News Release

Homewood will celebrate Christmas from Friday, Dec. 9, to Sunday, Dec. 18; tour hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. A special evening tour with period music and holiday refreshments will be held 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 13. Museum admission is $5, $4 for seniors and $2.50 for students. The museum is closed Mondays. Homewood is located at 3400 N. Charles Street in Baltimore. For information, call (410) 516-5589.

Homewood House Museum is a registered National Historic Landmark that has been said to rank with Thomas Jefferson's Monticello as one of the best domestic buildings from the Federal Period. The house was designed by Charles Carroll Jr., son of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1801, the house and its furnishings cost $40,000, a tremendous sum for the time. Charles Carroll Jr., his wife Harriet Chew Carroll, four daughters and one son occupied the house; it passed out of family hands in 1839, and eventually was deeded with its land to The Johns Hopkins University in the early 20th century. The university designed its Homewood campus following architectural cues from the Carroll house.

After serving briefly as a gallery of historic furnishings, and then as a faculty club and administrative building, Homewood was restored to the style in which the Carrolls lived. It re-opened in 1987, elegantly decorated with fine Baltimore furniture, French porcelain and English silver. The festooned chintz draperies and hand-loomed wool rugs are custom replicas of period designs. Adding to the excitement are brightly colored walls and subtle faux finishes on woodwork and floorcloths that were fashionable in prominent homes of the time.