Timberlane

Nestled within over 14 acres of secluded, idyllic park-style grounds, this estate offers unparalleled privacy. Meandering amidst the towering trees and ascending the hill, the driveway unveils a glimpse of the two grand vintage carriage houses. Immense, regal specimen trees cast their shade over the sprawling lawns and gardens, creating an enchanting backdrop.

The main house of Timberlane was designed and built by Palmer & Lamdin in 1940 using the finest materials and craftsmanship throughout. The original specification manual from 1939 listing all materials and workmanship to be employed in Timberlane’s construction from foundation stone to slate roofing is still in existence and transfers with the property along with two original architectural renderings. The rambling light grey painted brick structure with slate roof is a mid-century modern style masterpiece – both commanding and formal but welcoming and relaxed at the same time. An entertainer’s dream for either small or large gatherings, indoor or outdoor, formal or informal Timberlane was built to accommodate and endure. 

A porte-cochère and a sheltered loggia stand ready, guiding visitors and extending a warm invitation to the front door. Originally home to a family of art collectors, Timberlane was built for entertaining and housing the family’s world-renowned art collection. Timberlane’s gardens originally showcased the collection and were the architectural model for a local museum's Sculpture Garden.

Timberlane's exquisite gardens and terraces play host to majestic specimen hardwood and softwood trees, alongside an array of rare, mature plants, and shrubbery. The vast expanse of bluestone flagstones gracefully envelops the residence, creating numerous expansive areas and serene retreats.

Positioned thoughtfully on the southeastern incline, the pool and its accompanying pool house were meticulously placed to embrace the most sun-kissed locale, ensuring an ideal blend of aquatic enjoyment and garden splendor. The pool house boasts an inviting timber-framed cathedral ceiling, a covered seating area, a fully equipped galley kitchen, and a convenient three-quarter bath.

The property gains its old-world charm from the presence of two spacious outbuildings, each standing on a separately deeded parcel. The first is a 45'x24' frame barn that features a charming three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment on its second floor. The second outbuilding mirrors the same shape and style, presenting a sizable garage with a substantial room above, complete with a cement floor.

The address is 8410 Park Heights Avenue, Pikesville, Maryland.

From the Heidi Krauss listing, 2023 

On the Market: Hathaway House

Hot House: Elegant French-Style Home with Extensive Gardens, First Time on the Market, EVER! 7 Bedrooms/6 Bathrooms. 6,578 Square Feet. 9.5 acres. 11008 Baronet Road, Owings Mills. $1,990,000

This Palmer & Lamdin house was designed by architect, Charles Nes in 1953 for a family with several children. It, along with several of his mid-century modern designs, won several architectural awards. While those other buildings have long fallen to the wrecking ball, this Grande Dame of a house is still standing, looking as elegant as ever, just like the woman who owned it since the day it was built. Now, for the first time ever, Hathaway House has come onto the market.

As you drive in from Baronet Road, you enter through a driveway with mature trees and gardens, to arrive at a circular driveway with a beautiful view of this special house. It’s backed by two enormous trees and exudes a welcoming air. As you enter through a set of double doors, you’ll find a classic black and white marble floor and a gracious staircase sweeping up to the second floor.

Entering the spacious living room, you get your first glimpse of the extensive and stunning gardens, which were featured in Smithsonian Magazine. Both the living and dining rooms have antique marble fireplaces, and built in cabinets and display cases. A cozy library features another fireplace, walls of bookcases and a set of French doors leading to the gardens.

One of the spectacular aspects of Hathaway House is the huge sunroom with floor-to-ceiling windows, sliding doors which lead to a bluestone terrace, and best of all, a wet bar! It’s a perfect place to sit and chat with friends on a beautiful summer day!

The kitchen and butler’s pantry are adjacent to a breakfast room which looks over the beautiful cutting garden, which keeps the house filled with flowers for months at a time. Off of the kitchen is an additional staircase which leads to a private suite with a bedroom and bath.

When you ascend the lovely staircase to the second floor, you will find four bedrooms, including the owners’ suite, and four bathrooms.

The house, sited at the top of a small hill, overlooks extensive lawns and cultivated gardens, numerous mature and specimen trees, a beautiful swimming pool and a serene pond.

