A Brief History of Knettishall

Eudowood Sanitarium on Burke Ave, Towson. This News American photo (c.1930) shows the former Stansbury mansion, much altered to serve as an Administration Building. From www.lochravenvillage.com

The land on which Knettishall was built was first owned by a settler named Stansbury, who bequeathed the land to one of his sons, who in turn gave a portion of it to his brother Thomas. Thomas Stansbury built his home on what later because the Administration Building of the Eudowood Sanatorium. In 1857, that land became the property of Eudocia Dawes, who married into the Stansbury family. The name Eudowood was given to the Stansbury land in 1882 when the Baltimore and Delta Railroad (later to become the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad) erected a station by that name in return for the right to put tracks across the corner of the property. At this time, the Stansbury Mansion, a three-story yellow-frame building standing in a grove of oak trees, was converted into the Hopsital for Consumptives of Maryland, also knows as the Eudowood Hospital or Eudowood Sanatorium. The remnants of the old Stansbury Cemetary can be found between the two ball fields behind Pleasant Plains Elementary School.

The Union, May 27, 1911, reported that the Dr. R.C. Massenburg of Towson (a pharmacist), as the County Health Officer, had authorized the exhumation of several bodies from the Stansbury family burial plot on the Eudowood grounds and their reinterment in the family lot in Greenmount Cemetery held in the name of Mrs. Eudocia Stansbury. Involved in this removal were: Thomas Stansbury Sr. (d. 1816); Thomas Stansbury, Jr. (husband to Eudocia), d. 1856; Deborah (with a weather-obliterated last name), d. 1842; Annie Powell (d. 1837) and John Powell (d. 1838). It is unclear if any bodies remain in the cemetary today.

Knettishall was built on the land just off the top right of this picture. The small houses have become a BP gas station and two shopping malls.

Over the years, the farmland became increasingly attractive to potential buyers. Anticipating a housing demand following World War II, developer James Dorment purchased 150 acres on the east side of Loch Raven Boulevard from William Hahn, a black angus cattle farmer, for $1,100 per acre, and started building the neighboring Loch Raven Village in 1946. In 1951, the Hahn farm, between Loch Raven Boulevard and Pleasant Plains Road, was purchased for $2,500 per acre. In 1955, 218 acres of land west of Pleasant Plains, known as the Eudowood Tract, were acquired by the developer from the Eudowood Hospital for $5,000 per acre, completing the Loch Raven village area, which now has 1,472 homes.

What our neighborhood looked like in March, 1946.

The land from Loch Ness Road to Putty Hill Road was purchased in 1948 by Ralph Simmers, Sr., and developed into townhomes. Before construction began, dogwood trees covered a large area of the neighborhood. The first homes were built on Thetford Rd, followed by Hardwick, Aberdeen, Pleasant Plains, Wyton, Byington, Loch Ness, and finally Loch Raven Blvd. At this time Putty Hill was a dirt road and Loch Raven Blvd was only partially paved.

Aerial view of Knettishall from maps.google.com. The boundary of Knettishall is shown in red, and the circle shows the location of the old Stansbury cemetary.

The name for Knettishall and its streets came from a town in Suffolk County, England, 70 miles north of London that gave sanctuary to the 388th Bomb Group of the U.S. Allied Air Force during World War II. One of these weary pilots named our streets after the surrounding villages and air bases of English Knettishall, in tribute to the great kindness of the villagers during those war years. The original inscription of the first Knettishall sign read "This community of 365 homes is named after a quaint town in England, its streets after the surrounding villages, in recognition of the villager's kindness to the 388th Bomb Group, USAAF, during World War II."

The land on which Pleasant Plains Elementary stands was once an alfalfa field and dairy farm owned by the Eudowood Sanatorium. Trees lined Pleasant Plains Rd and continued up the lane past the cemetary. On the west end of the ball field in back of the school stand the original trees that surrounded to two caretaker mansions for the Sanatorium. In addition, the old barn standing on Glen Keith Blvd, now used by the Maintenance Dept of the Board of Education was part of this property.

