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Newtowne Manor House

St. Mary's County Garden Club
is hosting the
Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage Tour

Saturday May 21, 2022
10am-5pm​
Rain or Shine.

$35 advance ticket sales, $40 at the door.
Contact Lbethbonifant@gmail.com, 301-861-6112
​or visit www.mhgp.org for tickets and more information.  

LUNCH INFO -- Boxed lunches are available by pre-paid orders received no later than May 4, 2022. Lunch will be served or available to go from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Birch Hanger (Site #5). Limited seating capacity. Sandwich choices: turkey & Swiss; club (trio classic); roast beef; and vegetarian (all sandwiches served on fresh-baked bread). Sandwich selections come with a pickle, chips, side salad and cookie. The salad option is a gluten-free chicken Caesar salad with gluten-free bread. All lunches include a bottle of water. Mail a check payable to SMCGC for $15 along with your lunch choice to: Duffy Boyd, PO Box 7, Chaptico, MD 20621. Contact Duffy at duffyboyd@gmail.com or call 301-481-6090.
St. Mary’s County, the first area discovered by Englishmen and women on Maryland Day, March 25, 1634 is a place to visit during the Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage (MHGP) tours. This is where the new colony that would become Maryland was established.  Leonard Calvert and 140 fellow pilgrims brought to our State the belief in religious freedom. A large cross erected on St. Clements Island in the Potomac River marks the site of the original landing and first celebration of mass by these Roman Catholic colonists. Afterwards they relocated to St. Mary's City, the first seat of Maryland's colonial government prior to moving the capital to Annapolis in 1694/5.​
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Newtowne Manor House is a perennial favorite on the MHGP tour. Its’ fascinating evolution from a 1720 structure to house the fledgling Jesuit community to a Georgian two and a half story unoccupied brick building illustrates the history of the rights to practice religious freedom in the Free State of Maryland. MHGP works in conjunction with local garden clubs and non-profits to showcase architecturally significant properties and gardens in Maryland.  St. Mary’s Garden Club showcased Newtowne Manor House in the 2018 St. Mary’s County tour and proceeds from the tour helped the continued efforts to restore the Manor House. ​

The Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage is fortunate to have private home owners and non-profit organizations share their properties.  It is a unique opportunity to see homes built on the water’s edge, such as Dragonfly on Breton Bay, where tour attendees enjoyed its series of garden rooms.

We look forward to a 2022 MHGP tour, so set your Spring clocks a year from now!  You will learn about Maryland’s history and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us in this “Land of Pleasant Living.”