Mansion

Gov. Martin O'Malley and his wife, Katie, have put a "green" stamp on the governor's mansion since moving in three years ago. Next week, they will take environmentalism to a new level by installing solar panels on the roof. The panels, and other upgrades such as more efficient lighting and temperature controls, are part of a broader project to save energy at state-operated buildings. The solar array will provide about half of the hot water used by the mansion's residents, and will be installed inconspicuously to preserve the character of the 140-year-old historic mansion that is one of the most visible landmarks in Annapolis.

Shana R. Hall and Edward Graves, II were married on August 18, 2007 at Grey Rock Mansion in Pikesville, Maryland. The bride is the daughter of Arthur L. Hall of Baltimore and The Rev. Jaki Hall of Pikesville, Maryland, and the groom is the son of Edward Graves, I and Margaret Graves of Philadelphia. The Maid of Honor was Keonne P. Sullivan, cousin of the bride. Bridesmaids were Sariyah S. Buchanan, Crystal M. Russell, Terron A. King, Toni V. Barrett, and Larissa C. Walters. Flower Girls were Tyler Zeigler and Ella Zeigler, cousins of the bride.

For years, visitors marveled over the lushly furnished mansion, the elaborate gardens and the luxurious lives of the inhabitants, with their horse races and imported wines. But they learned little about the lives of the hundreds of slaves at what is now the Hampton National Historic Site in Towson - the men, women and children whose sweat made the estate grand. While the mansion had been preserved, the few remaining slave quarters were not open to visitors until last fall. In fact, they were used for storage.

Gov. Martin O'Malley's first full day in office began with a Cabinet meeting just hours after inaugural festivities ended and concluded with a birthday celebration with his family. 8 a.m. - Held a Cabinet meeting in the ceremonial reception room, where he was briefed on details of state government, such as how the highways are plowed during snowstorms. 9 a.m. - Briefed legislators on his $30 billion budget proposal. 11 a.m. - Left for Baltimore, where he watched Sheila Dixon be sworn in as mayor.

It's not quite party time again on little St. Helena Island, but a businessman's plan to turn his mansion there into a private club has won a key victory from the Anne Arundel County Board of Appeals.Overturning a hearing officer's decision, the board ruled, to the dismay of neighbors, that Keith J. Osborne could operate a club on the island in Little Round Bay without meeting on-site parking requirements.The island is inaccessible to cars, the board noted, and guest parking would be accommodated on a private lot on the mainland.

Leo J. D'Aleo looks at the broken down four-story blot in the middle of Towson and shakes his head.Dozens of green shingles are missing from the mansard roof, the arched windows are boarded and the paint is peeling from the weather-beaten mansion. Weeds have overtaken the manor's 3.3 acres.Maybe he's crazy, D'Aleo says sheepishly, but he's about to fork over $500 to Baltimore County for the 131-year-old, 22-room French-style mansion, known as Aigburth Vale, and then spend hundreds of thousands to restore it.Why?

It's not quite party time again on little St. Helena Island, but a businessman's plan to turn his mansion there into a private club has won a key victory from the Anne Arundel County Board of Appeals.Overturning a hearing officer's decision, the board ruled, to the dismay of neighbors, that Keith J. Osborne could operate a club on the island in Little Round Bay without meeting on-site parking requirements.The island is inaccessible to cars, the board noted, and guest parking would be accommodated on a private lot on the mainland.

A Taneytown couple whose historic mansion became a lead-dust nightmare want a court order allowing them to keep a mobile home on the property while they continue trying to fix the problem.Trevanion had been vacant for several years, and its price had dropped from almost $1 million to about $350,000, when Jane E. and David Williams Jr. moved in in January 1995.The couple knew the nearly 200-year-old, 27-room house in the 1800 block of Trevanion Road would need a lot of work, Jane Williams said, but they had no idea of the problems with lead paint they would encounter.

About a dozen miles from Columbia's fast-growing villages and shopping centers is Waverly, an isolated, 243-year-old mansion that represents Howard County's earliest days.Area residents have fought for 30 years to preserve the house that Gov. John Eager Howard (1788-1790) -- for whom the county is named -- gave to his son George (who was governor 1831-1833) as a wedding present. A new threat exists: a proposed Exxon station next door. The developer calls it the inevitable result of growth spreading throughout the county.

No one foresaw the house at the corner of 12th and Clay streets in Richmond, Va., becoming the White House of the Confederacy, least of all its owner, Lewis Crenshaw. But when Crenshaw transformed his 1818 neo-classical mansion into a Victorian-style home with a "French flavor," he unwittingly created a setting worthy of its future role.Crenshaw installed large, heavy pieces of Victorian furniture with dark, wood frames upholstered in somber shades. Then he added individual furnishings and appointments with decorative motifs representing Rococo Revival.