A Brief History of the Loch Raven area
Adapted from the writings of Dr. Charles J. Scheve, Historian for the Baltimore County Historical Society

Some think that the waters of Loch Raven cover a castle. This is almost true, but not quite. A castle did stand at one time close to the waters of Loch Raven's Hampton Cove and for a time could be seen rising to the southeast above the lake's shore. Now, however, only its ruins remain. This was Glen Ellen castle, built by Robert Gilmor III (1808-1874).

Robert Gilmor III was the son of William Gilmor and nephew of Robert Gilmor, Jr., the renowned Baltimore art collector. He grew up at his parents' Baltimore County estate, the Vineyard, in Huntingdon near the present Waverly. It should be kept in mind that at that time the northern boundary of Baltimore City was Mulberry Street.

He attended Harvard University and graduated in the class of 1828, having as one of his classmates Oliver Wendell Holmes. His father being too ill to attend the graduation, he was joined by his uncle Robert, who apparently regarded him as a favorite nephew. After graduation he went to Paris as an attache there in the American legation. He then continued his grand tour of Europe.

In England he visited the impressive residence of Sir Horace Walpole, Strawberry Hill, built in the Gothic Revival style then in vogue. He met Sir Walter Scott and was invited by him to visit his home in Scotland, Abbotsford, another Gothic Revival residence, built as a castle on a hillside above the river Tyne. Both of these residences so impressed him that he determined to build his own residence in America along these lines.

He returned to Maryland and married the beautiful Ellen Ward, daughter of Judge Ward of Baltimore. She was 21; he 24. In 1832 he purchased a large tract of land, about 900 acres, from Priscilla Ridgely White, daughter of Captain Charles Ridgely, which lay along the southwestern shore of Gunpowder Falls just north of the Ridgely's Hampton and Northhampton estates. Here he decided to built his home, a castle resembling Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford. He chose a similar setting, a wooded hillside overlooking a stream, Peterson's Run, which flowed down the valley and joined the Gunpowder.

According to the plat which he had drawn up, a copy of which is in the Baltimore County Courthouse, he divided his estate into two sections, giving each a name. The hilly and wooded section to the east he named Ravensrock. The fields to the west he named New Market. He decided to build his castle on the western margin of Ravensrock. He named the place Glen Ellen after his wife and the beautiful little glen that graced the hillside there. This estate would stretch today from the present lower dam over the Gunpowder to the eastern edge of Pine Ridge golf course.

The Glen Ellen mansion, as imaged in June of 1921

For the castle he employed as architect Alexander Jackson Davis of the New York firm of Towne, Davis, and Hastings, and over the next few years Davis supervised its construction of the castle. A projecting platform of stone and earth was erected on the hillside. Stone was quarried from the hill, and the castle built on this platform to a height of three stories. Several towers rose above the house, the tallest and most impressive of which was about 65 feet in height, and contained a spiral stairway leading to a lookout at its top, from which the valley to the west, south, and north could be viewed.

This valley, New Market, was squared off into fields, orchard, vegetable garden, and barnyard. Alongside Peterson's Run a millrace led to the grist mill (or mills, as tax records indicate). But the most important section of this valley lay between the vegetable garden and the barnyard, a series of paddocks for horses. Gilmor had a passion for horses and equestrian sports. For several years he was the publisher of a sports magazine, The American Turf Register, devoted largely to horses. He had a racetrack, possibly two, that lay beside Gunpowder Falls, along the northern edge of Ravensrock. He rode about the country in a coach and four. And he ornamented his home with paintings of horses, some by well known artists. As a country squire and gentleman farmer, what he had in mind to operate was before all else a horse farm.

Ravensrock, the other half of the estate was quite hilly and largely wooded. It probably served as a hunting preserve with trails for riding.

In addition to the mill(s) and barns several other buildings lay about the estate. North of the castle stood a stone and wood carriage house with entrance onto the road that led past the mansion. Its basement served as a stable with stone floor and stalls for horses. Across the valley, near Old York Road to the west, stood a guest house designed as a Greek Temple. The entrance to the estate off Old York Road had a gatehouse, we are told, beside a picturesque half-broken arch. The remains of a stone structure in the orchard area can still be seen at low water in Hampton Cove. It was possibly a building housing a cider mill. One can still see traces of a stone-paved road leading from it to the mansion. He also had a dairy. Although we know that Gilmor had slaves, we are not sure of their number or of the location of the slave quarters.

