Andrew McLaughlin and the Patapsco Hotel

Andrew McLaughlin (1802-1863) is remembered in Howard County for the sketch showing lower Main St. for a lottery to sell his property.  He worked at the Indian Queen hotel in Baltimore for his uncle John Gadsby (known from Gadsby's Tavern Museum, Alexandria, VA). Gadsby's second wife, Margaret McLaughlin, was born in Ellicott's Mills.  McLaughlin married David Barnum's daughter and became the proprietor of the famous Barnum's City Hotel in Baltimore (left; click images to enlarge).

McLaughlin was born at Havre-de-Grace in 1802, and at 16 started working at the Indian Queen in Baltimore. John Gadsby (1766-1844) married Margaret McLaughlin (1779-1812) in 1805, and managed the Indian Queen from 1808 to 1819.  McLaughlin continued working at the Indian Queen when David Barnum (c1770-1844) took over running the hotel in 1819, and he married Barnum’s daughter two years later. 

Indian Queen Hotel - Baltimore

On the corner of Hanover and Baltimore (Market), the Indian Queen was built before 1782 and run by Daniel Grant at which time he left to open the nearby ‘Fountain Inn.’  William Evans owned it from 1796 until his death in 1807, when the deed was bought by his son-in-law.

Gadsby leased it from 1808 until 1819, installed a state-of-the-art kitchen - steam kitchen, stew stove, patent oven, smoke jack and more, info and images HERE "and at that time his house is said to have been the best in the United States.  Nevertheless he went bankrupt" [Breck] and was forced to sell it in 1819 to David Barnum who later opened his ‘Barnum’s City Hotel’ in 1826.  Then followed a series of leasers until the Indian Queen was demolished, sometime after 1832.

Ellicott's Mills -  Patapsco Hotel

After the B&O railroad was opened from Baltimore to Ellicott's mills in 1830, many tourists made the novel ride.  The Patapsco Hotel was directly on the tracks and initially acted as the passenger terminal.  More HERE

"The Ellicotts divided the land in 1830, and lot four passed to Andrew and John Ellicott. A few months later they sold this lot, 'on which is erected a stone building known as the Patapsco Hotel,' to Andrew McLaughlin of Baltimore, [for $15,000] who undertook a considerable program of improvements to his property." [HO-62] 

McLaughlin wrote a letter on July 25, 1832 from the Patapsco Hotel to be included at the bottom of an ad for “Ralph’s Patent Improved Clothes Mangle.” He was the postmaster from at least 1833 ($294 salary) to 1835.

The Patapsco Hotel's center hall was 100 feet long leading to a piazza at the B&O railroad tracks.  The hotel contained a dining room (80 feet by 25 feet), a bar, two parlors and 26 chambers according to JR Brown.     

He made many expensive additions in the few years he was there.  Initially there was space between the Patapsco Hotel (on right) and the old 4 story building (left).  He added a new section to the Patapsco Hotel (colored image - tall, two windows wide) and the new Railroad Hotel with smaller rooms.  There were also three acres of gardens, large stone stables, carriage house, ice house and "Castle Angelo," designed by Alfred S. Waugh in 1833.

Sadly, in January of 1833, his 7 year old son John was with his brothers when he slipped on the railroad tracks and was killed by the “Burdon Cars” going to Frederick.  They were on vacation break from Rock Hill Academy which overlooked their home at the Patapsco Hotel.

Perhaps John's death was one reason for the 1834 sale, and/or 2) the opportunity to be co-proprietor of the huge and prosperous Barnum Hotel in 1835 when Barnum retired, or 3) over extended his finances with the new construction or 4) the B&O had laid it's tracks past Frederick by 1832 and no longer ended at the hotel, so fewer people.  "The proprietor has expended large sums in improvements, and will leave it very reluctantly, having consented to part with it under peculiar circumstances." [1834]

In 1834 a lottery to sell his properties was approved by the Legislature of Maryland, with tickets to sell for $10, with the winners drawn on Dec 20. Total value of $58,450, only 5,845 tickets for 400 prizes ranging from the top prize $36,500 Patapsco Hotel ($3000 ‘rent’/lease) to $10. Money could be mailed to him in Ellicott's mills, venders in Baltimore and Washington, or the bar in Barnum's City Hotel, Baltimore.  Lot one was the Patapsco Hotel, gardens and outbuildings.  Lot two was the new "Three-story Dwelling" with basement (Railroad Hotel). Lot three was Angelo Cottage.

