Elkridge Hunt Club

The club was officially organized in 1878 had moved to Baltimore in 1870.

"The Howard County Hounds can be traced back as far as 1814, when the Duke of Leeds gave two Irish foxhounds, Mountain and Muse, to a visiting guest, Bolton Jackson. This famous pair of hounds changed hands several times before going to Charles Carroll at his Homewood estate. Nimrod Gosnell bred July, a famous hound tracing back to Captain, a descendant of Mountain and Muse"
The first picture is Lunch on Race-day at the "Kennels," the Headquarters of the Elkridge, Md. Hunt Club on Charles Street, Baltimore (the 3d location).

"About Baltimore, fox-hunting is as old a story as in Philadelphia; and the history of it is not to be told in a paragraph. Hunt clubs have flourished and died there, and had their successors these many years. The active clubs at present are the Elkridge and the Green Spring Valley.

The older and larger club, the Elkridge, has a clubhouse and kennels about five miles on the Roland Park side of Baltimore. Its house is large, and has a ball-room attached; and it serves many of the purposes of a country club. The club has an excellent pack, a large membership, and plenty of good hunting country within reach. Being strong on its social side, it does not disdain drag-hunting, particularly in the earlier part of the season; but foxes are its main reliance for sport, and the master, Mr. Samuel George, goes as far as is necessary to find them. Maryland hospitality makes it possible for the Elkridge meets to be held comfortably twenty-five miles from home, so that the country that is open to the club is practically unlimited.

The younger organization, the Green Spring Valley, includes many members of the Elkridge. It started in 1892, hunts the wild fox only, and usually finds him. It has at present a pack of about a dozen couple of American hounds. Its members are young business men of Baltimore, with a supplementary sprinkling of farmers. It meets twice a week, at hours least inconvenient for working men, and its fields average about twenty. Its club-house is an old stone tavern about seven miles out of Baltimore. The club has very-much of the sporting spirit, is inexpensive, and of simple habits, and under the mastership of Mr. Redmond Stewart gives good promise of prosperity."
"Country Clubs And Hunt Clubs In America. Part 4" in The Out Of Door Library: Athletic Sports by D. A. Sargent, 1897

In 1978, the EHHC celebrated its 100^th Anniversary with a dinner-dance at the Elkridge Club on Charles Street Avenue.

1st Patapsco Kennel - at Elkridge Landing  1877 -

"Yesterday Messrs. Stromberg, Bancroft and myself left the city for a visit to the Patapsco Kennel at Elkridge Landing, a short distance beyond the Relay House on the B. & O. R. R.   Mr. Banks the proprietor, met us a short distance from the station, and in five minutes we were at the place. The kennel yard is just back of the house, an enclosure about seventy-five feet square; adjoining is a patch of three acres which will soon be surrounded by a nine-foot fence; this will give ample room for the dogs to indulge in play, etc. The country is one well adapted for the working of dogs, consisting as it does of field, meadow and wood. Close at hand runs a deep and swift stream, a great boon to the dogs, especially during our hot summers; this stream alone is worth the price of a year's board to each and every dog in the kennel.

Now to the dogs. The first we saw was Mr. Bancroft's red Irish Lillie, imported last summer from Mr. Nialls. She certainly is a nice one, and will be sure to catch the judges' eye on the bench, and if she don't get first, she won't be far off. She has just weaned a litter of fine whelps, sired by that great dog Palmerston. They went like hot cakes and at long prices. Lillie is very fast, and with good action. Mr. Banks expects to make something fine of her before the end of the season. The next box contained Dream, a Gordon, belonging to J. Addison Smith, Esq. … Dream is one of the fastest dogs I ever saw in the field; she runs without an effort, so easy, and withal so graceful.

After a thorough examination we adjourned to the field, where the entire lot—sixteen—were let loose. Of course it was nothing but a first-class scramble, but at the same time it gave you a good idea of each dog's peculiarity of action. A race was proposed a la Leicester. The entries were Bancroft's Lillie, Smith's Dream, and Appold's Bake. The dogs were held until their owners and the rest of the gentlemen had gone about 250 or 300 yards, when the word was given and away they went. The audience was small but the excitement was up to a Ten Broeck-Parole heat Dream came in first by about ten feet.

As to the proprietor of this kennel, Mr. Banks, meeting him as I did for the first time, I was more than ordinarily impressed with his ideas. They are based on sound principles; and if he receives the encouragement he deserves, Maryland will have a handler of dogs equal to any."
A Visit to the Patapsco Kennel.  Baltimore Sun, October 29th, 1877.

Harper's Magazine 1897 history

2d Clubhouse
"In 1880 the membership had so increased that the club decided to move from Howard to Baltimore County, not far from the city, on property generously placed at its disposal by President [Gen. George] Brown. Here a cozy little farm-house was converted into a club-house, fitted up with lockers, where, in true Southern style, each man kept his own liquid refreshment; pictures of hunting scenes hung around the walls; kennels were constructed; an old barn was fitted with stalls; and a field laid off with three or four modest jumps to lark over.   So the club prospered, giving good sport, and evincing extreme consideration for the farmers... [Brown's Hills, became Liberty Heights Ave]

3rd Clubhouse on Charles St.
Until 1887 hunting the fox was the sole sport of the Elkridge; but as the club grew many of its new members were of the non-riding element, and these desired enlargement into a country club, with all the sports that these modern breathingspots of nineteenth~century life provide. In conformance with this wish a very charming place was finally secured five miles out from Baltimore, on Charles Street, and the Elkridge passed from a mere hunting to a fully developed country club with all the up-to-date features. From this time, too, began this club‘s drag-hunting history, although there has never ceased to be a pretence of wild-fox hunting when occasion offered."

Harpers New Monthly Magazine.  May 1897  p837

1900 images

 

Up to 1884 the pack had consisted of some fifteen couples of native American hounds picked up from various sources throughout the state; but on his accession to office, the new Master [T. Swann Latrobe] promptly imported a draft from England, finding them more easily handled than the home-bred product.

In 1888, the Club purchased property at Woodbrook in Baltimore County, some six miles north of Baltimore, erecting there in the same year a clubhouse, stables, and kennels. The clubhouse has been improved and added to from time to time, until it is now [1908] one of the best, if not the best, Hunt clubhouse in the United States.

Higginson, A. Henry.  The Hunts of the United States and Canada: Their Masters, Hounds and Histories.  Boston: 1908

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