At Glen Ellen, Robert and Ellen Gilmor raised 11 children: 9 boys and 2 girls. Three of the boys attained public renown. The eldest, Robert, IV, became a well-known Baltimore judge. William became a railroad president. But the most famous was the glamorous Harry, the famous Confederate cavalry colonel who in 1864 led his battalion across Baltimore County to burn down the railroad bridge over the Gunpowder River at Magnolia.

After the death of Robert, III, in 1874, the Glen Ellen estate was divided among his heirs. Harry was given the portion containing the castle and lived there until his death in 1883. His father's grandchildren and great-grandchildren enjoyed their stays in the castle, especially during summer vacations, as noted by his grand-daughter, Ellen Gilmor Buchanan. The castle and its grounds were sold in 1883. The last one to own them was Henry (Christian) Brack.

The castle fell into great disrepair after the dam was built. Here it is shown in the early 1930's, with the reservoir just visible to the right.

To supply Baltimore City with water, a dam was erected in the 1880s across the Gunpowder, following the suggestion of Robert's son William, who had acquired the Summerfield estate across the river. He also suggested the name for the resulting lake, Loch Raven. In 1914 a larger dam was erected and enlarged in 1923 to a height of 240 feet above sea level. The spreading lake gradually flooded the New Market portion of the Glen Ellen estate and came within a few hundred feet of the castle. Since the latter relied on a septic system and was so close to the reservoir, it could no longer be used as a residence. Parts of it were removed to adorn other houses elsewhere, most notably the Parker's home The Cloisters on Falls Road. After its timbers were removed for recycling elsewhere, its walls were tumbled down in 1930. Only its foundations mark its outline today. An inglorious end for a once glorious castle.

A Brief History of Baltimore County
From Neal A. Brooks and Eric G. Rockel, A History of Baltimore County, Friends of the Towson Library, Inc. Towson, Maryland. 1979.

Cecil Calvert, the second
Lord Baltimore

Baltimore City and County were named for Cecilius (Cecil) Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore and the proprietor of Maryland, who in turn took his title from his barony estates in Longford County, Ireland.

By the 1650's when settlement began, Baltimore County was primarily a geographical entity more than a political one. Its territorial limits consisted of Baltimore City, Cecil and Harford Counties, as well as parts of Carroll, Anne Arundel, Frederick, Howard and Kent Counties. The legal origin of Baltimore County is not known, but it was in existence by January 12, 1659, when a writ was issued to the county sheriff. Formal county boundaries were mentioned when Cecil County was formed out of Baltimore County in 1674. Thus early county history is more a story of the settling of northern Maryland than a history of the county. Most of the early land grants were situated along the coastal region. Since few if any roads existed, the navigable waterways such as Back and Middle Rivers of the seventeenth century carried most commerce and transportation. The Gunpowder Falls area became a choice area for land grants. "Old Baltimore" on the Bush River (in what is now Harford County) became the first permanent county seat. In 1712, Joppa near the mouth of the Gunpowder River became the second county seat and a thriving tobacco port. In 1768, as Joppa's commercial influence faded the influence of the port of Baltimore Town, now known as Baltimore, resulted in it being named the county seat. Baltimore separated from Baltimore County in 1854. The city remains an independent jurisdiction.

The communtity of Towson began about 1750 when two brothers, William and Thomas Towson, emigrated from Pennsylvania and started farming on Sater's Hill, to the northeast of York and Joppa Roads. In 1768 Thomas' son, Ezekiel built a large tavern at the crossroads, just north of where the Towson Theater is now. A small village called "Towsontown" began to grow around it, serving area farmers who traveled on York, Dulaney Valley, and Joppa Roads.

The Towson Court House

In 1790 the Ridgely family built the magnificent Hampton estate, while other buildings were erected by the Chews, Shealeys, Schmucks, Phipps, Paynes, Lees, Bowens, Wares, and Bosleys. In 1839 Epsom Chapel became the first house of worship for the community. (It was demolished in 1950, making way for what is Towsontown Centre.)

A new era began on October 19, 1854 when the Court House construction started and Towson officially became the Baltimore County Seat. Numerous buildings were built in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and styles, giving the community a distinctive 19th Century atmosphere that is still visible.