Where: Hathaway House is on Baronet Road, just off of Caves Road in Owings Mills. It’s not visible from the road, and offers copious privacy for the new owners. It’s close to all of the shopping available on Reisterstown Road, and to the numerous private schools in the area.

Final Appraisal: The grounds have been cultivated since the owners built the house 70 years ago, and have had decades to mature into a showplace. The new owner should understand that they will be the stewards of the gardens for future generations.

There are four additional acres, adjacent to the property, which are available in a separate sale. The house goes on the market on September 27. The listing for the house is here.

Full disclosure: I knew the late owner of this house and attended parties and other events here.

All photographs from the listing. Reprinted from Baltimore Fishbowl.

A P&L House Updated

As I was conducting my occasional Google search for P&L, I came across an architect's update of a Palmer & Lamdin house in Homeland. I have a suspicion that I know which house it is, but I am not going to divulge the address.

Here's what the architect had to say:

This 10,000 square foot stately home sits in the elegant neighborhood of Homeland in Baltimore, Maryland. Originally constructed in the 1920’s by influential architects, Palmer-Lamdin. WGA recreated the interior to compliment the sophisticated context of the home as well as to facilitate the social and entertaining requirements of the client.

Please click here to see the rest of the interior images of this house. 

On the Market: 7110 Bellona Avenue

Another P&L on this spring market.  One of Palmer & Lamdin's later houses, just before WWII when a lot of private commissions had dried up. 

Here's the listing:

Nestled into a private and scenic Ruxton/Woodbrook site, 7110 Bellona Avenue, offers updated spaces for charmed living.

Over 4,700 square feet on this nearly one acre cherished location make this Palmer Lambdin (!!!) design a prized find. Tradtional living and dining rooms and a well appointed kitchen are complimented by a family room with wet bar.

Flow from the living room to the bricked floor screened porch and take in the tranquil vibe of the expansive rear garden.

Five bedrooms and five full baths are so accommodating.

The detached Amish barn-style garage is finished with ceramic tile, and easily evolves into an all purpose room for entertaining -

think ping pong matches and long table dinners with no worries about the rain. A rare opportunity. 

Fun fact: my prom date and long-time friend, the architect Paul Gorman, designed the front gate, the detatched garage, and the two-story addition to the left of that. Paul is the reason I became interested in architecture, specifically Palmer & Lamdin. There was a P&L house around the corner from the house where he grew up and I was always facinated by it. 

Of course, it looks completely different today!

Franciscan Friars Novitiate

My friend, The Architect, was in town this lovely spring weekend for part two of our search for all things Palmer & Lamdin. Last time he visited, we did the big three: Roland Park, Homeland and Guilford. This time, we went a little farther afield, visiting Bancroft Road, Dumbarton and the Franciscan Friars Novitiate, aka the Shrine of St. Anthony of Padua, in western Howard County. 

I have visited this property a number of times because of its peaceful and contemplative nature. The Shrine appears on the list of projects from Palmer & Lamdin and its successive architectural firms. I was always surprised to see it on the list, as when it was built in in the late 1920s and was located in what was then a very rural section of Howard County. 

The property on which the Shrine is located was once owned by the Carroll family, and one of the original houses still remains just 100 yards from the Shrine. 

I love strolling through the four arcades which surround a central court-yard with a fountain.

The symmetry of the site, with its arches and groin vaulted ceilings, appeals to my sense of order.  

For the first time, we were able to have a small glimpse of the Shrine's library, and were delighted to see the small staircase leading to the mezzanine.

From the HABS report comes this description:

The library consists of a large room which is three bays wide, two bays deep, and one story high. It features a large fireplace centered on its west wall, similar to that in the refectory. This room is also beautifully paneled, and features a half story high, open book stack loft, which runs along the perimeter of the east, west and north walls of this room. The paneled library, with its fireplace of Italian stone, is stocked with volumns on such topics as Franciscans, the saints, prayer and meditation

Sadly, there were people meeting in the room, so we couldn't see all of it. Maybe next time!

Here are a few more images from our visit on Saturday:

The HABS reports have loads of detailed information on the Shrine, Carrollton Hall, which is on the same property, and the nearby Folly Quarter Farm, another historic Carroll property. 