Smaller items listed in the lottery poster - 20 building lots worth $200-$800; 2 pianos, 8 key’d ebony flute; carriage, gig, horses; Silver: tea set, pitcher, spoons, urn, tumblers; mahogany furniture: sofa, sideboards, set of dining tables, card tables, bureau, book case, clock; Marble mantel clock, books – History of England (13v), Plutarch’s lives, Annals of Sporting (4v), Maltbrun’s Geography (21), Don Quixotte; Madeira, Sherry, Claret, Champaign, Port wine, Segars

His son, Dr. David Barnum McLaughlin (1821-1875) would return and live (1854 deed) in what is now the Trolley Stop building across the river.  

Theron Barnum first at the Patapsco Hotel?

Curiously, a short bio in an 1860 book describes the attraction of owning the hotel at that location  and why Theron Barnum said he sold it to McLaughin.  Not sure if this is embellished, or if he worked for McLaughlin, but the description of the hotel being in such a prime location at the end (terminus) of the B&O RR line is interesting.  The line then moved west.

Theron, the nephew of David Barnum began working at the Barnum Hotel in 1827.   "Mr. [Theron] Barnum, with many thousands of others, visited the place, and, it being at that time a terminus, he determined to put into practical effect the experience he had gained in hotel keeping, and opened what was long known as the Patapsco Hotel. So long as Ellicotts' Mills was a terminus the hotel did a swimming business. It was there that the stages received their passengers for the national road across the mountains, and on the arrival of the cars, the passengers for the West breakfasted with Mr. Barnum. In the summer, hundreds of citizens, attracted by the reputation of the hotel, and the natural loveliness of the romantic country, would come from the city in the morning, and after spending the day, would return in the evening.  Mr. Barnum remained at Ellicotts' Mills so long as it was a terminus and a harvest was to be gathered; and when these essentials ceased to exist, be sold out his establishment to Mr. A. McLaughlin, now one of the proprietors of Barnum's City Hotel, Baltimore." [1860]

Barnum's City Hotel in Baltimore

The City Hotel was opened in 1826 at Monument Square, and became famous as Barnum’s Hotel - "then enjoying a well-deserved fame as one of the best hotels in the United States." In 1835 McLaughlin (probably using the money from the EC lottery ending in Dec 1834) and another son-in-law joined as proprietors when Barnum initially retired, then rejoined as partner.  Over the years there were several combinations of proprietors until 1855 when McLaughlin, having bought out his siblings-in-law, ran it.  He died in his rooms at the City Hotel in Jan 30, 1863.  A lawsuit which continued past his death - 14 years, finally ended in 1874. He had made 74,222 dollars worth of improvements since 1844. [1883, 1874]

He helped the poor and needy.
“Warmly esteemed by all… a large circle of friends…travelling public… His loss will be severely felt by many of the indigent population of the city, whose daily visits to the hotel have been habitual events of their lives, and whose scanty stores were always freely replenished there – an unostentatious but most effective charity.  In other respects his liberality was almost boundless, and there are many whose decayed circumstances have enjoyed the relief of his bounty without feeling the burden of dependence.” [1863]


Past posts -
Indian Queen Hotel - 1815 modern kitchen HERE
Patapsco Hotel - as train station, county fair, lottery  HERE

Selected sources -
A History of St. Louis City and County, from the Earliest Periods to the Present Day. 1883
Daily National Intelligencer (DC) Sept 12, 1832
Daily National Intelligencer (DC) Jan. 15, 1833
Daily National Intelligencer (DC) Apr 19, 1834
Daily National Intelligencer (DC) June 9, 1841
Edwards's Great West and her Commercial Metropolis.  St. Louis: 1860
J.R. Brown's Patapsco Hotel.  Howard Gazette & General Advertiser.  Feb 2, 1850
Md. Inventory of Historical Structures HO-70, HO-62
The New York Times, August 31, 1874
Recollections of Samuel Breck. London: 1877
"A Sketch from Rock Hill, advertising a Valuable real and personal property sold by Andrew McLaughlin by Lottery in accordance with Act of Maryland Legislature passed Feb. 19,  1834"
Scharf, John. History of Baltimore City, 1881
The Sun. Jan. 30, 1863 Obit

©2019 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD