Doughoregan Manor is privately-owned and the Carroll family zealously guards their privacy. Hence the somewhat unique approach to this waymark. This 938 acre manor (larger than Central Park, NYC) has No Trespassing signs posted at each of the roads entering the manor. The coordinates shown for this waymark on the main page are for the North entrance to Doughoregan Manor. This is located at the intersection of Manor Lane and Frederick Road. Additional coordinates for locations on the perimeter of the property are shown below. In a sense, this can be considered a "historic district" and is worthy of your visit.
The reason this site is included, even though you can't actually view the Manor house proper, is due to the importance of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence and the reputed richest man in America in the early-19th century. A drive or a bicycle ride around the current manor property gives you an understanding of the size of the existing estate. By the historic map (from 1878) included in the waymark gallery and the appropriate text below, you get an appreciation of the vastness of Carroll's 10,000 acre holdings at Doughoregan Manor in just this portion of Maryland. He owned five times this acreage elsewhere in the state. Finally, a drive or bicycle ride through the countryside around Doughoregan Manor lets you experience beautiful rolling farmland and woodland in an otherwise developed region.
Here are the coordinates for the locations that I marked and photographed:
Doughoregan Manor - North Entrance: N 39 17.088, W 076 53.51: Frederick Road and Manor Lane
Doughoregan Manor - West Entrance: N 39 16.421, W 076.54.331: Folly Quarter Road and Paul's Lane
Doughoregan Manor - South Entrance: N 39 15.086, W 076.53.631: Head north into Gaither Farm off Clarksville Pike. Manor Lane begins at the end of Dorch Farm Road.
Doughregan Manor - East 1: N 39 16.247, W 076 52.456: Head west from Centennial Lane on Burnside and go to the dead end.
Doughoregan Manor - East 2: N 39 15.830, W 076 52.919: Head west from Centennial Lane from the traffic signal at Old Annapolis Road/Breconshire Road and then turn onto Kingsbridge Road.
The photos of Doughoregan Manor in this waymark were obtained from the Library of Congress Photos and Publications collection. I rode my bicycle around the manor and took photographs and waymarked the location of the No Trespassing signs around the perimeter.
Charles Carroll of Carrolton (Charles Carroll III) was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was reputed to be the richest man in America in the early 19th century. At that time, Doughoregan Manor was a 10,000 acre estate - yet it was but a small portion of the 50,000 acres Carroll owned in Maryland. This was his primary residence and he is buried in the chapel in Doughoregan Manor.
Included in the photographs is a composite of two maps from 1870 that show the vast extent of Doughoregan Manor prior to many parcels being sold off for development in the past half-century. If you examine the map (will need to zoom), a number of the roads shown remain today. Clarksville Pike is today's MD108. The Turnpike shown near the top of the property is the former Baltimore to Frederick-Town Turnpike Road, today's Frederick Road. (Note: The mile markers shown along the road are a part of the Old National Road Milestones entry in the NRHP and are also a Waymarking destination.) Vineland Road is today's Folly Quarter Road North. Sheppard's Lane (heading west from intersection of Vineland Road and Rolling Road) is a small country road that still exists today. Rolling Road from the intersection with Clarksville Pike to the intersection with Vineland Road is today's Homewood Road. Rolling Road from the intersection with Vineland Road to Tridelphia Road is today's Folly Quarter West. This is a major biking area (part of Columbia Triathlon courses).
The Carroll family has been working with Howard County to determine a appropriate way to develop approximately 200 acres of the manor to provide the funds to maintain the manor's historic buildings and to preserve this prime property as farmland in the future. Additional information about this effort and an excellent aerial view and current photograph of the Doughoregan Manor may be found at: (
visit link) The background information is on this site is especially useful.
The source of the detailed description that follows is the Maryland Historical Trust at (
visit link)
The main house of Doughoregan Manor was originally a 1 1/2-story gambrel-roofed brick building with two pairs of end chimneys. The date of its construction has never been fully established, but it is believed that Charles Carroll II built the house about 1727. On the north end stood a small detached one-story brick family chapel and to the south, a brick kitchen, with servants' quarters. Both of these outbuildings were probably erected around 1780. In the 1830s Charles V enlarged and revised these three buildings into their present form. He raised the main house half story to a full story, making it a two-story structure. The new gable roof was cut off at the top to form a flat deck, which was balustraded and surmounted by an octagonal cupola. The center door of the front (east) facade was sheltered by a new one-story portico with four Doric columns. A similar new portico on the rear elevation had a room above it and on either side a long one-story covered veranda with iron columns and a marble floor extended the length of the main house. The chapel to the north was enlarged and its height raised, and the remodeled building was joined to the main house by means of a two-story passageway. The kitchen to the south was similarly enlarged and connected to the central block. The resulting new five-part composition, about 300' in length, was unified by the addition of wooden walkways to the roofs of the wings and the installation of an octagonal cupola on the central block. The central house has a center hall plan. The main hall, paneled in oak, extends from front to rear. The stair is located in a small side hall, situated on the north side of the main hall, adjacent to the front entrance. Beyond the side hall is a library, and to the west, a large parlor. On the south side of the main hall are a smaller parlor, in the southeast corner, and to the west, a dining room. The second-floor bedrooms, remodeled in the 1830s, were completely renovated and redecorated about 1915. The estate, containing the house and about 3,000 acres, is in excellent condition.
Significance: Doughoregan Manor was the country home from 1766 to 1832 of Charles Carroll (III) "of Carrollton," a signer of the Declaration of Independence for Maryland, planter, landowner, politician, and U.S. Senator. The Georgian brick plantation house, built about 1727, was greatly enlarged and remodeled in the Greek Revival style in the 1830s by the signer's grandson, Charles Carroll V. Charles Carroll of Carrollton is buried in the family chapel attached to the north end of the mansion, his favorite country home.