Charles Carroll's Doughoregan in 1874, with interior photos

The Manor in 1874 was described in Appletons’ Journal as being a typical Maryland 5 part home - center being only 30 feet deep, two wings with thin connecting passageways to a kitchen at one end and a Catholic chapel on the other at 300 feet.  Built on an "artificial knoll" it's story and a half was raised to 2 stories and a flat roof by Charles Carroll of Carrollton's grandson.
from Appletons' Journal -

"It lies in Howard County, six miles above Ellicott's Mills, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and one mile from the old turnpike leading to Frederick City. The land of all this section is hilly, rolling, and wooded. At Ellicott's Mills the acclivities are short and abrupt, but near the manor the hills slope from valley to valley in gentle and easy curves. It is like going from the chopping seas of the English Channel to the long swell of the Atlantic. This beauty of situation had doubtless much to do with the choice of the site. At that time, also, Elk Ridge Landing, twelve miles below, was on a navigable stream, and the capital city, Annapolis, was not very far distant, and in the same county.

The house itself is situated on an artificial knoll, which falls away gently front and back. The architecture is of the old style of Maryland—a long, low house, one story and a half, with supporting wings. Its total length is three hundred feet [30 feet deep center]. In front are six of the finest and oldest American elms in the State.

Attached to the manor, and plainly seen in the illustration, is probably the only private chapel in the United States. The Carrolls have always been strict Catholics. In 1704 an act was passed establishing the Church of England in the Province of Maryland, and at the same time making it penal for a bishop or priest of the Catholic Church to exercise the functions of his office in public. Liberty of worship in private houses was not disturbed, however, and out of the privilege grew the custom of building chapels, like that at Dougloregan Manor, attached to the dwelling. Here still, on Sundays and holidays of the Church, the country people gather and worship, where for more than a hundred and fifty years the same service under the same family roof has ascended.

Inside the chapel, to the right of the altar, is the tomb of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and above it a marble entablature by Bartholomew, with the pen and scroll of the Declaration, the thirteen stars of the States in freedom, and above all the cross, carved in alto-rilievo.

The mansion itself is entered by a wide hall, with heavy panels front and back, and with English hunting-scenes and a few old pictures on the walls, and vistas of the stately, flower-strewed lawn, with its shaven turf of more than a hundred years, and its picturesque gnarled and knotted old trees.

To the right are the library and sittingroom, heavily paneled in oak, where Charles Carroll of Carrollton, when old and feeble, passed most of his time, and where, within easy reach, were Cicero's "De Senectute," which he loved; Milner's  End of Controversy," to which he always attributed his firmest Christian conviction; Swift and Homer and Virgil and Blackstone. On the wall are portraits of himself, his son, and grandson. All the furniture is plain, but substantial, solid, and lasting.

From there he had only to cross the hall to the dining-room, also paneled in oak, with its high clock in a recess of the wall; and portraits, from stately gentlemen in the full wigs of Addison's day to grandams who look as though they were ready, in stomacher and ruff, to step from their frames and pace a solemn minuet. ...

In the large billiard-room in the right wing there is a quaint picture of Charles Carroll of Carrollton bidding farewell to his eldest son, who is about to embark for France— all the eldest sons of the Carrolls are educated abroad, and, for two hundred years, they have all borne the name of Charles. The picture was painted about 1790. In the distance is the ship; in the foreground is the young lad, turning half reluctant to his father, who has his hands on his shoulder. His sisters stand near, weeping; and, half in shadow, the negro servants watch the scene with sorrowful countenances.

Three hundred acres of park, lawn, and grass-lands, surround the mansion; and, about a half-mile off, and not immediately adjacent, as in most wealthy Southern homes, are the stables and the little village, with its handsome overseer's house in the centre, which, in times past, formed the slaves' quarters.

Appletons’ Journal  NY: Sept 12, 1874
Harland, Marion.  More Colonial Homesteads, and Their Stories.  NY: 1899  

More on Doughoregan HERE

©2016 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD