Daytrip from Baltimore
about Fifty Miles I-70
Thursday Afternoon
September 5, 2019
Our First Visit to Historic Rose Hill in Maryland
Today we visited Rose Hill Manor Park and Museum Iocated
off Route 15 at 1611 N. Market Street in Frederick Maryland.
We arrived around noon and was greeted by a charming lady named
Diane, who gave us a two hour private tour of Rose Hill Manor House.
She was very informative and extremely knowledgeable about the
Johnson and Grahame families and the Frederick area. Our tour
was very interesting and we would have loved to spend more there.
We are looking forward to returning again to see the trees change
colors and to see the manor house decorated for the Holidays.
Frederick and Rose Hill (Rose Garden) were settled by immigrants coming into
the area from Europe, with Germans settling the brunt of the early Frederick area
This year, the immigration theme extends with exhibits through out the manor house,
Rose Hill
In 1778, Thomas Johnson purchased this property, then known as Rose Garden and soon changed the name to Rose Hill. He left the property to his daughter Ann Jennings Johnson in 1788. The current manor house was built between 1789 and 1792 by Ann and her husband John Colin Grahame. The property features an icehouse, log cabin, blacksmith shop, carriage collection, garden and two barns.
The home, called Rose Hill Manor, is now a museum and county park and open to the public
Childrens Museum
In 1968, the Frederick County Commission purchased the property for the first county park.
The Childrens Museum of Rose Hill opened to the public in 1972 and continues to operate to this day.
History of Thomas Johnson, Maryland`s First Governor
The museum present the daily life of Thomas Johnson, (1732-1819)
Maryland’s first Governor, and the individuals who lived on the property
as well as the history of agriculture & transportation in Frederick County.
Johnson died at Rose Hill on October 26, 1819
and is buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Frederick.
In 1978, the Governor Thomas Johnson Bridge (Solomons, MD.) was opened to traffic.
The bridge crosses the Patuxent River and connects Calvert with St. Mary's Counties.