Inscription
Orangery, originally constructed ca. 1830s. Destroyed by fire 1926, reconstructed 1976
Hampton National Historic Site
It was not possible to grow fresh oranges and lemons outside in Maryland, as delicate fruit trees could not survive the winter. The Ridgely family, however, enjoyed the luxury of having fruit on their table all winter long. To protect their treasured citrus plants, they built a specialized greenhouse called an orangery.
Designed to resemble a Greek temple, the building was heated by the sun through the glass panels on the south and east sides and by a hypocaust furnace. In summer, the potted citrus trees were placed around the garden paths.
(Inscription beside the drawing in the upper right) The orangery was heated by a hypocaust, a heating system first used by the ancient Romans. A wood-burning furnace at one end produced heat, which ran through flues under the floor of the building and radiated around the room's perimeter.
It has been truly said of Hampton that it expresses more grandeur than any other place in America...The formal terraces of exquisitely kept grass, the long rows of superb lemon and orange trees with the adjacent orangerie and the foreign air of the house, quite disturb one's ideas of republican American.Henry W. Sergent in A.J. Downing's A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, 1859.
Details
| HM Number | HM1HNY |
|---|---|
| Tags | |
| Historical Period | 20th Century, 19th Century, 18th Century |
| Historical Place | Home |
| Marker Type | Historic Home |
| Marker Class | Historical Marker |
| Marker Style | Free Standing |
| Placed By | National Park Service-United States Department of the Interior |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Wednesday, November 5th, 2014 at 9:03am PST -08:00 |
Pictures
Photo Credits: [1] SEPTEMBERSPARROW1666 [2] SEPTEMBERSPARROW1666
Locationbig map
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 18S E 363272 N 4364156 |
|---|---|
| Decimal Degrees | 39.41610000, -76.58830000 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 39° 24.966', W 76° 35.298' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 39° 24' 57.9600" N, 76° 35' 17.8800" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 410, 443 |
| Can be seen from road? | No |
| Is marker in the median? | No |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 1112 Gypsy Ln W, Towson MD 21286, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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