The Washington times., 1935-08-10
NOW
Cross Manor One
OF SplendOr
SHOW PLACE
BY HELEN ESSARY

A few miles from little ST..
Marys City, where the colonists
OF the Ark and the Dove estab-
lished the first community in
the world for the friendly wor'
ship of Catholic, Protestant and
Quaker, is situated on a head
land on st. Inigoes Creek, over
looking Breton Bay, an estuary
Of the Chesapeake, the oldest
house in Maryland.
The name of this historic
dwelling iS Cross Manor. 1t is
now owned and occupied by Mr..
and Mrs. Charles Sterrett Gra-
son.
Grand old trees and lockwood
bushes Of heroic size almost OBJ
scure the place. For almost
300 years this relic of Mary
lands beginnings has existed
q landmark of early luxury in
the midst Of leisurely pleasant
countryside.
The waters Of the Chesapeake
Bay lap the feet Of its gardens.
Just as they did when the land
was owned by Indians and when
the curious, hopeful first set.
tiers waited on the decks Of the
Ark and the Dove while Leonard
Calvert went on shore to confer
with the uncle Of the young In
dian boy, who was King Of the
Patomeckes.
The tide Of Maryland's devel-
opment swept strongly away to.
wards the North and West not
many years after those first
anxious days in Southern Mary
land. But Cross Manor remains
much the same in general con-
struction as when it was built
about 1914.
Thomas Cornwalleys, sailor,
soldier, favorite of Leonard
Calvert, first governor of Mary.
land, built Cross Manor soon
after he arrived in America.
Built it grandly for its time.
The first Maryland houses were
simple.
There were more artisans and
laborers than men of leisure in
the first group of settlers. Ce-
cilius Calvert, second Lord Bal
timore, refers to his colonlsts
as 40 men of very good fash.
ION and the rest "Workmen."
Remarkable even for the
quick prosperity in the Mary
land colony was Cross Manor.
In most other parts of the new
world at the time Cross Manor
was built. crude houses of wood
were being hastily thrown to-
gether. Merely as a protection
against the weather and the In
dians. In building the little
plain buildings, most of the
work was done by carpenters
who nailed the wide boards of
floors and the thick ceiling
rafters together with wooden
pegs.
interiors were roughly plas-
tered. Few bricks were used in
house construction except in
chimneyS.
But the manor house of
Thomas Cornwalleys was built
almost entirely of brick. Wood,
so plentiful in the forest, was
used only for ornamentation.
On the outside walls of Cross
Manor today a line shows where
the original brick ends.
Changes in construction raised
the height of the first roof.
Changed it from gambrel to ga
bile. And gave space for the
addition of dormer windows.
In Cross Manor and other
Southern Maryland houses, one
must not expect the architec'
tural perfection of Woodlawn,
Nellie Custis' house in Virginia,
of Tulip Hill or Gunston Hall.
Many of the Southern Mary
land houses were built 100 or
$50 years before the Georgian
dwellings Of a more sophisti.
Gated era.
The date of the grant of Cross
Manor was 1889.
It's old garden, one Of the
most interesting in the State,
was evidently laid out at the
time of the grant. Box bushes
are now trees, almost SO feet in
circumference.
How the house happened to
be named Cross Manor is ex-
planned by two legends. One is
that before the Marylanders
came a party of exploring Vir-
ginians were murdered by the
Indians on the shores of St.
1nigoes Greek. Cornwalleys
found the cross, which later Vir-
ginians erected over their graves.
A more dramatic story which
John P. Kennedy used in his
novel, Rob of the Bowl" is
that zone Cornwalleys, while
hunting, accidentally emptied I.
charge into the breast of his
dearest friend. This Cornwall
leys went afar and made a
fortune, but always the blood
OF his friend fell upon his
mental vision.
He returned wealthy to Mary.
land, went to a remote spot on
st. Luke's Creek, near the creek