1. 7906 SHERWOOD AVENUE

Originally constructed in 1909 as the chapel for the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, the home is designated a Baltimore County Historic Landmark. The pedimented portico, front door surrounded by fan and side lights, the arched windows and water table are all original to the building. Beautifully renovated and expanded for modern living, the home retains the dimensions and details of an historic house. Throughout the property are extensive perennial gardens, beautifully landscaped rock gardens and specimen trees. Outbuildings include a carriage house converted to a potting shed and a custom built tree house that sleeps six.

Photograph courtesy of Hometrack Real Estate Marketing

3. 7506 L’HIRONDELLE CLUB ROAD

Perched at the top of the hill, the owners have created a retreat for their extended family in their 1903 shingle style house. Local artists’ works are featured throughout the house. From the foyer, a doorway leads into a library with walls covered in white damask wallpaper and black walnut paneling milled from trees on the property. Original French doors in the formal living room lead to the covered side porch with flower-filled planters original to the home. The kitchen/family room addition evokes the original house and provides room for multiple cooks. The swimming pool terrace behind the house provides stunning views over the tree tops of Ruxton. 

4. 7321 BRIGHTSIDE ROAD

This Georgian-style main house was built in 1922 for Margaret and Kennedy Cromwell. The couple added another wing in 1932 to accommodate their children. The current owners transformed the back stair into the missing main stair, enclosed the two-story screened porch, added a dining room and kitchen, and resurrected an outbuilding as a home office. They also created a field and reclaimed a hosta grove. The home features a collection of antiques and treasures acquired while living in London and traveling abroad extensively.

Photograph courtesy of Bill Tipper

5. 7322 BRIGHTSIDE ROAD, Garden Only

A naturalized woodland shade garden on a steep hillside overlooking Lake Roland has been created over the course of thirty years and lovingly developed by the current homeowners. On just over one acre, mature poplar, beech, and oak trees tower above dogwood, azalea, and rhododendron. Stone walls and walks built by the owners lead past an upper and lower pond connected by a bubbling stream.

6. TRYCONNELL, 120 WOODBROOK LANE

26 acres of gardens, landscaped in the 1920s by the noted Philadelphia landscape architect, Arthur Folsom Paul, are set amongst flowering specimens and mature native trees. A boxwood bordered entrance court, a patio with a west vista overlooking Lake Roland, and a terraced parterre garden surround the house. The noted north allee, modeled on the Italian Renaissance garden at Villa d’Este, features a magnificent central axis intersected by terraces and culminating in an exuberant fountain. The house, built in 1826 for John O’Donnell, was expanded in 1919 in the Colonial Revival style and is now listed on the National Register. The house will only be open if the weather is dry.

Photograph courtesy of © J. Brough Schamp www.schamp.com

7. 119 WOODBROOK LANE

The tiny old house is a comfortable home to humans and beagles with a mixture of antiques bought on European travels and modern contemporary furniture. But it is the art that takes pride of place, a mix of contemporary emerging and established artists from Maryland, New York, and abroad. Additionally the yard is now a stunning space of peace and quiet using texture, shape, color and water.

8. 201 WOODBROOK LANE

Garden only. Separated from the garden at #119 by a driveway, the lush lawn directly behind the house has a large herb garden outside the kitchen and a star magnolia overhanging the patio. A mature boxwood hedge defines the edge of the lawn; beyond which the land falls off steeply with stone stairs and patios terraced into the hillside. The tranquility of mature forest trees is amplified by the sound of rushing water from the large pond beyond. Dogwoods and holly, azalea and rhododendron nestle under large beech trees.

9. ELKRIDGE CLUB

The club will be open for guests to see areas of the clubhouse. Pre-ordered lunch will be served at the club between 11:30 and 1:30. The Elkridge Fox Hunting Club, established in 1878 with kennels at Elkridge Landing in Howard County, soon moved to the Baltimore Gun Club at Pimlico and then to the Mondawmin estate of the first club president, George S. Brown. In 1888, Elkridge leased 54 acres on Charles Street from the estate of Governor Augustus Bradford. Governor Bradford had purchased 125 acres in 1854, and had built a large house on the hill just west of the first green. This house was burned by Confederate troops, but the tenant house, which was to be the Elkridge clubhouse, was unharmed. Elkridge was to eventually own most of the original Bradford land.