Manor House

When John Clemson moved from Pennsylvania to eastern Frederick County in the late 1700s, he built a stylish home and founded a local dynasty of sorts.Two centuries later, his namesake town, Clemsonville, remains an active community near Union Bridge. There's Clemsonville Road, Bessie Clemson Road (named for a descendant) and Clemsonville, his 18th-century manor.Today, Clemsonville manor is known as the home of the world's largest wreath. And the Clemsonville Christmas Tree Farm is a popular spot for families that want to cut their own trees.

SOTTERLEY Plantation, a nonprofit museum in St. Mary's County that was forced to cut back its visiting hours for lack of funds, has been named one of "America's 11 most endangered historic places."The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which included the property on its annual list of sites considered "at risk" of disappearing, says the attraction cannot survive if it doesn't raise funds for much-needed repairs."The descendant of a slave and the descendant of the man who owned that slave are working together to preserve the site and keep it open to the public," said trust President Richard Moe. "But without new sources of ongoing financial support, this national treasure may no longer be able to teach important lessons."

Admiral Fell Inn, 888 S. Broadway, (410) 522-7377. Eighteenth-century hotel in Fells Point. Contact: Cynthia Atkinson. Reserve as soon as possible. Accommodates 140 seated with dancing, 225 standing. Available daily. Cost: $80 per person and up. In-house catering only.Antrim 1844, 30 Trevanion Road, Taneytown, (800) 858-1844. Nineteenth-century plantation. Contact: Dorothy Mollett. Reservations accepted up to 18 months in advance. Accommodates 225 seated, 350 standing. Available daily. Cost: Basic rental ranges from $1,250 to $1,750.

What was Maryland like 200 years ago? Children in particular can discover the cultural history of Maryland by experiencing how life was lived in the 1700s to 1800s during a tour of Rose Hill Manor Museum. That's what the second grade from Spring Garden Elementary School did recently.Rose Hill Manor is a touch-and-see museum within the spacious 200-year-old Frederick manor home of Maryland's first governor, Thomas Johnson. The museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.In addition to the manor, there's a Scandinavian-style log cabin built 180 years ago, a blacksmith shop, carriage museum, ice house and gardens to explore.

Historic Sully in Chantilly, Va., will be the site of a quilt show and sale next Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Quilts will be hung from trees, displayed over old post-rail fences, draped over benches and exhibited throughout the mansion.The show is one of the oldest and largest in the region. Here you can shop for old or new quilts, attend demonstrations and enjoy musical entertainment and food. There will be some 42 vendors selling everything from quilts to quilting supplies to quilt-related jewelry and other items.

Few eras in American history stir imaginations or passions as the memory of the antebellum South does. This period, epitomized by the white-columned manor house at the center of plantation life, has been idealized and castigated for the graciousness and arrogance, the gentility and cruelty which it represented.Visitors to Virginia don't need to rely on imagination alone to envision life on these legendary estates, but can tour "Plantation Country," which boasts some of the oldest and grandest plantation homes in the South.

Philadelphia celebrates the 350th birthday of its founder, William Penn, during 1994 with yearlong festivities including events, exhibits and tours of sites associated with Penn. King Charles II of England gave the land that is now Pennsylvania to Penn as repayment of a debt owed to his father. The Colony was founded on the principles of individual rights and religious freedom. In 1682 Penn chose a 2-square mile area between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers as the site for the Colony's capital, which he named Philadelphia, a Greek word meaning "City of Brotherly Love."

EVERY few months I get a package of clippings from my brother, who graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1976.Last week his new fall edition of the "UMass Alumni Connection" arrived. And sure enough, right there in its usual prominent position was the now-traditional apocalyptic story about the horrible cutbacks and deprivations his poor old alma mater is having to endure: "Campus officials have instituted a two-month hiring freeze and are considering the elimination of as many as 100 positions to cope with a $7 million shortfall . . ."

Stencils let designers show off sophisticationIf you want to see just how sophisticated the craft of stenciling has become, take a look at two hall areas in the Baltimore Symphony Showhouse. Designers from the Harford Community College interior design program have used stencils from a local company, Manor House Designs. You'll see their "Rose Topiary," coordinating "Rose Border," two bird cages and several garden accessories from the company's trompe l'oeil collection.Manor House Designs was started three years ago when two Annapolis women, Pam McIntyre and Laura Plantin, couldn't find the stenciling designs they wanted.

There's a rich history to tell about Evergreen Junior, a 96-year-old manor house on the grounds of Loyola College in North Baltimore.Since the early 1920s, the Tudoresque castle has housed the priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus who are on Loyola's faculty. Evergreen Junior is undergoing a thorough renovation. It will be used for academic purposes when it reopens next year.But before Loyola purchased the storied mansion, Evergreen Junior was intended to be the honeymoon "cottage" of Horatio Whitridge Garrett, one of the wealthiest young men in Baltimore.