Troy, also known as Troy Hill Farm, is a historic slave plantation home located at Elkridge, Howard County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

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. It is associated with the prominent Dorsey family of Howard County, who also built Dorsey Hall.

History

The lands of "Troy" were surveyed by

Hon. John Dorsey Hon. John Dorsey (before 1646 – 1714) was a colonial settler of Maryland and Anne Arundel County, the youngest son of Edward Dorsey (shipwright), Edward the Shipwright. He and his brothers Edward Dorsey, Edward and Joshua patented "Hockle ...

in 1694, where he moved in 1696 with 2 slaves. The property stayed in the family though his great-grandson Col. Thomas Dorsey (-1790) of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

whose estate sold it in 1808. Troy was inherited by Basil Dorsey in 1714, followed by Caleb Dorsey who reduced the land to which was split into two unequal parts in 1760 and given to Sarah Dorsey and Thomas Dorsey. Thomas Dorsey would use the root cellar as a meeting place with Benjamin Warfield of Cherry Grove during the revolutionary war. Thomas's widow Elizabeth split Troy several times to pay debts. Vincent Bailey acquired including Troy for $6,520. A stone house named "Troy Hill" was built about 1808 on the foundation of an much earlier one story Dorsey house by Vincent Baily and is representative of the late Georgian style in Maryland architecture. The -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 ...

house is three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

wide and two deep. Outbuildings included a stone barn,

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is curing (food preservation), cured with Smoking (cooking), smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the arch ...

" style. Further modification occurred by owner Pedro De Valle. Donald Doll was the last resident before the state purchased the property on 16 December 1958 to destroy it to make way for the I-95 project. The house was left in a state of purposeful neglect until Howard County purchased the stripped house and 52 surrounding acres in September 1971 for $67,500. In 1978, Howard County proposed to build an interpretative gardening center at the house. In 1989, the state offered a $350,000 matching grant for renovation, but a spring 1991 fire gutted the building before it was spent.

Current status

Most of the surrounding Troy Hill farm has been converted into office parks or highway with the exception of one large area of wooded parkland surrounding the unrestored Troy House. In 2012, County Executive Ken Ulman proposed converting the remainder of the Troy Hill estate and wooded parkland into a Tennis Center. After costs escalated, the plans were changed to clear-cut most of the wooded parkland around the historic structure to implement revenue-generating ball fields and soccer fields for the parks system, allowing the Troy house to stand in the parking lot as a possible meeting house or restaurant. Troy 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 1979. In 2015, the group Preservation Howard County placed the house on its top 10 most endangered list.

References

External links

*, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust * {{National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Houses completed in 1808 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Georgian architecture in Maryland Howard County, Maryland landmarks Houses in Howard County, Maryland Historic American Buildings Survey in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Howard County, Maryland Dorsey family (Maryland)

History

Current status

See also

References

External links