The Rossborough Inn is a historic building facing Baltimore Avenue/

United States Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...

(also formerly known as the old Washington Boulevard and the Washington and Baltimore Turnpike) on the eastern edge of the campus of the

University of Maryland at College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the Flagship un ...

. Construction on the building began in 1798 and was completed in 1803, making it the oldest building on campus (older than the 1856 university itself) and the oldest building in the adjoining town of the City of College Park. It is built in the Federal style. The lower wings were added in 1938, as part of extensive renovations. The Rossborough Inn is listed as a historic site by the

Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) is a bi-county agency that administers parks and planning in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland. History The commission was formed in 1927 by the Maryland ...

Rossborough Inn Maryland Agricultural College circa 1901 cropped

The

inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...

and

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...

was constructed by land speculator John Ross, to serve people traveling between

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

and

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

(on the old

Washington and Baltimore Turnpike U.S. Route 1 (US 1) is the easternmost and longest of the major north–south routes of the older 1920s era United States Numbered Highway System, running from Key West, Florida to Fort Kent, Maine. In the U.S. state of Maryland, it r ...

). According to Anne Turkos, the former archivist for the University of Maryland Libraries, the name '"Rossborough"' refers to the name of the area the inn was built on in the late 18th Century and early 19th Century, after landowner Richard Ross ("Rossborough" was used interchangeably with "Rossburg" as late as the 1920s). By 1835, financial troubles had doomed the business and the building was being used as a farmhouse by its owner,

Charles Benedict Calvert Charles Benedict Calvert (August 23, 1808 – May 12, 1864) was an American politician who was a U.S. Representative from the sixth district of Maryland, serving one term from 1861 to 1863. He was an early backer of the inventors of the ...

, (1808–1864), whose family owned the nearby Riversdale Plantation. In 1858, Calvert donated the land that the Rossborough building sat on to the Maryland Agricultural College (now University of Maryland at College Park). The Rossborough Inn was a faculty residence when, in 1864, during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, Confederate Army General Bradley T. Johnson (of

Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...

) and his cavalry brigade occupied the university grounds, utilizing the building as his headquarters. The building has been used for a variety of purposes since. Currently it contains the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, but it has acted as the home of University of Maryland Faculty and Alumni Club and housed a restaurant, "The Carriage House", that served lunch on weekdays. According to campus lore, the Rossborough Inn is haunted by

ghosts of the American Civil War Tales of ghosts from the American Civil War have been popularly shared since its end. Among the locales that have become known for Civil War ghost stories are the Sharpsburg battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland; the Chickamauga battlefield in ...

. Extensive renovations by the university (aided by the federal government) have resulted in a significantly more contemporary appearance than the original. Carved in the keystone above the front door is the head of

Silenus In Greek mythology, Silenus (; grc, Σειληνός, Seilēnós, ) was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus. He is typically older than the satyrs of the Dionysian retinue ('' thiasos''), and sometimes considerably older, in which ...

, made of a rare Coade stone.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossborough Inn, The University of Maryland, College Park facilities Buildings and structures in Prince George's County, Maryland Hotel buildings completed in 1812 Maryland in the American Civil War American Civil War sites Federal architecture in Maryland 1812 establishments in Maryland Silenus Reportedly haunted locations in Maryland