Biltmore Forest Club New (Old) Images

I am always astonished when I Google something I've searched for a million times (Palmer & Lamdin) and all of a sudden, a bunch of new matches show up. This was recently the case when I searched for Palmer, Willis & Lamdin, and found not only a new house in Greensboro, North Carolina, but new pictures of the Biltmore Forest Club in Asheville. I wrote about it here. 

The images I found were in a 1927 issue of the American Architect and Architecture journal. There wasn't really a story about the club, as far as I could tell, but there were a number of images. 

The best thing is that there are plans of the building included, so that you can see how the space works. 

P&L Lecture Link

Last week, as part of the launch of Arch-tober, also known as Architecture Month, I gave a video lecture on Palmer & Lamdin and their distinctive architectural style. 

Most of my lectures are completely scripted, but because I felt like I knew the subject well enough, I just read from notes. And I said "ummm" a lot. So sorry! Also ignore the blah, blah, blah before the lecture begins!

You can find the link here. Also, stay tuned for pictures from a day of careening around Roland Park, Guilford and Homeland with a new friend who is an architect in North Carolina. We had a ball and even were invited in to see a Lamdin-designed house in Homeland!

Lecture: The Works of Palmer & Lamdin

As you might (or might not) know, I was the President of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, and one of the committees we had was called the "Dead Architects Society" named after the movie of a similar name. 

As a member of this committee, a number of us selected architects from the early 20th century on whom to do a deep dive and I selected Palmer & Lamdin as mine. The result has been this website.

On Friday, October 5 at noon, I will be giving a presentation on the occasion of the beginning of Arch-tober, the celebration of architecture week month. Here's the description:

Palmer & Lamdin, an architectural firm working mainly from the 1920’s to the 1940’s, designed some of the most interesting residences in Baltimore, characterized as “classical, with a twist.” Edward Palmer was one of the original architects for the Roland Park Company, but in 1917, went out on his own, acquired a partner, William Lamdin, and proceeded to design more than 300 properties in Baltimore, Delaware, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

Meg Fairfax Fielding, a past president of the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, is presenting. She is doing a deep dive on Palmer & Lamdin for the Dead Architects Society and writes the blog Palmer and Lamdin Architects. The program is hosted on Zoom.

Here is the link to the event! 

A Visit to Villa Pace

You might remember that I recently posted about the 1930's Villa Pace, and last week, I had a chance to visit this beautiful house and have a tour, given by the current owner. 

Although I did see much of the main level of the house, I was not comfortable taking pictures of it, but I took plenty of the outside.

The house was built in a cross-shape, and is of Italianate style, similar to others that Palmer & Lamdin built, including the Shrine of St. Anthony. 

The house had a bit of a checkered past, with it being built in the 1930's by opera diva, Rosa Ponselle. There was a pretty serious fire in the late 1970's and then a battle with the insurance company, which lasted several years. 

Once that was over, Rosa Ponselle died and the house was to be made into a music center. Lots of issues with that, and over the next several years, all of the money disappeared.

The house was sold to a young company who could only do what they could do to maintain the house, and couldn't do anything about the property, other than mow the vast expanse of lawns.

About 25 years ago, another couple purchased the house and brought it back to its former glory. The restored the interiors, planted the gardens,

added trees, a pool and pool-house and cared for it with love.

My visit was on a sparkling late spring afternoon, when the sun was shining,

and the gardens were bright with blooms. 

A very gracious thank you to my delightful hostess!

Fayetteville Stable

Last month, I wrote about a house in Fayetteville, NC. The new owners had kindly sent me pictures and blueprints of the house, which had been owned by his great-grandparents. 

A few days ago, he sent me a picture his aunt had found of the stables at the house, which has now been converted into a guest house. 

The guest house is absolutely charming, with the dovecote tower on the roof and the wonderful metal casement windows, both signatures of Palmer & Lamdin.

It's such fun to see original pictures of P&L's work! Thanks for sharing, DB!

2211 South Road, Baltimore

Occasionally, I just enter Palmer & Lamdin into the Google, just to see if anything new pops up. And lo and behold, today I found something new: 2211 South Road, in the Mt. Washington section of Baltimore. 

This house is a little later than most of theirs, having been built in 1938. It's three bedrooms and one full bath, plus a two car garage. Apparently, it listed and sold almost simultaneously in 2013.