remove dead sections of boxwoods in front of our house, so we won't look out of place come May 17.