The decrepit mansion once served as home to the president of the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, but two decades of brush has grown and, along with vandals, has made it uninhabitable. Cue the goats. In what's the first step to a $10 million project to transform this piece of Druid Hill Park into an environmental and recreational center for the city, the four-legged weed whackers have cleared a half-acre ring of ivy and other invasive species. The herd of 40 will be brought back to clear the rest of the 9-acre parcel that few have used, legally anyway, for years.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and his wife, Katie, have put a "green" stamp on the governor's mansion since moving in three years ago. Next week, they will take environmentalism to a new level by installing solar panels on the roof. The panels, and other upgrades such as more efficient lighting and temperature controls, are part of a broader project to save energy at state-operated buildings. The solar array will provide about half of the hot water used by the mansion's residents, and will be installed inconspicuously to preserve the character of the 140-year-old historic mansion that is one of the most visible landmarks in Annapolis.

The two-story, white-painted mahogany portico that is now the main entrance to the late Elizabeth C. "Nancy" Smith's beloved 19th-century mansion evokes a time long past, although it is newly, and painstakingly, restored. "It almost re-creates the old photos," Howard County park planner Clara Gouin said, imagining the woman who lived there all her life and the house as she knew it as a young woman before World War II, living on what was then a remote farm in pastoral Howard County. That's exactly the effect National Park Service exhibits specialist Brandon Gordon, 29, and his co-workers wanted as they completed three years of work on the outside of the brick house destined to become the centerpiece of 300-acre Blandair Park in east Columbia.

1 Texas tussle: When last we saw Yao Ming (left), he was towering over the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. Now, he's back with the Rockets, who face Dallas (8 p.m., TNT). 2 Nick Lachey: will watch: There are probably lots of reasons to watch South Florida play Cincinnati in football (7:30 p.m., ESPN). We just don't know any. 3 One more day: Just a reminder: Tomorrow is Halloween, so you'd better get out there and buy your Joe Flacco mask today. 4 Fighting for cause: The Jonathan Ogden Foundation hosts a charity boxing card at Martin's Valley Mansion, (cocktail hour at 6 p.m., followed by dinner)

Supreme Court lets stand award to FedEx worker The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for review of a Baltimore case involving punitive damages awarded to a former Federal Express worker who is deaf under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said yesterday. That means the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals upholding a $100,000 punitive damages award in an EEOC lawsuit stands. In March 2006, a federal jury ordered FedEx to pay that amount for failing to accommodate Ronald Lockhart, who worked as a package handler at FedEx's facility at BWI. FedEx did not return a call for comment yesterday.

The 25th anniversary of Strathmore will offer newly created works, a 17-concert history of keyboard music, a celebration of Broadway songs and more. Strathmore, which started out in a historic Montgomery County mansion in 1983, expanded in 2005 to include the Music Center where the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra makes its second home. (The BSO's Strathmore season was previously announced.) The center and the mansion will be much in use for the 2008-2009 anniversary season. Among the highlights is the area premiere of Theresienstadt, a program named for the concentration camp where notable Czech/Jewish musicians were interned.

The reprieve was short-lived. Preservationists who had hoped to save a row of buildings next to the old St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church in Fells Point watched helplessly yesterday as a wrecking crew, armed with freshly granted approval from the city, began taking apart one of the structures. Last week, the workers were forced to postpone the demolition when told by City Councilman James B. Kraft that they lacked official approval of their plan to stabilize an 18th-century mansion that the preservationists hope will remain standing after the buildings on either side of it have been torn down.

Four years ago, Drew Riger walked into a rundown, five-story Greek revival mansion for sale in Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood. He was no stranger to the back-breaking labor involved in restoration, having just completed work on an old mill house in historic Oella in Baltimore County. That experience, however, did not soften the blow. "I walked about 50 feet into the house, turned around and said, `No way!'" he remembered. Chopped up into 56 tiny rooms that Riger called "cells," the mansion had most recently served as a "boarding house," a term used in the most general sense.

Day's End Farm Horse Rescue Inc. will offer its annual holiday party, with food, dancing and prizes, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday at Ten Oaks Ballroom in Clarksville. The After Hours band will play golden oldies and rock 'n' roll. Door prizes will be awarded throughout the evening and a 50/50 raffle is planned. Tickets are $40 plus a gift for the horses. Tables for 10 are $325. Included are an appetizer buffet with beer, wine and soda; a cash bar will be available. Proceeds will benefit abused and neglected horses and ponies that have been rescued and brought to live at the nonprofit farm.

ISSUE: In his first year living at Government House in downtown Annapolis, Gov. Martin O'Malley took the sedate route in Halloween decorating: two ghosts and a scarecrow, hay bales, cornstalks, a pair of leaf wreaths, mums. Under O'Malley's predecessor in the mansion, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the capital became an inflatable nation. A giant blow-up pumpkin, an air-filled Dracula, tombstones, giant eyeballs and many other holiday trimmings blanketed the front lawn. YOUR VIEW: As the Christmas season decorating extravaganza nears, what kind of decorations do you prefer outside the governor's mansion?