Hide Article Text (OCR)
Iii the Olil Cliase Mansion.' } A letter to the Baltimore Am ricun under date of January 16th, says:The Chase home was aglow this after- ' noon from two to seven o’clock with the 1 spirit of that colonial social life which made the charms and graces of Annapolis . society famous to the remotest bounds of t America. The brilliant occasion was the c opening tea of a series of entertainments that will be given during the season to aid the fund for the maintenance of the Chase « Home. The historic house, with its broad halls and ample rooms, filled with the rich and antique, was open wide to the hundreds of delighted visitors who came from Annapolis, Baltimore and the Naval Acad- j emy to enjoy the social festivities of the tea and to revel in the sight of so many rare and valuable treasures of art and history. As one of the receiving ladies, well ' posted in chronology said, “Adding the 1 last three years of history, we are now in the twentieth century, and this house represents in its furniture and fittings four centuries—the seventeenth, eighteenth, 1 nineteenth and twentieth.”The receiving party included Mrs. J. Caile Harrison, directress of the Chase Home: Mrs. William (J. Ridout, Miss Prue Ridout, the Misses Craven, Miss McFarland, Mrs. Eugene Worthington Miss ; Milligan and Miss Nelson, of Annapolis; Miss Juliette Wise, of the Naval Academy; Miss Cora Rogers and Miss Virginia Wilson, of Baltimore.The tea was served in the old dining room, the apartment to the right of the main hall, and busy were the receiving ladies in waiting on their numerous guests. On the table were four pieces of candelabra, two single and two with three lights, that lit the Chase Home when Lafayette was a guest here in 1824.These were used this afternoon for the first time since the last owner’s death eight years ago, having been stowed away in the vaults of the Farmers’ National Bank of Annapolis, and were only brought out today to grace the occasion. Lovers of the sacred in Maryland history will be gratified to learn that at the tea this afternoon it was authoritatively announced that the valuable Lowestoff china that the trustees had proposed to sell will not be disposed of, but will remain as an iHsepa-rable appendant to the historic building with which it has been associated in famous history for over a century. Some minor pieces will be sold, but, heeding the earnest protest that have come in from every quarter, the management has determined not to shear the home of some of its chief glories by the sale of its valuable china. Nor will the venerable furniture be removed Here, among other splendid relics, are the sideboard of Judge Jeremiah T. Chase, the friend of Washington and Lafayette, which was taken filled with china and silver, from his burning dwelling on King George street fifty years ago, and here are the secretarj', sword ai.d punch bowl ot Governor Sharpe.Tradition and history, remote and modern, were interesting topics of conversation amongst the hostesses and their guests, and one of the relatives of the donor of the home stated this afternoon that Mrs. Hester Ann (’base Ridout particularly desired that the home should be in perpetual memoriam of her martyred sister. Miss Matilda Chase, who was burned so severely in the house one night that she died the next day, and whose heroic conduct in refusing to call to her aid two sleeping women of the house lest she set them ou fire, saved most probably two lives and the house, as the accident was in the dead of night. This tragedy was followed by the mansion itself taking tire the next night, and to the calls of re lief the cadet battalion responded with the Naval Academy engine and extinguished the tlames. Among the visitors to the home this afternoon was Knsign Oman, one of the cadt ts who assisted ten years airo in saving this interesting building from destruction.
Newspaper Details
The Prince Georges Enquirer and Southern Maryland Advertiser
Upper Marlboro, Maryland, US
Fri, Jan 22, 1897
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 10 Jun 2024
Other Publications Near Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Planters Advocate And Southern Maryland Advertiser
The Prince Georges Enquirer and Southern Maryland Advertiser
Upper Marlboro Upper Marlborough Prince Georges Enquirer and Southern Maryland Advertiser
