Prince George's County Tour, June 14, 2025
Prince George's County has a long equestrian history, from the mid 1740s until the present day. Upper Marlboro has served as the County seat since 1721, and is one of Maryland's oldest towns. European settlers arrived around 1695 and named the area after the 1st Duke of Marlborough.​
One of the county's key landmarks is The Show Place Arena at the Prince George's Equestrian Center, formerly the Marlboro Racecourse. Deeply rooted in colonial America's love of the sport, the racecourse was developed in 1745 and hosted races until 1972. For the role they played as horsemen, jockeys, and trainers, formerly enslaved African Americans, though often "invisible", have been a significant part of racing in Maryland.
Tour Headquarters
The first stop on the tour is The Show Place Area at the Prince George's Equestrian Center, 14900 Pennsylvania Avenue, Upper Marlboro, MD. Here tour goers may purchase tickets, obtain their tour books, and exchange online tickets and tourbells for paper tickets. Restrooms are available at this location.
The tour will take pilgrims through several important house museums in Upper Marlboro, then moves on to Bowie to the beautiful Belair Mansion and Stables.
Darnall's Chance
This home dates back to 1742 and sits on the land which was the home of the Proprietary Agent of Charles Calvert, in the 1600s. Colonel Henry Darnall, a wealthy Roman Catholic planter also served for a time as Deputy Governor of Maryland and at his death in 1711 he owned 27,000 acres in this county, as well as holdings in four other counties. Enslaved laborers operated his plantations and two sued him unsuccessfully for their freedom. In 1741 James Wardrop bought a portion of land from Darnall's daughter, Eleanor Carroll, and built this home.
St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church is next door and has served parishioners since the first church was built in 1824. This building replaced that first church in 1899. From 1926 - 1961 a segregated school for African American and White children was operated by the parish, moving in 1967 to one school on Largo Road.​​
​Next door is the Church Rectory, formerly the Rothstein house and bakery. The house was built in 1846 and operated a bakery through the mid 1800s. It was given to the Archdiocese of Washington and completely remodeled in 2017 for use as the parish house.
Belair Mansion and Stables.
Built in 1745 for Governor Samuel Ogle and his wife Ann Tasker Ogle, it remained in the family until 1871. The Ogle and Tasker families were instrumental in the introduction of Thoroughbred racing into the American colonies. In 1747, Maryland Governor Ogle imported two English thoroughbreds, Spark and Queen Mab. At around the same time, Ogle's brother-in-law and Annapolis city councilman, Benjamin Tasker, Jr., had purchased Selima, an English mare, from the queen's royal stables. This horse entered a Virginia race, and Selima "walked" 150 miles to attend that race, where she won 2 races, creating some very ruffled feathers among the Virginia horse owners. They were angry they had lost, ultimately forbidding Maryland horses to race in Virginia. They got around that ban by sending pregnant mares to Virginia to deliver their foals. Then the foals were natives of Virginia, even though their owners were Marylanders. The mare Selima, lives on today in the bloodlines of many famous racehorses.
Belair Mansion was a working tobacco plantation and the family maintained their wealth through the institution of slavery.
During the Ogle years 45-66 enslaved people worked here.​
The Marietta House Museum
The final stop will be at the Marietta House museum, a Federal style house built in 1812-1813. Built by enslaved labor under the ownership of Gabriell Duvall, Supreme Court Justice from 1811-1835, the Duvall family maintained ownership until 1902. During the years before the Civil War enslaved families including the Duckett, Butler, Jackson and Brown families resided here. Some sought freedom through flight, some in the courts and through deeds.​
