Stop 1: Lower House
The Lower House
Indentured servants and enslaved persons cutting and hauling timber out of woods with yoked team of oxen. NPS.
Costumed interpreter works the anvil.
Richard Schlecht's rendering of the furnace panorama: Northampton Ironworks. NPS.
Fragmentary cast iron fireback produced at the Northampton Furnace, c. 1775.
Built in the 18th century, the Lower House is the oldest building still standing on the Hampton property. It was built as a one-story residence in 1745, when the Ridgely family first became owners of the property.
The estate known as Hampton evolved as the Ridgely family acquired tracts of land over generations. During the 1740s and 1750s, Colonel Charles Ridgely purchased wilderness land in Baltimore County. By 1761, he ordered teams of enslaved persons, indentured servants, and convicts to clear land and develop an ironmaking site with supporting farms. Around that time, the house was expanded for Colonel Ridgely's son Captain Charles Ridgely to live there while supervising the Northampton ironworks.
Go to Iron and Indenture to learn more about Indentured Servants.