Stone Hall is a historic home in

Cockeysville, Maryland Cockeysville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 20,776 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History Cockeysville was named after the Cockey family who helped establish the ...

, United States. It is a manor house set on a estate that was originally part of a tract called Nicholson's Manor. It was patented by William Nicholson of

Kent County, Maryland Kent County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, its population was 19,198, making it the least populous county in Maryland. Its county seat is Chestertown. The county was named for the county of Kent in ...

, in 1719. The property in what is now known as the Worthington Valley was split up in 1754 and sold in 1050-acre lots to Roger Boyce, Corbin Lee, Brian Philpot, and Thinsey Johns. The house known as Stone Hall was built on the 360-acre plantation bought by Thomas Gent, in 1775 from Philpot. Gent served as a colonel in the Baltimore Militia during the Revolutionary War. The house was built in four sections beginning in the late eighteenth century: the initial stage consisted of a -story

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

structure built before 1783; the north and south wings were added between 1783 and 1798; and the -story,

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

-roofed, fieldstone main block at the north end. During the later years as a working plantation in the antebellum period, the -story structure was likely used as a separate kitchen. Other outbuildings would have included

slave quarters Slave quarters were buildings or districts where enslaved people were housed. Slave quarters may refer to: * Barracoon, temporary holding quarters for the transatlantic slave trade * , housing for enslaved people in colonial Brazil Colonial Bra ...

. Many of these were likely kept after

emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...

to be used by

sharecroppers Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a ...

. The last section of the mansion, a -story fieldstone addition, was built about 1930, probably after the property was bought by Garnet and Salina Hulings. Also on the property is a barn, carriage house, and a blacksmith shop. The house was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1973.

References

External links

*, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust African-American history of Baltimore County, Maryland Cockeysville, Maryland Houses in Baltimore County, Maryland Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses completed in 1783 Federal architecture in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore County, Maryland Blacksmith shops Plantation houses in Maryland {{BaltimoreCountyMD-NRHP-stub