Oakland Manor
| Oakland Manor | |
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Oakland Manor
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| General information | |
| Location | 5430 Vantage Point Road, Columbia, Maryland; |
| Coordinates | 39°13′20″N 76°51′21″W / 39.222274°N 76.855709°WCoordinates: 39°13′20″N 76°51′21″W / 39.222274°N 76.855709°W |
| Completed | 1811 |
| Height | |
| Roof | Standing seam metal |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Abraham Lerew |
Oakland Manor is a Federal style stone manor house commissioned in 1810 by Charles Sterrett Ridgely in the Howard district of Anne Arundel County Maryland (now Howard County). The lands that became Oakland Manor were patented by John Dorsey as "Dorsey's Adventure" in 1688 which was willed to his grandson Edward Dorsey. In 1785, Luther Martin purchased properties named "Dorsey's Adventure", "Dorsey's Inheritance", "Good for Little", "Chew's Vineyard", and "Adam the First" to make the 2300 acre "Luther Martin's Elkridge Farm".
In 1785, John Sterrett purchased 1,626 wooded acres with several buildings named "Felicity" from Mathias Hammond, a participant in the 1774 sinking of the Peggy Stewart. Sterrett died two years later, with his wife Deborah Ridgely Sterrett selling 567 acres of the property to their son Charles Sterrett Ridgely, and 533 acres to his brother James Sterrett. Charles Sterrett Ridgely was born Charles Ridgely Sterrett, but changed his name to inherit from his maternal great uncle. He was a graduate of St. Johns College in 1802, a future Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, and commissioned the manor house in June 1810. The house was completed in 1811 including a 100 ft-long stone carriage house.
To the east of the Manor, a grist mill was built which stayed in production until being demolished by fire in 1890. The site known as "Oakland Mills" served as a postal stop, and the name was later used for one of the Rouse development company villages.
Charles Sterrett Ridgely forfeited the house in 1826, selling it to Robert Oliver for $47,000 after failing to make payments toward the property. His son Thomas Oliver purchased the manor, expanding it to 775 acres by adding "Talbot's Resolution Manor","Howard's Fair and Amicable Settlement", "Josephs Gift", "Dorseys Search Resurveyed" and "Dorseys Search". Stone outbuildings with a capability for 1200 bushels of ice were constructed. He sold it for $58,459.95 in 1838 to George Riggs Gaither, who operated the manor as a productive slave plantation producing wheat, corn, oats and hay. The nearby "Oakland Mill" operated as "Gaither's Mill". A small granite quarry was also operated by the plantation. George Riggs Gaither built the stone Bleak House on the property for his son, George Riggs Gaither Jr, who would become Attorney General of Maryland. As the civil war approached, Gaither formed "Gaithers Raiders" part of the "Howard County Dragoons", sixty men which practiced at Oakland Manor prior to becoming a confederate army unit furnished by Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks. The troops marched on 19 April 1861 through Ellicott City to Baltimore, responding to the Baltimore riot of 1861, before heading South to join J. E. B. Stuart.
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